Mental math
Around a thousand students appeared for a state-level examination under the Universal Concept Mental Arithmetic System (Ucmas). It is a method on mental arithmetic through the extensive use of abacus, developed in Kuala Lumpur and popular in 47 countries. Many kids were able to attempt the 200 questions within eight minutes time, a real feat for the little ones between the age group of four and 12 years. Sanjukta Sarangi, the head of Bhubaneswar Genius Academy, which runs the Ucmas system-based teaching across Odisha, said: “The abacus system enhances memory power, listening ability, creativity and prepares the kids for future examinations with papers having mental aptitude tests and reasoning.” She explained the science behind the concept and how the nervous system gets attuned to this particular system for which the target group is children below 12 years of age. She pointed out that children are the greatest beneficiaries of this system.
Interactive session
The DAV Public School, Chandrashekharpur, organised an interactive session for students with the top rank holders of civil service exams. Senior students listened to Pamela Satpathy (All-India rank 51), Smrutiranjan Mohanty (All-India rank 87) and Abhishek Tripathy (All-India rank 151). They motivated the students with their success story and shared their valuable tips on success. Pamela Sathpathy conveyed the message of life long learning by continuously rekindling child-like curiosity while Mohanty cleared the confusion between general studies and general knowledge along with the syllabus and mode of preparation. Students shot a volley of questions on how to go about the extremely competitive exams and fight back stress as well as initial failures.
Felicitation ceremonies
Mother’s Public School, Bhubaneswar, organised a felicitation ceremony titled Glory 2015 to honour its students who have performed well in the Class X and XII CBSE examinations and have also qualified for the various engineering, medical, law and other entrance examinations. Arindum Nayak, the commerce topper with 96 per cent and Sharthak Bharadwaj, the school topper with 97 per cent in the CBSE Plus Two examinations (science) were awarded for their feats.
The Delhi Public School, Kalinga, too observed a felicitation ceremony for its students. A total of 31 students from Class XII and 35 students from Class X were awarded certificates and trophies. The highlight of the day's programme was the felicitation of Bidisha Mohapatra, who is the eastern zone topper for the humanities stream with 96.8 per cent and has joined the Delhi University. The school also recognised the effort and hard work of the teachers and felicitated them.City-based organisation Swabhiman felicitated the differently-abled meritorious students of Class X and XII from across the state. Around 12 students were felicitated at the award ceremony titled ‘Prerana’. This is for the first time that the organisation is giving away the awards and it will be conducted in the upcoming years as well. The DAV Public School, Unit-VIII, Bhubaneswar, also organised a felicitation ceremony for the meritorious students of Class XII for their stupendous performance. The state rank holders and school toppers of Class XII science and commerce stream were awarded with merit certificates and mementos. Namrata Mohanty, the CBSE zonal topper (science), Rohit Kumar Jena, Kharagpur zone topper (JEE Main) and Manish Kumar Bera (Niser topper) were given gold medals.
