20 October 2007
Independent School Fee Subsidies are based on merit
- We refer to the recent letters on the Gifted Education Programme (GEP).
- Parents have expressed concern over courses run by private schools to prepare students for the GEP tests. We have always advised parents not to place undue pressure on their children to study for the GEP tests, which are meant to identify children with innate intellectual ability.
- Giftedness cannot be trained and preparatory classes cannot enable a child to perform at a level beyond his capacity. Even if a child gains admission into the GEP through intensive coaching, he may not be able to cope with the programme's demands which may result in unnecessary stress and an eventual loss of self-confidence. We hope parents would realise that by sending children for such classes, more harm than good could result.
- In her letter “Why parents push their children into GEP” (ST Forum, 16/10), Mdm Vicky Chong suggested that parents want their children to enter the GEP because students qualify automatically for subsidised school fees in Independent Schools unlike non-GEP students. This is not the case. The Edusave Entrance Scholarships for Independent Schools is given to the top one-third of the Independent Schools' student intake, and the majority of GEP students being in this group qualify for subsidised school fees.
- We would also like to highlight that GEP students do not gain automatic promotion to secondary level. They have to meet stringent criteria set by the Gifted Education Branch, failing which they would not qualify for subsidised school fees in Independent Schools.
Sum Chee Wah (Ms)
Director, Education Programmes Division
Ministry of Education
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