‘Eua wins National Soroban competition [1]
Thursday, March 30, 2017 - 17:27. Updated on Thursday, March 30, 2017 - 22:16.
A soroban team from ‘Eua Primary Schools has won the 2017 Tonga National Soroban Competition held today, March 30 at the Queen Salote Memorial Hall.
Soroban students from the Tongatapu Eastern District primary schools came second, with the Vava’u team third.
‘Eua soroban student, Siueli Vakapuna (9) from GPS ‘Ohonua won the written category in Class 5, and will have a trip to Japan later this year.
The Deputy Prime Minister Hon Siaosi Sovaleni presented the prizes that included a trophy to the national winner, the 'Eua team, and prizes for teams from various government primary schools on the outer islands.
He said soroban skills helped to improve the mathematical skills of the young students.
Prizes were also presented to each of the winners of the three categories of written, oral and flash in both Class 4-5 levels.
The Japanese Ambassador HE Mr Yukio Numata said soroban is nationally recognized as not only as a way to improve the mathematical skills of children and young people but also foster self confidence, concentration and memory retention, among other benefits.
"I have noticed with each passing year there is a growing interest in the National Soroban Competition, and I believe of soroban education as a whole."
Today visiting soroban students aged 8-16 years visiting from Japan demonstrated their soroban skills to the 207 local competitors at the event, whowere finalists from district soroban competitions held throughout Tongatapu, ‘Eua, Vava’u and Ha’apai last year.
Teacher
Mr Masao Fujii, the Director-General of the International Soroban Diffusion Foundation, who was one of the earliy teachers of soroban in Tonga in the 1970s, attended.
He said the late King Taufa'ahau Tupou IV had told Professor Nakano from Daitobunka University that most of the primary students in Tonga do not enjoy mathematics in a class, and he thought Japanese soroban was the best way to solve this issue and asked Professor Nakano to introduce it to schools in Tonga.
“This was our beginning and as soon as Professor Nakano went back to Japan, he launched a committee with soroban teachers in the Tokyo area and I was one of the members. Since then, we have been visiting Tonga for 40 years.”
He said when they first started, they taught the teaching method to school teachers. The soroban teachers from the Nakano Sorban School paid their own way to Tonga from Japan without external funding to set up the programme.
A few years later, the Ministry of Education set some pilot schools and also requested JICA to send soroban volunteers. These volunteers worked to improve the standard and recently have set new curricula, so now soroban is included in the arithmetic division, he said.
Commendation
Mr Fujii this evening received the Japanese Ambassador's Certificate of Commendation to acknowledge the individuals who developed soroban in Tonga, and their extraordinary contributions.
Tonga was the first country to be served by the International Soroban Foundation of which is he director. He has visited Tonga every year for 41 years and during this time has fostered soroban teaching in 20 countries. The foundation now serves more than 80 countries world wide,