（October 11, 2025, 9:00，Eros Primary School）

Ms. Evelina Amutenya, Director of Shenmo Education Namibia,

School principals and teachers,

Dear learners and parents,

Good morning.

I am very glad to join you here today to express my strong support for the First National Shenmo Abacus Mental Math Competition. First I wish to congratulate Shenmo Education Namibia for hosting this historic event in the development of abacus mental math in Namibia. And I also congratulate all the learners who participated in this meaningful competition.

Abacus was invented in China about 1800 years ago as a very important contribution of the ancient Chinese civilization, which has been a major calculating tool used in China before the electronic calculator became available. I started learning abacus in my first year of primary school, and we practiced it almost every day. Maybe because at that time we had no cellphone or computer games, all of us loved practicing abacus, no one felt bored by that, but rather took that as a great fun.

Abacus mental math was developed in China in the 1980s based on the traditional abacus, which was not only a new fast calculating method or skill, but also more importantly a very effective way of education in brain development and mathematical excellence. It was gradually introduced to a growing number of countries, and I am very glad that it is now benefiting learners here in Namibia thanks to the pioneering efforts by Evelina and her friends.

Evelina has done a great job and I am happy to learn that since its operation in 2023, Shenmo Education Namibia has trained about 600 local learners across several towns, and it is welcomed by more and more Namibian schools nationwide. I hope more people will come to know the true value of the work Eveline and her friends have been doing, and I think a lot of learners and their parents have good stories to tell in this regard.

The Chinese Embassy will continue to provide strong support to the promotion of abacus mental math in Namibia, because we believe it’s good for Namibia and for China-Namibia educational cooperation. I encourage Shenmo Education Namibia to expand its program and host this competition every year. And I hope that, when we get together again next year, we will witness even greater achievements of the development of abacus mental math in Namibia. Thank you.