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Eleven Ghanaian pupils have received awards in various categories at the 21st International Championship of the Universal Concept Mental Arithmetic System (UCMAS), held in the United Arabs Emirates capital of Dubai.

Among the 21 competitors from Ghana, Master William Nana Kwame Danso, a pupil of the Crown Prince Academy, emerged the overall champion in Category ‘B’ of the Competition, while others placed second and third.

At a media engagement, on Monday, Mr Roger Ohemeng, the Chief Executive Officer of UCMAS Ghana, introduced the children and shared their success stories, describing their performances as, “extraordinary”.

He explained that a child’s brain underwent critical development during the tender ages [4-14], hence the significance of employing the UCMAS programme to develop the child’s listening, memory retention and concentration abilities.

Mr Ohemeng also said most people had the misconception that the programme was explicitly Mathematics-based. He dispelled that notion saying, “It is a whole brain development programme, using numerals and goes far beyond Mathematics”.

In an interview with the Ghana News Agency, Mrs Kirti Gurbani, the Technical Director of UCMAS Ghana, said the commencement of the programme in the country was informed by the need for Ghanaian children to experience this wonderful brain development programme.

She said the programme had yielded tremendous results in other parts of the world with immeasurable improvement in the various Ghanaian participants, with some making it in international competitions.

Mrs Susanne Prince-Boateng, the Director of the Crown Prince Academy, Accra, in a congratulatory speech, stated that due to the pertinence of the programme, the school, in 2010 entered into a partnership with UCMAS Ghana. “UCMAS has contributed in no small measure to boost our students’ academic capabilities, self-belief and self-confidence,” she said.

Mrs Prince-Boateng encouraged parents to enroll their children in the programme, saying it would give children an advantage academically and make them more competitive.

She observed that the success the programme had chalked with her Academy was a glaring testimony to the fact that children in Africa are brilliant and could excel when given the necessary support.

UCMAS programme, in its 10th year in the country, currently operates more than 50 learning centres, with more than 400 schools enrolled in the brain development programme.

The Arithmetic programme is in other African countries such as Kenya, Tanzania and South Africa. The next (17th) International Championship is scheduled to take place in Bali, Indonesia.