Beatrice Page: ALP Plus Spelling Bee
Beatrice Page: ALP Plus Spelling Bee Star
Beatrice Page, a student of the Nancy B. Doe Elementary School, Bong Mines, Bong County, is a participant in the USAID-funded Accelerated Learning Program PLUS (ALP PLUS). She entered the limelight when she participated in a Spelling Bee Contest organized by the American Embassy in Monrovia. Beatrice won a three- round contest in her school, a five-round contest in Gbarnga, and hung with the top spellers for the first five rounds, out of eleven, at the National Spelling Bee in Monrovia .
Beatrice is 16 years old and the second child of six children. Her parents, Moses and Kortu Page, are farmers living in Gbarnga, the administrative headquarters of Bong County. According to Beatrice, her parents could not afford to send her to school beyond the 4th grade. She decided to move to the area near Bong Mines in anticipation of getting a job as a house maid to enable her go to school. However, as the mining company has yet to re-open, the house maid job did not materialize. Beatrice was able to live with a friend, whose mother had been generous enough to accept her. Beatrice then embarked on a small business venture selling kala (a locally made doughnut eaten with pepper sauce) in order to pay living expenses and send herself to school.
Chatting with Josephine Tengbeh of the ALP PLUS program, Beatrice said she heard about the program from her friend. As a pre-condition for enrolment, she sat a placement test, and was placed in level III (the equivalent of grades 5 and 6). She said she is doing very well in school and looks forward to taking the sixth grade WAEC Exams. Her dream is to attend one of the best high schools in Gbarnga, preferably St. Martins Catholic High School, on completion of the ALP PLUS. When she completes high school she intends to pursue a course in nursing.
Speaking about her experience in the Spelling Bee Contest, Beatrice said, “Spelling is my best subject.” So when her teacher announced the spelling contest, the decision to enter was an easy one. She described the exercise as a wonderful experience. “If I have the chance to do it again, I’ll surely do it.” During the contest, she said, the words that gave her a challenge were ‘measurement’ and ‘angle.’ She noted that she also had a bit of difficulty understanding the accent of the person pronouncing the words for them to spell. As a result of the contest, Beatrice says she now listens to the radio whenever she can to learn the right pronunciation of words.
Beatrice Page is one of 4,400 students in Bong County and nearly 30,000 nationwide enrolled in the ALP PLUS accelerated classes. ALP PLUS is implemented by Creative Associates International, Inc., in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The program provides learning opportunities for youth disadvantaged as a result of the long years of civil conflict in Liberia. ALP PLUS condenses six years of primary education into three years.
Beatrice expressed her gratitude to USAID for funding the ALP PLUS program and wondered aloud whether there would be an ALP for high school. She said if she does not fulfill her dream of going to the Catholic High School, she would have to continue to sell kala to support herself in night school. In any case, she doesn’t intend to give up her educational goals.