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A Twist to the Gifted Education Programme
On 5 October night, Talking Point on Channel 5 was showcasing an interesting topic: I Want to Be in GEP!
What that episode of Talking Point wants to find out is whether you can train the gifted as parents are sending their children to enrichment classes to prepare the children for a series of test at Primary 3. There is a father who doesn’t believe in his son making his own choices, and thus spend more than S$7000 for GEP Preparation Course. As the episode proceeds, it is clear that the children do not want to be in GEP; rather the “I” in the title actually refers to the parents.
Another mother buys assessment books from Secondary 1 and Secondary 2 for her son who is in Primary 5.
Correspondingly, what is so special about the GEP?
The Gifted Education Programme (GEP) was set up by the Ministry of Education to cater to the intellectually gifted students. This programme aims to develop gifted children to their top potential and it places a special emphasis on higher-order thinking and creative thought.
Through the aforementioned series of tests, the top 1 per cent of the student population will be selected to enter the programme.
It is a good initiative by the MOE, but the problems come when parents misunderstand the purpose of GEP and start preparing their children for GEP, which as shown in Talking Point, it is not a good idea after all. The child may pass the tests and get into GEP but later suffer stress because he / she cannot keep up with the syllabus.
Students in GEP are also complaining about the high expectancy of teachers on their work and they feel stressful. Being in the GEP means less free time, more homework and demanding teacher for the students.
After reading on books on stress, competition and learning for children and a blog written by a student in GEP, I wish there is a twist in the GEP.
Suggestions
- Drop the name “Gifted”.
- As the mother of Primary 5 student finds out, the GEP is just learning two years in advance. Is it true? If yes, I would like to suggest giving Primary 5-equivalent tests to Primary 4 students. If they can score 95% or above for all subjects, promote the Primary 4 students to Primary 5.
- For students who have been promoted, assign them as young teachers to teach their peers. In this way, all parties involved are benefited. The teachers can prepare for activities that challenge the promoted students, the promoted students can be trained on leadership and the peers can learn better. Learning to work with students of different levels actually prepares students in real life.
- Other leadership roles, such as the class monitor, prefect, etc, can be assigned to the promoted students.
- Rather than giving more homework, the teachers can identify which areas interest the promoted students and allow them to explore in the same classroom or a separate classroom. Some activities to challenge the mind are Sudoku, Rubik’s cube, chess, debate, etc.
- The promoted students continue to take the national Primary School Leaving Examination like other mainstream students. When they are in secondary schools, provide them with the real life problems that we are facing, and let them experiment and come out with a solution. These are projects to challenge the mind and benefit the country.
- For secondary students, they can expand their knowledge in quantum physics, astronomy, plant science (to make a better Garden City), etc. Let their interests guide them; they will be more enthusiastic to learn what interest them.
- If the promoted student chooses not to be promoted, he / she can stay in the same level as his / her friends and do activities in suggestion 3 to suggestion 7.
- The promoted students are allowed to take “time-off” from school as long as they can keep up with the syllabus.
Why I do not start with Primary 3 students? — Primary 3 students are still young and a year difference means they have a year to develop their intellects.
Why I want the promoted students to teach their peers? — From GEP, we know that the students are labelled as “smart” and they compete with their friends who are not in the GEP. Their teachers also always compare them with those who are not in the GEP.
Competition ⇒ Stress ⇒ Not performing optimally
By teaching their peers, they learn how to explain better and able to identify which knowledge they lack. Also, if the promoted students only mix with like-minded students, will they be frustrated when they meet a mediocre colleague who can’t see things eye to eye as them?
By allowing the students to explore their areas of interests, we will create lifelong learners, instead of learning robots who can learn best but cannot apply knowledge to real life.
The above suggestions are my two cents. Any comments are welcome.
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I Don’t Know Babies Burp
*Burp* “Excuse me.”
“It’s ok. Everyone burps, even babies.”
“I don’t know babies burp.”
It was the conversation between me and an 11-year-old girl who just burped.
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Before I was pregnant, I told my future baby that I am ready for him or her, physically, mentally, physiologically, psychologically, financially, you name it. I read up books on pregnancy, articles on how to raise a child, save money, exercise to keep myself fit and healthy, etc. Yes, I thought I was ready. But I was wrong. The labour was a horror even though I had attended the antenatal class and learnt how to “push”. Despite knowing that breast milk is little but sufficient for baby on first few weeks, my baby keeps crying for milk every hour, 24 hours everyday. Three months after the labour, things slowly get better with an exhausted mum, thinking how arrogant I was when I said I was ready.
You can never be ready enough. Self-confidence is good. But over-confidence will take you by surprise. Even if you have studied diligently and done all the homework, you still need to do revision before the examination. For students who are in Primary 5 this year, it is never too early to start preparing for PSLE next year. Happy preparing and getting ready!
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Assessment Book Suggestion
New school year is starting soon. Are you thinking of buying a Chinese language assessment book for your children?
I have been using this book and found it comprehensive. I would like to share why I like the book in this post:
- The exercises are arranged by chapters you learn at school.
- It does not separate into two books for each semester (For example, book 3A for semester 3A and book 3B for semester 3B) and thus you only need to buy one book each year.
- It includes a composition exercise (看图作文) at each chapter.
- There are two exercises on oral and listening (one at mid-year revision and another one at year-end revision).
- It is available for each primary school year.
Whether your children are attending tuition or not, this book can be used as a revision after they have learnt each chapter at school. If I want to nitpick, I would like to see 命题作文 to be included for higher primary books. It is because PSLE Chinese Language has both 看图作文 and 命题作文. Exposure to both types of composition exercises will help to boost the confidence of the students taking PSLE.
A note for international students who would like to learn Chinese language using the book, please consider buying the textbook of the same academic year as well.
Book Title:《小学华文综合练习》 (Chinese Complete Practice)
Publisher: Educational Publishing House Pte. Ltd.
Disclaimer: This is just a suggestion for parents and students. You can get the book from major bookshops. I do not earn anything from anyone, anywhere, anytime by writing this post. This post is just for sharing.