Gifted Education Programme (Singapore)

The Gifted Education Programme (GEP) is a Singaporean academic programme designed for the top 1% of pupils, identified in two rounds of tests at the end of Primary 3.

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 has currently expanded to nine primary centres (as at October 2004) and was at its peak before the introduction of the Integrated Programme.

Schools offering GEP
As of 2007, nine primary schools and two secondary schools offer GEP.

Primary schools

 * Rosyth School
 * Tao Nan School
 * Saint Hilda's Primary School
 * Raffles Girls' Primary School
 * Nanyang Primary School
 * Nan Hua Primary School
 * Anglo-Chinese School (Primary)
 * Henry Park Primary School
 * Catholic High School (Primary)

Secondary schools

 * Anglo-Chinese School (Independent)
 * Dunman High School (autonomous)

Impact of the Integrated Programme
In 2004, with the first five secondary schools implementing their own Integrated Programmes with their affiliated Junior Colleges, they are officially no longer under the GEP. However, they still have their own programmes within their respective Integrated Programmes to cater to these gifted students, who still retain their "gifted" status. Despite all the changes, there have not been any major changes to the programme, and this is basically just a change of name.

However, the Integrated Programme proved so popular that in 2004, the remaining schools officially in the programme (Dunman High School and Victoria School) saw a drastic decrease in enrollment. Dunman High School had to cut down on the number of GEP classes from the usual 2 to 1 while Victoria School had to totally suspend GEP classes.

As of 2005, four of the secondary schools officially offer only the Integrated Programme (Hwa Chong Institution, Raffles Institution, Raffles Girls' School (Secondary), Nanyang Girls' High School.

Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) and Dunman High School are exceptions: it offers both the GEP and IP to its students. There are also two GE-IP classes in the school who are offered both the programmes of the GEP and the IP. Anglo-Chinese School Independent is also an International Baccalaureate (IB) World School, the first government run school of its kind in Singapore.

Nanyang Girls' High School, despite its official IP school status, separates primary school GEP students and offer them an enriched GEP-influenced curriculum that differs from the rest. Meanwhile, Raffles Institution and Raffles Girls School (Sec) offer the Raffles Programme, while Hwa Chong Institution offers the Gifted Plus programme (before adopting the MOE GEP program, it used to have its own GEP, identically named, whose aims and goals sounded similar to those of MOE's).

From 2008 year-end, the MOE will phase out the secondary GEP due to the impact of the IP. The severity of the situation is apparent in the fact that there are only 13 pupils enrolled in the entire Secondary One GEP as of 2006. However, GEP pupils who do not wish to take up the Integrated Programme after 2008 can enrol in schools with school-based special programmes at Secondary 1. Examples of such schools are Anglo-Chinese School (Independent), Catholic High School, Methodist Girls' School and St. Joseph's Institution.

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 2 rounds of tests, the first round being the Screening Test, and the second round being the Selection Test. The 2 GEP tests allows the top 1% pupils to enter GEP.

During the Screening Test, English and Mathematics are tested. After the Screening Test, a certain number of pupils are eliminated. The remaining will go through the Selection Test.

During the Selection Test, English, Mathematics and IQ will be tested. Those who get through the second round will be identified as the top 1% pupils.

Before 2003, there was a third round of testing to allow entry for pupils who missed the chance in P3, after the PSLE. This last round of testing was offered to students who achieved 3 or more A*s for the examination. Students who got in at this round were referred to as being Supplementary Intake students. However, this practice was discontinued as of 2003 as statistics showed that it was too difficult for the Supplementary Intake students to catch up and excel in the Programme.

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, or in the mainstream. Some parents and pupils have argued that the stress in the programme is too great.

Special enrichment programmes
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:

Primary
 * 1) Computer Enrichment Programme (Primary 4 & 5)
 * 2) Individualised Research Study (IRS) (Primary 4 & 5)
 * 3) Innovation Program (IvP) (Primary 5)
 * 4) Future Problem Solving (FPS) (Primary 5 & 6)
 * 5) Odyssey of the Mind Programme (Primary 5)
 * 6) Chinese Language Camp (Primary 5)
 * 7) Creative Writing Camp (Primary 5)
 * 8) Enriching Concepts through Changing Mindsets (E=C²M) (Primary 5)
 * 9) Humanities Quiz (Primary 5 & 6)
 * 10) Learning Journey to the Subordinate Courts (Primary 6)
 * 11) Advanced Mathematics Enrichment Classes - (selected Primary 6 pupils)
 * 12) Mathematics Enrichment Camp (Primary 6)
 * 13) Cyberfair (Primary 5)
 * 14) National Weather Study Project (Primary 5)
 * 15) School Video Award (Primary 5)

