Success for Peterborough schoolboy as he completes prestigious 'Mini PhD'

An eleven-year-old from Peterborough, Hiransh Ravulakolu has been celebrating completing a prestigious maths qualification, known as a mini PhD.

Hiransh who attends Hampton Gardens School has now received his certificate for completing the leading and challenging Abacus training programme.

“Hiransh loves maths. He is active, conscientious, creative & well organised. Supermaths is doing wonderful job and we can see so much improvement. He is always excited to complete his Abacus homework first and to attend the classes on time,” his parents said.

The awards ceremony was organised by computer scientist and educator, Dr Rashmi Mantri, Head of The British Youth International College (BYITC), who set up the organisation in 2015 after teaching her son, Druhvi, maths using a counting tool that has been used for millennia – the Abacus.

She said: “Clearing all levels of Abacus is no walk in the park as it requires a lot of hard work and typically takes students 3 – 4 years of practice to complete this. It really is like a Mini PhD for these incredible young people such as Hiransh.

“As well as enabling people to do mental arithmetic in super-fast time, the Abacus is a highly effective brain development tool for concentration. The touch and feel nature of it also makes it very popular for children with dyslexia for example.”

The War Memorial Hall in Bishopbriggs, northeast of Glasgow, packed with family and friends of the twenty-three winners, rung with heartfelt applause when Scottish Labour Party leader Anas Sarwar MSP presented each of the children with their awards.

Of the 23 winners at the graduation ceremony, 19 were from Scotland and the remainder from across England and Wales.

Now BYITC and its Supermaths programme is the leading Abacus training provider in the UK and has also developed the world's first games-based abacus maths application.

Mr Sarwar said: “It is a great privilege to present completion certificates to all of these high-achieving young people.

“Highlighting the outstanding achievements of young people is vital for their own development and the future of our nation. I congratulate all of them on their awards.

“I would like to congratulate the work of the BYITC team in continuing to develop and teach the next generation of STEM superstars.”