Make your kid a maths whiz
ARMED with an abacus and a book of sums, a Durban mother of two has set out to help turn around South Africa’s routinely poor maths results – one child at a time.
After learning of the plight of locals battling to learn the subject in the foundational phase, Shaila Christian, who immigrated to South Africa from India, decided to open a learning institution, Smart Mental Arithmetic, teaching kids as young as 6 how to work through sums using an abacus and their hands.
“In India I was an educator. I stopped when my family moved to Durban, but four years ago when I heard about the drop in maths marks and the pass rate being lowered, it concerned me, so I wanted to help learners with their foundational phase,” she said.
After four years of teaching her pupils from Parkside, West Park and Northdene primary schools, Christian decided they were ready to be challenged. She enrolled her 20-odd pupils for a maths competition.
They were given two minutes to work out 50 or 60 sums, depending on their level.
“All learners did exceptionally well. For the younger kids, their journey at the competition ended as champions but for eight of the kids, they qualified for the next phase. Because they are older, they were chosen to take part for the Abacus Maths Association of South Africa (AMASA) in Roodepoort, Johannesburg, last month,” she said.
All Christian’s pupils came out tops, taking first place, as well as two gold medals and a silver.
The team is now set to compete in next year’s Global Association of Japanese Mental Arithmetic (GASJMA) competition, to be held in Cape Town.
The children, all below the age of 12, showed POST their quick calculation skills last week. While Christian read out sums, the pupils either used their fingers or abacus and produced the answers almost immediately.
While 7-year-old Kohen Gounder from Parkside Primary said he did not find the competition hard, 8-year-old Dhinika Govender admitted she was scared she would not do well. “I just managed to complete the abacus round but I did not complete the mental (round), so I was very nervous,” she said.
Hiranya Pillay from Northdene Primary admitted she felt the papers were tough while Tristin Naidu, 10, said it was a walk in the park.
“It was easy, I studied very hard and also ate a lot of almonds and drank milk all the time. I have already started studying for the next competition by working with six pages a day,” he said.
Kaden Pillay, 7, said he enjoyed the competition and had taken lessons from Christian.
“When I started maths I would get one out of 10 but when I joined here two years ago, I have been getting 10 out of 10,” he said.
Sarusha Govender, the top achiever in the competition, said she was called up to the front during assembly at school.
“My teacher found out and told everyone, and so many people were congratulating me at school and wishing me well for the next competition,” she said.
Seven-year-old Dante Lazarus from Parkside Primary told POST that apart from wanting to do well, he had wished to make his tutor proud.
“Aunty Shaila always supports us and tells us to do our best. While I was working on the sums, I was thinking of how she would teach us and make our lessons fun, I did not want to let her down,” he said.
Christian said she had jumped for joy when they received the news that all eight of her pupils did exceptionally well. They have already started working for next year’s competition.
“I believe a person can achieve anything in life if they believe in themselves and have confidence. These kids needed that small push to help them believe they could achieve the great marks they have,” she said. “We are working constantly and working hard. We are hoping to do exceptionally well in September next year.”