The 16th annual Universal Concept Mental Arithmetic System (UCMAS) competition will be held in Cyberjaya, Malaysia, on Nov. 28 in which 92 participants from the Kingdom will participate.
The 92 participants are 66 Saudis, 22 Indians and four Egyptians. All participants are from Jeddah, Tabuk, the Eastern Province and Riyadh.
The Kingdom is participating for the fifth time; participation this year is stronger than ever. “However, last year we didn't send our team from the Kingdom because of swine flu,” said Mohammad Rafi, chief executive of UCMAS-Saudi Arabia.
The Kingdom holds a good record in this competition. In 2008, it won three titles.
Around 6,000 participants will be taking part from 45 countries, including the US, China, Canada, the UK, India and Egypt. There will be 12 categories in the competition starting from beginners to advanced levels.
The UCMAS program trains children to calculate with and without abacuses with speed and accuracy. The skills that these children gain have been praised at several previous occasions.
“These children have been trained to participate in various categories from the abacus-calculation competition to the mental-math competition where they have to solve 200 addition, subtraction, multiplication and division sums in just eight minutes,” said Rafi.
“The children are very excited to participate at the event. UCMAS — Saudi Arabia wishes these children good luck for the event,” said Rafi.
