The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Abacus: young guns shine

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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Abacus: young guns shine

Staff Reporter

96 children receive State-level awards

ICMAS competitions held in ten levels for seniors and six levels for juniors
‘Children showed marked improvement in memory power, concentration and reasoning’

— Photo: Satish. H

Whiz kids: Children at the Abacus competition.

HYDERABAD: Two minutes might be the least time required by a post graduate for figuring out how much twenty-two plus forty-eight plus sixty-nine minus thirty-six would come to.

However, Satvik Saikrishna from Gudivada, all of four years, spends only a jiffy mulling over equations twice as complicated.

For, he is trained in Abacus, the ancient technique of rapid mental arithmetic.

Satvik’s ability came to fore at the prize distribution ceremony of ICMAS-Abacus State-level competitions on Saturday, when he solved multiple additions and subtractions of single and double digit numbers with élan.

Appreciation

Such was the appreciation that Anup Kumar, a spectator came forward with impromptu announcement of an annual award for the youngest Abacus performer.

Needless to say, Satvik bagged the Rs. 5,000 for the current year.

Ninety six children received State-level awards for their arithmetic abilities nurtured by ICMAS (International Concept of Mental Arithmetic System), an institute pioneering Abacus method in India.

Levels

The competitions were in ten levels for seniors and six levels for juniors each held in ‘with Abacus’ and ‘without Abacus’ rounds. Three winners were announced in each category.

“My son began to show remarkable improvement in numerical calculations, judgement and accuracy after attending the Abacus classes. This will surely go a long way in developing his mathematical abilities,” says father of Antony Joseph, who stood first in Level-3 of seniors without abacus.

“We have about 2000 centres and an equal number of course instructors teaching about 70,000 students across the country. More than 1400 children participated in the State-level competitions,” P.V.P. Kumar, the Technical Director of ICMAS said.

National level competitions will he held in September, he said.

Prasad, the Managing Director of ICMAS said that children showed marked improvement in memory power, concentration, observation, and reasoning ability after being trained in the method.

The aim is to provide best alternative education to the children, he said.

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