More Than 400 Of UAE’s Youngest Whiz Kids Graduate From Country’s Largest Skill Development Programme For Children
Students aged seven to 12 recognised for their efforts and participation in the Universal Concept of Mental Arithmetic System
More than 400 school children aged seven to 12 from across the UAE gathered in Dubai today for the 7th annual Universal Concept of Mental Arithmetic System (UCMAS) UAE graduation ceremony; here they were recognised for their staggering mathematical skills and participation in a challenging two year arithmetic programme.
Challenged to calculate complex sums using only their mental, visual and auditory skills, these whiz kids work hard to outshine their peers and regularly participate in calculation competitions. The competitions are designed to test the childrens’ mental strength and ability as well as their keen auditory sense as they calculate sizable sums of multi-digit numbers in just three seconds or less.
Prior to earning their well deserved laurels at the graduation ceremony, the students gain valuable exposure competitions on both national and international levels which are held on an annual basis. Internationally UCMAS has hosted over 100,000 young competitors since the first edition ran in 1994 in Malaysia. Locally UCMAS UAE has hosted over 15,000 young competitors since 2003. The UCMAS system is designed to help children improve their powers of calculation using the abacus – an age old tool to help children improve their ppowers of arithmetic by allowing them to visualise calculations as images, rather than numbers.
Ms.Soundari Raj, Managing Director, UCMAS UAE & Oman, says: "In the UAE today, more than 6,000 young scholars are enrolled in our programme where they develop advanced arithmetic skills and build their confidence in mathematics. Many of these students first began our programme thinking they could never succeed in maths, but we are here today celebrating their remarkable accomplishments. We are delighted to recognize these extraordinary children and congratulate them for their efforts!"
The UCMAS programme helps to boost student confidence by enhancing overall brain performance, memory power, speed and accuracy in arithmetic calculations, concentration, creativity, and social development.
"The fastest children on our UCMAS programme are able to mentally add 10 columns of 12 digit numbers within 30 seconds, which is an incredible feat and difficult for many of us to even imagine. For most untrained people – adults included – it wt would be an accomplishment to process the numbers in less than a minute," explained Ms. Raj.
"To witness this level of dedication year upon year is truly inspiring. With each edition of the competition, these young participants seem to set a higher standard than the one before. Next year will mark the 10 year anniversary of UCMAS – that’s one decade of shaping young minds," shee concluded.
The event also included the organisation’s first DinoArt National competition in which 210 young artists took part. DinoArt is an art and handicraft programme run by the UCMAS team which is designed to stimulate the creativity of young learners and help them learn drawing skills, clay sculpture, batik painting and other types of art media. More than 60 prizes were awarded to budding young artists at the ceremony.
Today’s graduates were formally recognized at an award ceremony attended by Mr. Badr Al-Olama, Chairman, Bidayaat Dubai – a recognised childcare deevelopment organisation.
Emirate: Dubai
Date: Dec 13, 2012
Back