News

As a parent, I read with much concern about the overhaul of the Gifted Education Programme (GEP) and replacing it with the high-ability programme ( , Sept 1). Under the new programme, all schools identify their own high-ability learners and pupils may also join after-school enrichment modules at nearby schools. While it’s good to expand the additional enrichment to the top 10 per cent, it is also concerning how the schools identify the high-ability learners. In the rigorous GEP testing, where a large part is based on general ability and not subject-based, many who got in are not the typical top students. In the revamp, it seems the focus is subject-based and pupils would have to stay back after school and some have to travel to a nearby school. Compared with the GEP, where everything is taught during curriculum time, this new programme looks like a retention scheme or punishment for high-ability learners. Due to much criticism (including from Members of Parliament) about “elitism”, our policymakers have decided to revamp the GEP. Will we now have an elite group of pupils in every school?  In the Opinion piece “GEP, as I knew it, is gone. What lies ahead?” (Aug 22), the writer said: “Parents of GEP students have cited the benefits, both pedagogical and social, that the programme had brought to their neurodivergent children.” Besides parents, GEP teachers and former pupils have stated the benefits of the high-intensity curriculum that focuses on research, organisation and thinking skills. In fact, the PSLE syllabus was not emphasised at all and that got some parents worried.  Equity is an issue in every country. With a total fertility rate of 0.97 in 2023, are we afraid to nurture the top 1 per cent of each cohort that we have in Singapore?