Gifted Education Programme
Introduction
The Gifted Education Programme was started in 1984 in 4 schools as a pilot project to test the development of a programme designed to enrich the education of intellectually gifted students. This is in line with the Ministry of Education’s aim to recognize, nurture and develop a student’s ability to its full potential. Since then it has grown to include sixteen schools, 9 primary schools and 7 secondary schools.
The Gifted Education Programme mission is to develop the full potential of the intellectually gifted for self fulfillment and service to the country. This can be done through the development intellectual rigour, humane values and creativity in gifted youths.
To select the students considered intellectually gifted a screening test is held where all Primary students are allowed to take part. There are two rounds in the test, each consisting an English paper, a Maths paper and one on General Knowledge. After a first round, most of the pupils are eliminated and those who get through to the second round where the top 1% will be identified.
Enrichment Programmes
GEP students enjoy many enrichment programs, including:
Secondary
Chinese Language Camp
Chinese Language Creative Writing Programme
Individualised Research Study
Computer Programming Course
English Public Speaking Competitions
History Drama Competition
International Physics Olympiad Training for Advanced Learners
Creative Arts Programme
Literature Seminar
Mathematics Active Day
Mathematics Enrichment Camp
Mathematics Seminar
Moot Parliament
Science Attachment
Singapore Polytechnic Information Technology course
Specialised Multimedia Camp
Computer Mentorship Programme
Also, under Individualised Research Study (IRS), there are options for mentorship programmes, such as:
Secondary 2 and 3
Creative Arts Programme
Odyssey of the Mind
Computer Mentorship Programme
Science Mentorship Programme
Humanities and Social Sciences Research Programme
Under Secondary level, self-initiated mentorship programmes are also allowed if approved. Also, in Secondary School IRS is also known as ISO (Individualised Study Option), under which IRS is recognized as a mentorship programme.
Views of GEP
On 4 June 2001, at a Singaporean satirical site posted an account of a day in the life of a GEP student, portraying him as overly studious reading his textbook in the bathroom, thus realizing he has not seen his own face in many years. and calling a football a "spherical object", among other depictions. The GEP student also made several racist comments.
This led to a string of more than 100 comments on the website spanning two years including those from GEP students. The first response from a GEP student was made on 24 May 2002 saying that although the article was funny it could have been extremely hurtful to the students. A string of other responses followed to warn others not to prejudice against GEP students. Finally, the argument was cooled down after several users suggested that the site was purely for satire and that the original article should not be taken seriously. The discussion thread is still available on the site as of 2004.
