Leader - A gift of a programme

The Gifted Education Programme, or GEP, has been the place to be for top students since its formation in 1984. While the GEP nurtures the top 1% of the cohort, it is by no means restricted to any child of any birth as long as he or she has the correct genes, being part of the meritocratic system of education in Singapore. Through rounds and rounds of selection tests, those who emerge at the end are given special education starting from Primary 4, and various statistics including President’s Scholars, Lee Kuan Yew Scholars, and that GEP students perform better in the O and A levels than other students, all show that the method of teaching in GEP is in fact effective and should be continued.

Having been a GEP-nurtured student, I personally find the GEP very effective and I fully support it to be carried on throughout the years as a means of nurturing the best of our country into future leaders and those who would manage how Singapore is run in the future. However, there have been many voiced-out concerns that the GEP is an elitist programme and that those in the programme are too pompous to discuss anything with those whom they perceive as “ungifted” and unable to enter the GEP.

As with any other programme which only selects the best, those who made it will definitely look down on those who did not make it, much like those who failed will surely be jealous of those who passed and try to pull them down to earth. This, in my opinion, is human nature, not elitism, and so, I feel that there is no problem of the GEP being only for that selected and chosen 1% while the rest of the student cohort remain behind and are only taught the bare essentials, both of which are not true. Also, teachers have encouraged diffusion and interaction between the GEP and non-GEP classes, for both batches of students to understand each other. This is also the reason why there has not been a school set up for only the GEP students where they can have no interaction with the rest of the students.

Statistics have also shown that GEP students are also more active in community service than non-GEP students, which further proves that while GEP students might be educated differently by a special set of materials, they are even more thankful than usual students because of the opportunities they have been given to pursue their interests and further develop their passion for studying to create more job opportunities.

Coming out of the GEP does not mean that everywhere we go, there is a GEP label stamped on our heads. GEP students should be mindful that there are students out there with much more potential than us, just that they might be put off from the selection tests by an unexpected nose-bleed or flu. This will help prevent the elitist feelings of those in the programme and will definitely help to facilitate to interaction between the batches.