Not leaving their education to chance

SHANKILL-BASED Karthik Somasundaram and his wife, Balapriya, enrolled their five-year-old son Pranav, in a Kumon maths programme when he was three.

“At the age of three, he was fond of numbers, the alphabet and phonics. He could count to 10. We thought he had some potential,” says Karthik, a computer programmer. “After doing some initial exercises with a tutor, Pranav said he wanted to do this. Maths is the foundation for everything — we just thought ‘is there any way to harness his potential’?

“Some of our friends really discouraged us. They said when he went to a bigger class and he knows most of the stuff, he won’t be listening. He’s doing the maths programme over a year now and it’s really helping him. He’s happy, focused, and dedicated to what he’s doing. He likes to challenge himself and has really matured.