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The 'gifted' in human capital
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Fri, Jan 11, 2008
The Straits Times
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TH | E Gifted Education Programme (GEP) has been a feature of the school system, if a slightly controversial one. Even as it will now be confined to the upper primary level, what reservations there may have been about the scheme are best matched against measurable successes. According to the Education Ministry, some GEP alumni hold leadership positions, many are prominent in community work, and a few have achieved recognition in science and technology, humanitarian work and sports. The public will reasonably want to know more. The ministry may have to gather more data to find out how the early batches, the oldest now aged 36, are faring compared to their mainstream cohorts. Has the GEP helped them realise their full potential and prepare them to contribute their maximum to society? As the ministry pointed out, it may be too early to tell. But given its limitation to 0.2 per cent of school enrolment and the tax dollars spent, the slimmed-down GEP is likely to continue facing such questions.
To its credit, the ministry has been mindful of the elitism aspect. When some participants appeared to consider themselves a breed apart, not so much superior as quirky, it modified the GEP to ensure more mixing with other students. It brought in the Integrated Programme. This benefits a larger group of the best pupils, nearly 10 per cent, in secondary schools offering the programme. The experience has also led to recognition that there are many forms of talent and, therefore, a need to develop abilities in different fields differently. So, the GEP offers many opportunities for mentored and self-directed learning in science, the humanities, leadership and so on. Elective programmes also cater to the musically and artistically inclined. And talented primary school leavers may compete for places in the School of the Arts, which opened this year, the NUS High School of Maths and Science or the Sports School.
The broad approach should disabuse parents of the notion that the gifted programme is an automatic fast track to success. The misimpression has spawned a lucrative business in coaching children for GEP qualifying tests. Participants may indeed owe success in adult life to nurturing during the programme, but that is neither a sufficient nor even a definitive link. Many might have succeeded anyway on native talent. Any such sociological survey would encounter much that is confounding. Ultimately the programme's value lies in its practical but careful implementation as a concept that fulfils the need of such students to progress educationally at a faster pace, and the imperative to develop Singapore's human capital.
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