[Economic Daily - China Economic Net (ce.cn), May 24, Beijing News (Journalist: Ma Changyan)] This year’s government work report of the People’s Republic of China proposed to promote the fair development and quality improvement of education. Liu Shangxi, Member of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (hereinafter referred to as Member of the National Committee of CPPCC) and President of Chinese Academy of Fiscal Sciences, holds that national development and rejuvenation are fundamentally human development and improvement of human quality. He suggests abacus and mental arithmetic should be re-examined and included in the national basic education curriculum as soon as possible, in order to improve the quality and calculation ability of nationals.

Liu Shangxi, Member of the National Committee of CPPCC and President of Chinese Academy of Fiscal Sciences

(Photo by Zhang Xiangcheng, Journalist from Economic Daily - China Economic Net)

Liu Shangxi said that Chinese Abacus Skill was included in the “List of Masterpieces of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity” in December 2013. UNESCO claimed that it provided “another knowledge system” for the world and was “an example of adapting to contemporary needs”. This represents new cognition and new evaluation of Chinese Abacus Skill, which is far beyond the domestic one-sided understanding of abacus, so it is worth re-considering and re-examining the knowledge value and education value of abacus.

Abacus is a crystallization of science, in which abacus structure, algorithm program and operation practice, etc., contain rich scientific connotations. Throughout the ages, Chinese people regarded abacus as a basic science or applied technique. Abacus had been widely used in knowledge education, skill training and social practice, promoting economic and social development and making great contributions to human civilization.

Since the establishment of schools in the late Qing Dynasty, abacus had always been an important part of elementary education. Until 2001, with the popularization of computers, the Ministry of Education almost completely eliminated the content of abacus in the first new millennium curriculum standards, and abacus education was essentially canceled from national curriculums. However, cultural inheritance of abacus and scientific innovation in abacus have never stopped.

 Since the 1980s, the “Abacus and Mental Arithmetic” has quietly emerged on the basis of abacus and has been sought after by many teachers, parents and primary school students. Today, more than 100 countries and regions around the world are carrying out abacus and mental arithmetic education.

Abacus and Mental Arithmetic refers to the calculation performed based on abacus rules with imaginary beads as a carrier in mind, i.e. “calculating on an abacus in the brain”. Those who are proficient in abacus and mental arithmetic can calculate at an amazing speed with impressive efficiency.

“A large number of studies have also shown that abacus and mental arithmetic education plays a significant role in developing children’s intellectual potential, and can effectively promote children’s attention, memory, observation and thinking abilities,” said Liu Shangxi. The National Institute of Education Sciences has conducted large-scale sample tracking experimental research for more than four years, which confirms that abacus and mental arithmetic education has an extremely prominent effect on promoting the overall intellectual development of primary school students, and has a significant or extremely significant effect on improving the academic performance of students of grade 1-3 of primary schools in Chinese, mathematics and English.

Liu Shangxi holds that the abacus and mental arithmetic course should be added as “another knowledge system” to the revised national curriculum standards, so that the scientific value, cultural value and modern educational value of traditional abacus can be fully demonstrated in the new era and serve the realization of national rejuvenation ——the Great Chinese Dream.