Secondary
 * 1) Chinese Language Camp (Secondary 1)
 * 2) Chinese Language Creative Writing Programme (Secondary 1 - 4)
 * 3) Individualised Research Study (Secondary 1-3)
 * 4) Computer Programming Course (Secondary 1)
 * 5) English Public Speaking Competitions (Secondary 1 & 2)
 * 6) History Drama Competition (Secondary 2)
 * 7) International Physics Olympiad Training for Advanced Learners (Inphotal) (Secondary 4)
 * 8) Creative Arts Programme
 * 9) Literature Seminar (Secondary 2 & 3)
 * 10) Mathematics Active Day (Secondary 1)
 * 11) Mathematics Enrichment Camp (Secondary 2)
 * 12) Mathematics Seminar (Secondary 3 & 4)
 * 13) Moot Parliament (Secondary 3)
 * 14) Science Attachment (Secondary 1 - 3)
 * 15) Singapore Polytechnic Information Technology course (Secondary 2 & 3)
 * 16) Specialised Multimedia Camp (Secondary 2 & 3)
 * 17) Computer Mentorship Programme (Secondary 1 - 4)
 * 18) Leadership Development Programme (Secondary 3-4)

Also, under Individualised Research Study (IRS), there are options for mentorship programmes, such as:

Primary
 * 1) Innovation Programme (Primary 5)

Secondary 2 and 3
 * 1) Creative Arts Programme
 * 2) Odyssey of the Mind
 * 3) Computer Mentorship Programme
 * 4) Science Mentorship Programme
 * 5) Humanities and Social Sciences Research Programme (Secondary 3 only)

Many of these programmes are also offered to non-GEP students as well.

Under Secondary level, self-initiated mentorship programmes are also allowed if approved. Also, in Secondary School IRS is also known as a generalization of ISO (Individualised Study Option), under which IRS is recognized as a mentorship programme.

Distinction
In GEP, pupils in Primary 4 Chinese (not Higher Chinese) attend a program which includes content like Chinese poetry, comics, riddles etc. The program is called Chinese Language Appreciation (CLA) and is to be attended once a week.

Individualised Research Study (IRS) is compulsory for pupils in Primary 4 or 5, wherein pupils do research on a specific topic. At the end of P4, the teachers would select approximately half the pupils to do the Innovation Programme (IvP), where pupils invent items to solve real-life problems. Other pupils will have the option to do the Future Problem Solving (FPS), or continue staying in IRS. Pupils in the GEP have to take Social Studies as a graded subject. They will study textbook based content more in-depth. Overall, lessons in the GEP are conducted with fewer textbooks and workbooks; lessons are more discussion-, worksheet- and project-based.

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) as part of the Concept Unit under the English Language subject. Charlotte's Web, A Wrinkle in Time and Friedrich will be tested under the Miscellaneous section during the end-of-year-examination for P4, P5 and P6 respectively. These books replace the English textbook.

Controversy
The GEP and its students has been criticised by many, the programme as elitist and the students as arrogant nerds. The issue of the GEP has been raised many times in Singapore, both online in blogs and in the mainstream media.

Prejudice
GEP students are sometimes prejudiced against and insulted by others and portrayed as nerds who spend large amounts of time studying and have no interests in sports or other non-academic activities. While this perception may ring true for some GEP individuals, as a blanket stereotype of all GEP students it does not hold true as there have been and still are GEP students who have been and/or are good in sports and have taken part in numerous sports competitions, both at Inter-School and National levels.

Satire incident
On 4 June 2001, Singaporean satirical site Talkingcock.com posted an account of a day in the life of a GEP student, portraying him nerdily reading his textbook in the bathroom and calling a football a "spherical object", among other depictions, which is a possible reference to a line from Tom Lehrer's Harvard Fight Song, Fight Fiercely Harvard.

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.

Criticism of the programme
The GEP is often criticized to be elitist, as highlighted by the Wee Shu Min elitism scandal, in which the 18 year old Raffles Junior College and GEP alumus student caused public outcry in November 2006 for making insensitive and judgemental remarks aganist others. There was a similar controversy a year before, whereby a Primary Six GEP student wrote a letter to Today openly declaring that non-GEP students (referred to as "mainstreamers") were immature, and that she preferred to mix with "(similar) people like us".