About gifted education

Yap Chong Sin
Block 126 Ang Mo Kio Road
#13-213
Sinagpore 509238

31 January 2009

Editor of The Straits Times
Singapore Press Holdings
Novena Street 82
Singapore 680256

Dear Editor,
Re: My Views About Gifted Education
There are diverse views about gifted education, some good and some bad. These lead to some misunderstandings about gifted education on Singapore. Gifted education was first implemented in Singapore in 1984 as the Ministry of Education has to policy to allow each pupil to learn at a pace which is suitable for them, reducing attrition in schools. Therefore, there is a need to nurture the intellectually gifted to their full potential for the fulfillment of self and betterment of society. This is also because Singapore's future depends on how well it develops its human resources. It is also to provide leadership to them to service to the country and society next time. It began with two primary centres and two secondary centres but grew to a larger number. The things taught to the gifted education pupils are at a higher level. Singapore also wanted to make sure its gifted pupils were not isolated fromother pupils in the mainstream. As such, they did not establish a school for the gifted.

But the pupils in the gifted education have been known by other pupils as arrogant and nerds, creating an argument in the country. Both gifted education pupils and mainstream pupils have criticised each other in blogs and newspapers. The Ministry of Education could not solve all the problems caused by this dispute.

There are advantages and disadvantages in gifted education. I think that the advantages of gifted education are that the gifted pupils can learn at a faster pace, taking in more things and can help the world and society in the nearby future with their knowledge. This could enhance the technology and medical research. The disadvantages are that the gifted pupils will tend to boast in front of their friends to show how smart they are, making their friends to be jealous of them and despise them. I think that the gifted pupils should help the mainstream pupils in their work so that they could learn too. The mainstream pupils should also take the boasting not seriously and use it as an encouragement to study hard as people have different learning speed. But I think that they should not criticise each other over this small matter. Gifted education is essential as it allows intellectually gifted pupils to have leadership and lead the nation towards a cohesive society.
Therefore, the advantages of gifted education are more than the disadvantages of it, making the gifted education good for the pupils.

Yours faithfully,
Yap Chong Sin