DPRK Education with Abacus Encouraged

The effectiveness of education with abacus at kindergartens and primary schools is being recognized by many people.

Experts in children’s education and psychology say that an outstanding capability for mental calculation is created in the right cerebral hemisphere of the children who have received education through abacus systematically. They insist that if children are drilled in the fast calculation of the four fundamental arithmetic rules with abacus, their capability for memorizing, thinking and imagination grows remarkably.

Teachers are of the same opinion.

Choe Un Hui, teacher at November 3 Kindergarten in Moranbong District, Pyongyang, says that many children are more interested in learning how to calculate with abacus than in learning arithmetic in writing, singing or dancing.

She has found that the rate of their understanding through learning with abacus is far higher than that of the conventional arithmetic lessons.

She confirms that nine out of ten children who have learned calculating with abacus are fast in mental calculation.

Experts say that education with abacus is most effective among children aged between 4 and 12; they gradually get the capability of imagining an abacus and its beads sliding up and down, and with this capability growing they become capable of receiving, storing and re-producing information in a short period of time.

Now many kindergartens and primary schools have introduced and are intensifying education with abacus.

Seen frequently on TV are children who calculate the four arithmetic rules of six digits while singing or rope skipping.

2022-06-20