GEP

Having been a happy participant of the Gifted Education Programme from the years 2004 to 2006, I distinctly remember the day, not long after my PSLE (if I remember right), when it was announced in the newspapers that the GE programme was to be phased out in secondary schools. I also remember that the article termed the GEP as a sacred cow, and its title was something along the lines of "Slaughtering the Sacred Cow". But really, I do not think that the GEP deserves such harsh criticism.

The mission of the GEP is to "provide leadership in the education of the intellectually gifted". I would think that it is not fair to say that the GEP has done fairly well in this respect, by providing students with various opportunities for continuous development, such as projects and the like. They have done well in providing the necessary tools for improvement.

Do note that I have used the word "providing". Whether or not the student takes advantage of the gifts bestowed upon them is entirely up to the student himself or herself. The teacher may prod, guide and attempt to enlighten, but in the end it is really the student that is making the decisions. If a student is on the wrong path and stubbornly refuses to change, no matter how amazing the educational facilities provided are, nothing much can rescue the student from the dire situation brought onto himself or herself short of divine intervention. Just like how the distribution of data should not be judged by its outliers, likewise simply because not everyone in the GEP does well means that it is a failure; it would take much more than that to prove such a strong assertion.

Not everyone in the GEP is able to succeed, but neither is the GEP out to create erudite polymaths; everyone has their own flaws and foibles, so how is it even reasonable?

With this rather dreadful misconception that GEP students ought to be perfect, comes the impression that GEP students are snobby, aloof, nerds who do nothing else but nerd about, elites who couldn't give a damn about everyone else. This is merely another instance of the GEP being victim to a blanket assertion, just like how the mainstream pupils are victims to the assertion of them being uncouth and disadvantaged intellectually when compared to the GEP.

It would be nice to say that since both assertions are sweeping generalisations and hence must be totally false. Alas, the irony is that that would be a generalisation in itself.

Alexander Dumas once quipped "All generalizations are dangerous, including this one". Yes, while some GEP and non-GEP students may fit their rather unappealing stereotypes, it would be a grave error to extend this impression to everyone else. It would be unfair to judge all the students in the programme based just on the few which leave bad impressions.

In short, lets all forget all of these unfair accusations and lets all be nicer to each other, ok? :)