Online Encyclopedia
Gifted Education Programme (Singapore)
The Gifted Education Programme (GEP) is a Singapore academic programme designated to the top 1% of pupils.
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History
The Gifted Education Programme was first implemented in Singapore in 1984 amid some public concern. It was initiated by the Ministry of Education (MOE) in line with its policy under the New Education System to allow each pupil to learn at his/her own pace. The MOE has a commitment to ensure that the potential of each pupil is recognised, nurtured and developed. It was recognised that there are pupils who are intellectually gifted and that there should be provisions to meet their needs. It actually began with two primary centres and two secondary centres but it had currently expanded to the nine primary centres (as at October 2004) and at its peak before the introduction of the Integrated Programme.
The primary schools offering GEP as of 2003 are Rosyth Primary School, Tao Nan School, St. Hilda's Primary School , Raffles Girls' Primary School , Nanyang Primary School, Nan Hua Primary School , Anglo-Chinese School (Primary), Henry Park Primary School and Catholic High School (Primary), and seven Secondary schools, namely Raffles Institution, Raffles Girls' School (Secondary), The Chinese High School, Nanyang Girls' High School, Anglo-Chinese School (Independent), Victoria School and Dunman High School . Only the last two schools are Autonomous schools; the rest are independent schools.
Impact of the Integrated Programme
Since 2004, when the first five secondary schools implemented their own Integrated Programmes with their affliate Junior College s, they are officially no longer under the GEP. However, they have their own programmes to cater to the students from the programme in primary school. Despite the changes, there have not been any major changes to the programme, but is basically just a change of name.
However, the Integrated Programme proved so popular that in 2004, the remaining schools officially in the programme (Victoria School and Dunman High School) saw a drastic decrease in enrollment. Victoria School had too few students to create a GEP class while Dunman High School had to cut down on the number of GEP classes from the usual 2 to 1.
As of 2004, three of the secondary schools offered only the Integrated Programme, and two of them continue to offer the GEP (Secondary 1 to 2), while offering an option for Integrated Programme at Upper Secondary level, and the other two only offer GEP.
Mission
The mission statement of the Gifted Education Programme is to provide leadership in the education of the intellectually gifted. The programme is committed to nurturing gifted individuals to their full potential for the fulfilment of self and the betterment of society. Their vision is to make the Gifted Education Programme a model of excellence in the education of the intellectually gifted. They will achieve this vision by providing professional expertise and exemplary resources to develop intellectual rigour, humane values and creativity in gifted youths to prepare them for responsible leadership and service to country and society.
Admission
All Primary Three students, at the age of nine, can choose to take a Screening Test. This screening test allows the top 1% pupils to enter GEP. The subjects tested are English, Mathematics and General Knowledge . There are two rounds in the test. After a first round, a certain number of pupils are eliminated and those who get through will be in the second round, which will identify the top 1% pupils.
Progress in the Programme
The pupils will have to study in this programme from Primary 4 to 6, and after that, the pupils can choose to continue studying in the programme only, in the Integrated Programme, on in the normal streams. To enter the Gifted Education or Integrated Programme in Secondary, they have to score high in the Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) in Primary 6. Some parents and pupils have argued that the stress in the programme is too great.
Special enrichment programmes
Prejudiced by many for having an elitist concept, schools in the programme set separate (sometimes jointly set with other GEP schools) test papers and generally hold more enrichment activities for the students in the programme, which include the following:
- Computer Enrichment Programme (Primary 4 & 5)
- Chinese Language Camp (Primary 5)
- Creative Writing Camp (Primary 5)
- Elevating Concepts by Changing Mindsets (E=C2M) (Primary 5)
- Humanities Quiz (Primary 5 & 6)
- Learning Journey to the Subordinate Courts (Primary 6)
- Advanced Mathematics Enrichment Classes - (selected Primary 6 pupils)
- Mathematics Enrichment Camp (Primary 6)
- Mathematics Trail (Primary 5)
- Chinese Language Camp (Secondary 1)
- Chinese Language Creative Writing Programme (Secondary 1 - 4)
- Computer Programming Course (Secondary 1)
- English Public Speaking Competitions (Secondary 1 & 2)
- History Drama Competition (Secondary 2)
- International Physics Olympiad Training for Advanced Learners (Inphotal) (Secondary 4)
- Literature Seminar (Secondary 2 & 3)
- Mathematics Active Day (Secondary 1)
- Mathematics Enrichment Camp (Secondary 2)
- Mathematics Seminar (Secondary 3 & 4)
- Moot Parliament (Secondary 3)
- Science Attachment (Secondary 1 - 3)
- Singapore Polytechnic Information Technology course (Secondary 2 & 3)
- Specialised Multimedia Camp (Secondary 2 & 3)
Distinction
In GEP, pupils in Primary 4 study a Special Chinese course, which actually includes contents like Chinese poetry, etc.
Individualised Research Study (IRS) is available for pupils in Primary 4 or 5, wherein pupils do research for a purpose. In Primary 5, good projects done will be awarded. However, pupils who do not select IRS in Primary 5 select the Innovation Programme (IvP), where pupils invent things, for example, a light bulb in a pencil box that facilitates searching for stationary.
Pupils in GEP have to take Social Studies as a report book subject, which the mainstream do not. Pupils in Gifted Education Programme used much more worksheets than the mainstream, which mainly used textbooks and workbooks.
Pupils in GEP learn poetry and literature (Charlotte's Web in Primary 4, A Wrinkle in Time in Primary 5, and Friedrich in Primary 6), but not the mainstream.
Prejudice
GEP students are sometimes prejudiced by others and protrayed as nerds who do not think about anything else except studying, and having no interests in sports, etc.
Some pupils of the programme had given derogatory names about the abbreviation GEP. These include:
- Gundu Education Programme (Gundu is a Malay word meaning people who are stupid)
- Gundu Educates Peanuts
Talkingcock satire incident
On 4 June 2001, Singaporean satirical site Talkingcock.com posted an account of a day in the life of a GEP student, protraying him nerdily reading his textbook in the bathroom and calling a football a "spherical object", etc.
This leading to a string of more than 100 comments on its website spanning two years (six months of which was intense comment), including those from GEP. On 24 May 2002, it received its first reply that although the article was funny, it could have been extremely hurtful to GEP students. A string of replies came in to warn the author not to prejudice against GEP students. Finally, the argument was cooled down by several users suggesting that the site was purely for "talking cock" ("talking nonsense" in Singlish) and that people not take the article so seriously. Still, the entire thread is still available on the site as of 2004.
External Links
- Ministry of Education Gifted Education Programme Website http://www.moe.gov.sg/gifted/index.htm
- Satire: A Day in the Life of a Gifted Student http://www.talkingcock.com/html/article.php?sid=416 (Warning: comments in the thread may be vulgar to some)