An Article on GEP

Found an interesting article in the Forum Section of the Straits Times (24 December 2007).

Gifted scheme: Has it achieved the set goals?

Excerpts below:

THE Gifted Education Programme (GEP) was introduced by the Ministry of Education (MOE) in 1984. It sees the participation of the top 1 per cent of each Primary 4 cohort (about 500 pupils) every year.

Special teaching and learning techniques have been used to groom these top pupils in the hope of achieving the following goals, as stated by MOE on its website……….

……It has been 23 years now since the implementation of the GEP. If the intake had been constant at 500 per year, there should be 11,500 of such GEP graduates and students to date.
And those in the first batch would be 33 years old now.

It is believed among experts that by the age of 30, top-performing individuals would have flourished in their careers.

Could the MOE comment on how well it has achieved the goals set by itself with regard to GEP students? They are remarkable students with extraordinary school grades.

Tremendous efforts are put in by the GEP teachers and educationists to groom these bright kids. Taxpayers' money has been pumped in to craft the best syllabus to develop our creme de la creme.

Can MOE highlight the significant contributions made to society by the working GEP cohort……….

Click on the link above for the full article.