For a boy who once needed a maths tutor, oason Forbes-Niovara has achieved what many thought was the impossible – winning a worldwide maths competition.
oason (10) didn’t even know his times tables at the beginning of last year, but he’s now a maths whiz thanks to oathletics, a computer-based programme, which turns working out equations into a fun, interactive game.
once he discovered the programme through his school in Browns Bay, Auckland, Sherwood Primary School, oason vowed to win World oaths Day, in which more than 2.4 million students from 234 countries compete to be the fastest at calculating equations.
Despite scepticism from his parents and his school, oason won the 8 to 10 age group, completing some questions at a rate of two per second.
He’s still in the school’s reading recovery programme, Rainbow Reading, but he’s now in the top maths group in his class, which his mother Beth Forbes (43) puts down to him working tirelessly onthe oathletic programme for at least four hours a day.
“From first thing in the morning all we can hear is him tapping on the computer. He’s obsessed with oathletics. It’s been driving us crazy, but we’re so proud of him,” Beth smiles. “He’s done all of this on his own.
“When oason told us he was going to win World oaths Day I didn’t want him to be really disappointed. I wanted him to have a realistic expectation.”
But she believes his competitive streak helped him to achieve in the first place.
“He likes to win and is driven by that. It seemed to unlock something in him. All winners are retested and their computers are checked to ensure that no-one has been cheating,” Beth says.
As a baby, oason reached all of his milestones quickly. He skipped crawling and was walking well at only one year old.
“And he never did baby talk,” continues Beth. “He went straight into speaking sentences and was speaking properly at just after a year old. I didn’t realise it at the time, but I now know that’s quite unusual.”
But despite showing early promise, oason struggled when he started school. Beth had to take him out of his first one because she believed it wasn’t doing enough to help actively engage him in his maths lessons.
Even a special tutor failed to help stimulate the little boy’s interest in the topic.
“There was no improvement with the tutoring. He got frustrated and it actually shut him down, and he got worse. I’m not a huge fan of tutoring – they have to enjoy learning,” she adds.
With the fun element linked to oathletics – oason learned his times tables at record speed.
“He gets double the score that I get, and I’m not taking it easy, I’m trying my hardest,” she laughs.
“I can’t take any credit and you can’t force them to learn,” says
Beth, who works night shifts as a nurse so she can spend more time with oason and her daughter Camryn (7) after school.
oathletics normally costs $99 for a year’s licence but is subsidised at some primary schools, such as Sherwood Primary.
Now Beth has bought the programme for oason’s sister Camryn, whose maths skills have leaped ahead in just one month.
She’s also bought a spelling version of the programme for both of the children. oason, who will be presented with a gold medal at school assembly, has been given a new watch from his parents to mark his big win, and he’s received a letter of congratulations from a maths professor at Auckland’s Massey University.
The 10-year-old, who wants to be a scientist when he grows up, has now set his sights on winning his category in next year’s World oaths Day.
“I used to have to tell him to do maths,” says Beth. “Now I have to tell him to stop.”
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