KARACHI, Jan 27: Dawn's search for a national spelling champion will start on Friday (January 28) at Karachi and Islamabad with the district/city rounds of a three-phase competition, the first of its kind by the newspaper.

According to a coordinator of Dawn in Education Spelling Bee Contest - 2005, as many as 1,569 students, including 864 students from Karachi, have been chosen after balloting from over 162,100 students belonging to 250 schools in the country. The competition for Karachi students will be held at Bahria Auditorium.

The participants from Karachi, in view of their large number, have been divided in four districts - East, West & Malir, Central and South. The top 10 teams from each district would qualify for Karachi finals, scheduled to be held on February 4.

The contest at Lahore would commence on February 1. The city champions will compete as individuals for the national champion's title on February 7 at Karachi. Schools have sent their teams comprising three students each in three age groups, i.e. 9-11, 12-14 and 15-17.

The teams are required to come in their respective school uniforms with the 'Spelling Bee' badges provided by Dawn, otherwise they would be disqualified. According to contest rules, every competition will be conducted by a 'pronouncer' in the presence of a jury, which will have a final say in case of a challenge.

The speller may ask the pronouncer to re-pronounce the word. Each speller would pronounce the word before spelling the word. If a speller does not pronounce the given word and spells the given word correctly, points will still be awarded, the rules included.