A BASINGSTOKE mum has set up an abacus school franchise at Queen Mary's College after her daughter won a national maths challenge.

Pragnya Reddy, who is also a software consultant, opened a franchise for British Youth International College Learning Centre (BYITC), which uses an abacus.

The start-up is the first franchise in Hampshire of Glasgow-headquartered BYITC, which runs 10 franchises globally – including two in Dubai and Sri Lanka.

BYITC launched its franchise model in the UK in December 2022.

Pragnya will operate the franchise alongside her husband Manjunath B who is also a software consultant.

They wanted to start the franchise after their six-year-old daughter, Nainika Manjunath, won an online maths challenge for mental arithmetic through BYITC’s ‘Supermaths’ National Maths Challenge.

READ MORE: Basingstoke girl, 6, wins national maths challenge

This awards certificates and prizes for children aged 4-14 with impressive arithmetic skills across 10 levels.

“Not only was I impressed with Nainika’s performance in the National Maths Challenge, but also by the games-based fun-filled learning experience. I saw that my child was happy to participate fully in the game-based, interactive learning because it kept her fully engaged.

“When my daughter won a national level abacus competition, we had many enquiries from parents about the institute where she was training and the benefits of it,” Pragnya said.

“This made us think of opening a face-to-face abacus training centre in Basingstoke.

“I’m looking forward to helping as many kids as possible to learn abacus maths. The structure and quality of our teaching methods will help our children academically and also help to grow our business.”

Thought to have been first used by the Babylonians as early as 2,400 BC, the abacus is known to be highly effective at training the brain to make mathematical calculations involving huge numbers.

SEE ALSO: Tadley pub George and Dragon goes on market for £150k

BYITC was set up in 2015 by Glasgow mum and computer scientist Dr Rashmi Mantri after she used an abacus to teach her own son basic arithmetic.

At an open day event in Basingstoke last month for BYITC, Rashmi said there were “lots of positive parents and excited children in the room".

She added: “This has led to other conversations about franchises in parts of London and further north in Manchester, too – so I’m hugely excited about the future of the franchise model.”