The All Island Schools Spelling Competition, CIMA Spellmaster took the road to Kurunegala where Maliyadeva Balika Vidyalaya sparkled with all five contestants who entered the competition breezing through to the quarter finals.

R M Sujani Kanchana Rathnayake, Maryam Ziyad Mohamed, T M Sakura D Karunarathne, and R M Tharushi Chamalka Bandara spelled both words in the first round of the competition spot on automatically making them eligible for the quarter finals. However, E M L M K Ekanayake missed out on one word in the intial round but got the word given to her in the 2nd round correct, thus qualifying her.

From the fifteen schools that took part in Kurunegala, other schools that had participants qualifying to the quarter finals were, Wickramashila National School and Mayurapada Madhya Vidyalaya, Pannala National School, Parakramabahu Madhya Maha Vidyalaya, U.B.Wanninayake National School, Panduwasnuwara S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike M.M.V, Maliyadeva College and S.B.Herath National School.

The competition in Puttalam was held at Zahira College, 14 schools from the district entered the competition, of which two schools that did exceptionally well were Holy Family Balika Maha Vidyalaya Wennappuwa and Ananda College Chilaw, with both schools turning out 4 competitors from each school for the next round. Other schools that had participants qualifying were, Carmel Balika Madhya Maha Vidyalaya, Nasriya Central College, Dhammissara Madhya Maha Vidyalaya, Fathima Balika Maha Vidyalaya, Zahira College, and St.Andrew's Central College.

With these competitions concluded, the North Western Province will have a representation of 40 competitors, 20 from Kurunegala and 20 from Puttalam, to participate in the quarter finals, which will consist of 500 students from all districts.

This year the competition is partnered by Sirasa TV with the print media partners being the Daily Mirror and Sunday Education Times.