Students practise brain gym exercises at 21st SIP Abacus West Bengal StateProdigy 2025. Picture by Biswajit Kundu
For Adrita Sen of St Anthony’s High School, Chandannagar, it was a full day. She aced her abacus paper. Now with a medal in hand, the Class VII student was set to see some sights of Calcutta.
“I practised a lot for this. One should not be afraid of numbers; they are fun,” she said of the 21st SIP Abacus West Bengal State Prodigy 2025 held at the Netaji Indoor Stadium on August 17.
Organised by SIP Academy India, the aim of the event was just that — to reduce the fear of maths in students.
Speed, accuracy and visualisation — were the mantras for over 3,500 students who came, in two batches, to display their maths-solving prowess at the event.
The chief guest was Debasis Kumar, mayor-in-council of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation. Dinesh Victor, director of SIP Academy India, inaugurated the event. “Children should aim to do a little better than their last practice test,” he said.
Ahan Sekhar Kundu of Class VI, St Augustine Day School, Baranagar, did just that. It was his third time at the event and, according to him, his best. “Doing the brain gym exercises at the start of the contest really helped me concentrate and perform in the visual and abacus rounds. I enjoyed the multiplication part the most,” he said.
Students, clad in their trademark orange uniforms, began with some warm-up mental exercises, termed brain gym, designed to boost focus and coordination before the competition.
At 10.30am, the stadium resounded with the rhythmic clicking of abacus beads as students raced through their first paper in just five minutes. The second and third rounds, conducted without the abacus, tested the mental arithmetic strength of students in three minutes each. Participants from higher levels also attempted multiplication and division challenges. The contest offered 12 levels.
“The visual part was the most fun for me,” added Debadrita Mallick of Class VII, Union Chapel School.
While advanced participants tackled multiple rounds, the beginners attempted only a single paper as a demonstration. In the end, close to 800 awards were given away.
The Benchmark Award was also introduced for performers with a certain mark.
A second session was held at 1pm, following the same format. The students of this batch were as energetic.
The day concluded with the prize distribution ceremony, preceded by a short cultural programme.
“Conducting an event of this scale is always a challenge, but with our dedicated SIP Abacus team and the constant support of parents, it becomes possible. We plan this for nearly six months. This year, nearly 3,500 children participated, solving on an average 300 arithmetic sums in just 11 minutes,” said regional head (east) Subhajit Mullick.