Meena Mehta is a relieved mother. While most of her peers have a tough time getting their children to overcome their maths phobia, Mehta’s kids — aged 10 and 8 — love to solve sums in their spare time. And she gives the credit to Abacus, a mental mathematics programme.

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“Both my kids now treat maths as fun. They would rather sit with a pen and paper during their free time than watch television,” says Mehta. One of her sons, Shubham Mehta, is practising to participate in the International Competition in Abacus and Mental Arithmetic to be conducted in Malaysia in December.

Abacus is an ancient Chinese tool that is still used in China in place of the calculator. It is basically a frame with multiple rows of beads, which are assigned a value, and calculations done mentally. Abacus as well as Vedic mathematics are gaining popularity among students since they can make mental calculations simpler and faster.

Abacus is suitable for children older than six. At the centres of the Chennai-based company Ideal Play Abacus India Pvt. Ltd, students undergo a three-month training in Abacus before moving on to mental arithmetic. “These methods of calculation enhance the thinking skills of children,” says chief moderator Chitraa Ravindran. While an Abacus tool is used for calculation in the beginning, in the later months students are asked to visualise the tool and perform the calculations.

Number game

nIf you take a few minutes to figure out what 998×997 would be, proponents of Vedic mathematics — whose origins are believed to be in the Atharva Veda — would solve it even before you could write down the result. In Vedic mathematics, sutras are used to perform calculation. The term was coined by Swami Bharati Krishna Tirtha in his book Vedic Mathematics, where he has reconstructed a set of 16 sutras and 13 sub-sutras from the Vedic text, covering every branch of mathematics.

While Abacus is suitable for children, Vedic mathematics can be learnt even by university students. “Students preparing for various competitive exams can benefit from Vedic mathematics as it decreases the time spent in calculations,” says Pradeep Kumar, director, Magical Methods Foundation, New Delhi. “But when I launched my first centre, I had a tough time convincing students about the benefits of Vedic mathematics.” Kumar is so confident of his subject that he claims to refund the money if students maintain his classes have not helped them improve.

One can primarily perform addition and subtraction using Abacus while Vedic mathematics helps in multiplication, division, finding squares, cubes and square roots, quadratic equations, percentage calculation and factorisation as well. “Through Vedic mathematics we can learn multiplication tables till 99,” says Spoorthi Pradhatha, a Warangal-based student of the subject. “It has helped me perform better in examinations,” she adds.

Mathematics reworked

nThe early promoters of Vedic mathematics and Abacus found the going tough. Gradually, however, these alternative learning methods became popular. Today, an American scientist has laid claim to one of the formulae of Vedic mathematics and even gone to the extent of getting a copyright on it. Gaurav Tekriwal, president of Vedic Maths Forum India (VMFI), a Calcutta-based organisation, has decided to fight the claim. “We have filed a case with the US corporate court and are awaiting the verdict,” he says.

When VMFI started its first centre in 1999, there were 20-odd students. Today, it has 49 centres across the country and around 20,000 students. The institute has now spread as far as South Africa. “There is 72 per cent failure in maths in Class XII in South Africa. We are helping the government remove the phobia through Vedic mathematics,” says Tekriwal. South Africa is keen to incorporate Vedic mathematics in its school curriculum.

Though schools in India are yet to adopt these revolutionary methods of maths, their popularity is surging. Ravindran says that they receive around 20 queries every day. “Owing to its benefits, some schools have now adopted Abacus in the primary classes,” she adds.

The Genesis Abacus and Vedic Maths Academy in Warangal, Andhra Pradesh, has around 120 centres in 12 states. Begun in 2002, the academy now has 5,000 students on its rolls. “Our students are preparing to create a world record. They are going to multiply 13 digits by 13 digits in a few minutes,” says founder Raja Reddy.

The world’s first oral calculation competition, conducted by Magical Methods Foundation, is set to be held in Delhi in March next year. Around 4 lakh students participated in the preliminary rounds held in October and 2,864 students will participate in the finals.

Number decoded

nBut these alternative mental maths programmes are not without their detractors. Critics argue that they are a gimmick, being propagated for commercial benefits. According to Mahadevan M., secretary, Association of Mathematics Teachers of India, these aren’t alternative forms of learning but only learning aids. “Concentration can be developed even through yogic exercises,” Mahadevan points out. He argues that students need to understand the concepts of mathematics rather than find ways to do calculations quickly.

While the debate continues over the feasibility of the subject, thousands of students claim to have reaped the benefits of these mental maths programmes. Even though we may not find it soon in the school curriculum, it can’t be refuted that Abacus and Vedic mathematics have changed the way we calculate.

Source: The Telegraph (Kolkata, India)