By Benard Worlali Awumee
Anloga (V/R), March 9, GNA – The Universal Concept of Mental Arithmetic System (UCMAS) Keta-Aflao area, has held its second zonal competition and funfair at Anloga.
The event formed part of the programme requirements and preparation of learners for the upcoming national competition.
About 400 learners from some eight centres across the territory including Dzodze, Denu, Anloga, Woe, Keta, OLA Convent Girls, Akatsi, and Footprint School participated in the event.
The competition had the various centres competing in the visual calculations category, where learners answered 150 arithmetic questions in seven minutes and 50 rows of questions for the call-out or mental category.
Mr Famous Avulete, the Coordinator of UCMAS, Keta- Aflao Territory, shared with the Ghana News Agency the objective of the programme, whcih he said was a scientifically-proven mental development designed for children to develop their latent mental power at a very early age when the development of the brain was reaching its peak.
It is also designed to unearth the hidden talents within the child and urged parents/guardians to enroll their children/wards in.
After the first round of the competition, learners were ushered into the funfair arena, where they had lots of fun including a bouncy castle, merry-go-round, and climbers.
At the end of the third round, Evans Bridget, Guanuvera Quashie, and Kudzordzi Dzidefo all from Footprint School, emerged winners for categories A, B, and C for the call out or mental sessions and were presented with trophies. The respective runners-up came from the KETASCO Basic School.
Cyrus Dery and Azi Emefa of Foorprint School, Missah Shella of Chicago School, and Amedzo Sedudzi from Anloga emerged winners for categories A, B, C, and D in the visual calculations with their respective runner-ups from Dzodze, and Anloga receiving medals.
Mr David Agbeve, Technical Director, UCMAS, Keta-Aflao Territory, in his assessment of the competition, said: “We had a very successful event today, our learners from centres across all categories exhibited core skills of the programme.”
“They were very attentive, concentrated, had good reasoning, analysis and self-confidence, we look forward to the upcoming national competition in August, which we are confident that our learners will excel.”
UCMAS is a programme that uses an Abacus as a tool, Arithmetic as the evaluation process, and kinesthetic learning as a methodology to develop cognitive skills in children from five to 13 years.
The project has been operational in about 300 schools nationwide after its inception in September 2007.
GNA