SHENMO MOTTO: Virtue & Wisdom

As we all know, abacus has a long history dating back to 600 BC in China. It was introduced to Korea during Joseon Dynasty in the 16th century, and was called “chip board” or “bead board”.
 
The promotion of abacus in Korea can be dated back to the 1920s when South Korea set up the Korea Bead Board Society. By the 1950s, commercial high schools have begun teaching professional abacus courses to students. In the 1960s, the Ministry of Education implemented the Abacus Qualification Exam. Primary and junior schools taught students abacus as an extra-curricular course. However, in the 1990s, with the popularity of electronic calculators, abacus began declining. Surprisingly, many people in South Korea still learn abacus. In Seoul and its surrounding areas, there are more than 2,000 abacus training schools, and there are 3,000 nationwide. Stationery shops sell all kinds of abacus.
 
Through our interview with Soon-jip Kim, President of Korea Abacus Arithmetics Inc. (Zhusan Surisem), we will get to know the status of mental abacus and its future trends.
 
The obsolete Korea mental abacus
 
Before the mid-1980s, South Korea was the leading region of abacus education, along with China, Japan and Taiwan. However, with the introduction of computers, according to Professor Kim from the Dongguk University, that “abacus is useless” spread across the country. Abacus education was stopped in business schools, followed by its sharp decline in the Korean history.
 
The abacus authorization system that was awarded by the Korean Chamber of Commerce has also been abolished. One company called “National Abacus Education Association” saved the only abacus certification, which enabled abacus to survive in South Korea.
 
In the mid-2003, the new YesSem Company partnered with private education agencies in a chain business model and gave primary school students abacus courses. Abacus education therefore revived.
 
The Korean abacus in recovery
 
In the year of 2003-2004, YesSem’s abacus education achieved a great success with 2,500 campuses established nationwide. The Abacus Arithmetics Inc. (Zhusan Surisem) and other companies also started abacus education. There are 10 companies in Korea in this business.
 
In other countries, abacus education was usually targeted at business colleges and universities, but now it has been widely recognized as an important learning tool to raise concentration and brain development of kindergarten and primary school students.
 
Meanwhile, YesSem concentrated on private educational institutions. Since 2006, the Korean government has proposed after-school learning programs to control the excess expenditure of private tutoring.
 
Thanks to the government’s after-school programs, some teachers who have learned abacus at commercial colleges began teaching kindergarten and primary school students. Abacus education was therefore expanded. Among the popular after-school programs is one that combines abacus education with English and computer teaching.
 
In addition, the development of computers, televisions, smart phones and other electronic technology has brought side effects and blocked certain body functions. The benefits from abacus education are growing.
 
The combination of business and education of the Korean abacus education model
 
Private companies (NGOs) promote and sell abacus books to students by the teachers within the organization as the income of this business model. At the same time, they undertake the certification through private companies that are approved by the proxy-governmental organization KRIVET (Korea Institute for Vocational Education and Training).
 
In this context, price fight among publishers leads to improved education quality. Teachers can get tuition fees through direct contact with the school, making the cost lower than family tutoring.
 
After-school programs vary among schools. Abacus education usually requires two days a week with 30 USD per month. A teacher can get 1,000 USD each from 2 to 3 schools. In addition, cultural centers or neighborhood offices are open to them so that they can teach there.
 
Development of the Abacus Arithmetics Inc. (Zhusan Surisem)
 
Abacus Arithmetics Inc. (Zhusan Surisem) was founded in 2005. In order to strengthen brand popularity, the company released its courses through the EBS (Korea Educational Broadcasting Corporation) channel until 2007.
 
President Soon-jip Kim has never had the abacus teaching experience, but has participated in seminars and competitions in the Chinese mainland, Taiwan, and Japan, where he learned the knowledge and experience about the mental abacus education. He has done what he can to make the public understand the effectiveness and necessity of abacus education. For instance, he had held an abacus contest for kids in a large gymnasium, invited their parents to watch the contest, and promoted this event at leading newspapers. He has held abacus competition in Korea and invited professionals from China, Japan and other countries to participate.
 
The first competition in 2006 had 300 participants. This year, it has 3,500 student participants. The Abacus Arithmetics Inc. (Zhusan Surisem) plays a dominant role in the Abacus Education Association and it will strengthen international strategic alliances in the future.
 
Future challenges and development of abacus in South Korea
 
In South Korea, top abacus education companies have constituted the Korean Abacus Association to jointly solve problems and contribute to the development and revitalization of the abacus education.
 
An important challenge is, just the same as that in Japan, to enhance awareness and understanding of abacus education through integrating the abacus into elementary school mathematics textbooks. Indeed, large-scale development is not enough; teaching quality and the training of teachers are even more important.
 
“Issuing a co-signed certification under the PAMA (Professional Marketing Management International Association) would be a constructive idea to build a cross-border information sharing and cooperation system so as to expand abacus education worldwide.”