By Hafsa Obeng / Christabel Kporvie
Accra, July 14, GNA – Ghana must strengthen investment in numeracy education to improve children’s mathematics skills and support future science and technology development, stakeholders have said.
The call came at the fifth National Abacus Competition organised by Brainest EduCare Limited in partnership with World Access, which brought together about 2,000 pupils from 100 schools across the country to demonstrate mental arithmetic, coding and robotics skills.
Mr Isaac Atta Baah, Head of the Early Childhood Education Unit at the Ministry of Education and Principal Programmes Officer, said the competition underscored the need to accord numeracy the same attention as literacy.
He said although successive interventions had improved literacy, similar efforts were required to strengthen mathematics education among children.
“Over the years, we have put a lot of interventions in place to help children read, but it looks as if we have done little regarding numeracy. We need to strengthen the numeracy level of children in this country,” he added.
Mr Atta Baah also called for greater support for boys’ education, saying interventions aimed at empowering girls had produced encouraging results and should be complemented with measures that equally supported boys.
He said girls had consistently dominated the competition in recent years, reflecting the impact of programmes promoting girls’ education.
“I realised that from last year and this year about 90 per cent of the girls were sweeping all the awards,” he said.
Mr Atta Baah said a lot of NGOs in Ghana were empowering girls, leaving the boys out.
“So we must put in place good interventions to push all of them. So that they become at par with each other and realise their full potential while no one is left behind” he said.
Mrs Hilda Karroum, Chief Executive Officer of Brainest EduCare Limited, said the competition had evolved into an important platform for identifying and nurturing children’s mental arithmetic abilities while promoting Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education.
She said the fifth edition, held on the theme: “Smart Minds, Smart Future: The Power of Abacus in STEM,” reflected the organisation’s commitment to preparing children for future careers in STEM fields.
“The skills we are witnessing today extraordinary concentration, sharp analytical thinking and lightning-fast mental arithmetic are not only for winning trophies but are the foundational building blocks for success” she said.
Mrs Karroum said abacus training developed concentration, analytical thinking and resilience, adding that those skills would benefit children throughout their academic and professional lives.
She thanked parents, teachers and partner institutions for supporting the initiative and reaffirmed the company’s commitment to expanding the competition to other regions.
About 500 participants received awards for outstanding performances, while students from the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States also participated virtually, reflecting the competition’s growing international reach.
Speaking to the Ghana News Agency, Master Ethan Acheampong, a contestant, said the competition had been challenging but had improved his arithmetic skills and performance in mathematics.
He encouraged other children to remain focused on their dreams and work hard to achieve them.
Ms Leticia Apana, an award-winning participant, described the competition as difficult but rewarding, saying it required attentive listening to achieve good results.
“It has also enlighten me, improved my concentration and boosted my confidence especially in mathematics” she add.
The National Abacus Competition seeks to improve children’s mental arithmetic, memory, concentration and problem-solving abilities while fostering interest in STEM education from an early age.
GNA
Edited by Kenneth Sackey
Reporter: Hafsa Obeng