Dr Rashmi Mantri, founder of the British Youth IT College, was invited on to STV 2’s “Live at Five” segment to tell the story behind running the SuperMaths classes and the success her son has encountered in maths since being introduced to the abacus. Live at Five is a Scottish topical entertainment programme which covers the latest in Scotland’s cultural scene.
Abacus
Dr Mantri’s son, Dhruv Maheshwari, was struggling with simple mathematics: he would often find it difficult to provide a correct answer when given even a simple sum, like 35 minus 13. This motivated Dr Mantri decided to go back to basics and she started teaching him maths the ancient way: using the Abacus tool.
Some of the questions asked on the show:
- Why Abacus?
Dr Mantri stated: “Teaching Maths using an ABACUS tool is a proven method by Egyptians when they were building pyramids. They did not have actual physical Abacus tool that time and used Sand and pebbles to perform to use them as Abacus beads to solve complex mathematics problems and build world wonders using these calculations.”
Abacus should not be seen as just for learning Maths: it is an overall brain development programme which improves concentration, confidence and memory retention.
- How long did it take for Dhruv to pick up this method?
Dhruv took only 6 days to pick up this method.
- Are you also thinking of expanding to other areas of Scotland?
Yes we have two centres in Glasgow – Glasgow West End and Glasgow South Side – and recently we have opened one in Central Edinburgh, too.
Some schools have also contacted us and we are thinking about running our programme in schools. The method has been proven to work for kids who had struggle with mental arithmetic, including kids with dyslexia, autism, dyscalculia etc.
By the end of the show, Dhruv has absolutely blown the presenters away by how quickly he is able to accurately answer the sums. Watch the video until the end to see Dhruv’s performance. You can read more about our maths classes here.
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