Page 87 - EW May 2020 for Flipbuilder

Singapore, and went on to break five Sports education
Prodigy Championship 2013 in

math world records and 50 Limca
Book of R ecords in mental math trailblazer
racing past math maestros like Scott
Flansburg and Shakuntala Devi. ormer India basketball star
While a student of the Bharatiya KUNAL MARIA is founder and
Vidya Bhavan Public School, Hyder- FCEO of the Corvuss American
abad, young NBPJ began conducting Academy (Corvuss, estb.2018), a
math learning classes for students trail-blazing, sports-focused co-ed
and corporate executives. At age 15, residential school for children in the
he co-founded Iscreamers Frozen 11-17 years age group sited in Karjat,
Kingdom, an ice-cream startup. a two-hour drive from Mumbai. It
“Mathematics is an exact science is set to provide highly professional
which greatly speeds mental growth. training in seven sports — basketball,
Regular practice greatly improves cricket, football, squash, swimming,
NBPJ: math phobia banishment goal decision-making skills, efficiency and tennis and track and field games.
memory. Arithmetic exercise is the key To this end, the academy has signed
(EI, estb.2018), a proprietary firm to unlock the infinite potential of the collaboration agreements with seven
promoted to boost children’s cogni- brain,” says this maths wunderkind. elite sports partners including the
tive development and popularise Direct talk. “I founded Exploring Las Vegas-based IMPACT Basket-
speed mental arithmetics and games Infinities in 2018 by conducting ball and UK-based Manchester City
through workshops and year-long workshops and courses in schools. Football School, affiliated with the
courses in schools. In 2019, as an outreach project in 25 Manchester City premier league
Newspeg. EI is offering gamified government schools of Telangana, football team.
learning modules on mobile apps to EI helped 10,000 students to get Newspeg. In September, Corvuss
enhance cognitive abilities such as over their math phobia. Soon we will welcome its first cohort of 150
memory, sensory precision and men- were invited by private schools for students on the academy’s 44-acre
tal computation skills. It is all set to longer engagements. We believe that thoroughly modern campus. Aca-
roll out its first gaming app, which improvement in arithmetic skills demically, Corvuss offers the US core
NBPJ says will banish maths phobia translates into enhanced cognitive middle school curriculum (classes
of class I-XII students. The app’s development. Now EI is ready to VI-VIII) followed by four years of
design is the outcome of data and launch an arithmetic gaming app to the American high school curricu-
feedback from students of several develop math skills of all school stu- lum culminating in the high school
government and private schools with dents. The app hosts a repository of diploma. Corvuss is accredited by the
which the firm has been interacting offline exercises and games to make US-based AdvancedEd and National
over the past three years. maths learning an enjoyable pas- Maria: sports-academics integration
History. The first son of Hyderabad- time,” says NBPJ who is intensifying
based couple J. Srinivas (a food his research on the connection be-
processing company promoter) and tween arithmetic and child cognition.
J. Hema Shiva Parvathi (a business- Future plans. Scheduled to gradu-
woman), NBPJ suffered an accident ate next year, NBPJ has big plans
when he was five, in which he sus- for scaling his “social enterprise”. “I
tained severe head injuries and was plan to scale up the operations of EI
bed-ridden for almost a year. During because India has an ancient tradi-
his convalescence, his doting parents tion of maths learning and develop-
introduced arithmetic puzzles and ment. Unfortunately, because of
mental exercises to distract him and misguided drill-and-skill pedagogies,
ease his pain. math anxiety has become pervasive
Soon NBPJ developed a passion in children. I want to enable India’s
for complex mathematical calcula- children to rediscover their inher-
tions. At age 12, he was crowned ent but suppressed love of learning
national math champion in Banga- maths,” says this earnest and enter-
lore (2011) and Pune (2012). The prising prodigy.
following year he won an Arithmetic Autar Nehru (Delhi)

MAY 2020 EDUCATIONWORLD 87