In the first term exams, Para Tuladhar, 9, a grade three student, scored the highest in mathematics in a class of 47 pupils. This came as a surprise to her math teacher who until last year was sending monthly notes to her parents telling them that Para just didn’t seem to have the aptitude for the subject.

“Para was a good student and did well in all the other subjects but as far as math was concerned, her brain seemed to shut itself off,” says Jyoti KC, an elementary mathematics teacher. “She used to make such silly addition and subtraction errors but now she doesn’t make a single mistake besides being really quick at calculations,” she adds with a slightly surprised look on her face.