At an altitude of thirty-three thousand feet, Lebanon scored a new educational cultural achievement in the World’s First Mental Calculation competition, during a flight from Beirut to Marmaris-Turkey.
The World’s First Mental Calculation competition, which was organized by Genius MAP association, led a group of 130 Lebanese students from different schools across Lebanon to conduct a competition in mental computation.
Genius MAP is a child development program based on Soroban, an ancient math calculation tool used in Japan and other countries. In 2017, Genius MAP entered the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s largest competition.
This competition that brought together our 130 young students in that flight was held according to scientific standards and careful monitoring and observation from trainers on board.
Exam papers were distributed to the young contestants, after which the Director-General of Genius MAP, Dr. Hadi Hamza, announced through the airplane’s microphone the start time, initiating as such the competition.
It is to note that the exam papers were marked by the pre-assigned numbers of the students, instead of their names, ensuring the reassurance of the students on the objectivity of corrections and scores.
The competition ended with Dr. Hamza blowing the whistle for the contestants to cease writing, and the exam papers were collected.
With the corrections done and the scores finalized, prizes were presented to the top ten students who had both achieved with their answers and finished the competition in record time; before the official ending time.
The prizes, including gifts, were handed to the students by Dr. Hadi Hamza and Albert Chamoun, the Media Advisor at the Ministry of Education and Higher Education.
It is worth mentioning that this large group of students is making a trip to Marmaris in Turkey to participate in a training course held by Japanese and Lebanese coaches. The training is meant to prepare them for the Mental Computation World Championship that will take place in Japan.
