All About GEP

[cafemug]

From the talk, if i didn’t hear wrongly, i was told that NYP has 2 gep classes for 2018. It was such a surprise. Is it a reflection of falling birth rate? Raised cut off percentage?

[Nebbermind]

cafemug:

From the talk, if i didn't hear wrongly, i was told that NYP has 2 gep classes for 2018. It was such a surprise. Is it a reflection of falling birth rate? Raised cut off percentage?

I remember they had as many as 4 classes not that long ago.
So now all the centres have 2 each?

[venus77]

Nebbermind:

cafemug:

From the talk, if i didn't hear wrongly, i was told that NYP has 2 gep classes for 2018. It was such a surprise. Is it a reflection of falling birth rate? Raised cut off percentage?

I remember they had as many as 4 classes not that long ago.
So now all the centres have 2 each?

HPPS has 1 class.

[Cattac]

Sad right. Parents using their kids as commodities pushing them to GEP for the sake of the label only.


In my opinions, I do not agree that GEP is a ticket for DSA.

However, if gifted education is only for primary school and no further provisions is made to help them further their academic gifts on secondary school. Would the 3 years GEP seemed like a half-baked program implented by the education ministry?

It is better to level up by including the high or v high abilities students in the GEP. But are we doing this group a disservice by not allowing them a chance to continue the rigorous education stimulations after p6?

Nonetheless, in any situation when there is some on top there is bound to be some at the bottom. Just thinking out loud, for the GEP cohort, those at the bottom can be anyone.

The high abilities are those who tend to thrive in almost all areas. Whereas, in general, giftedness is in specific areas.

[lee_yl]

sean wife:

I would say that out of the entire GEP cohort, probably less than 10% are real gifted in either maths or English…these are probably the ones who have no problems getting DSA into the top schools (which has SBGE) based on their exceptional ability in specific subjects. The rest of the children are what I consider to be high (or v high) ability and probably not that much different from the high ability kids in MS. So this group of children rightfully will need to contest with all the rest of the MS cohort for a place in the secondary school they would like to go to. No special considerations given.

I tend to agree and it was stated in MOE’s website that for every batch, majority is intellectually gifted and rarely do they get exceptionally gifted ones.

I think there’s only 1 exceptionally gifted girl in my DD’s class. She was one year younger than the rest of her peers as she skipped grade and took the test at 8yo and still managed to get selected into GEP. She was Champion for National Spelling Bee when she had to fight with the P6s (she’s P5 but only 9yo). And her compo has very mature themes like how her fictional Dad survive and returned from a civil war to give her grieved family a pleasant surprise. Except for English, the rest of her subjects, so so, maybe due to being 1 year younger...

[sean wife]

For this group of v high ability kids (regardless MS or GEP), hopefully they can still most likely enter the top IP school based on PSLE score. Just no special provisions given to GEP, because theoretically speaking, there is really no need to…And the IP education in secondary these days is probably even tougher and more demanding (my gut feel only…) than in the olden days when certain secondary schools had GEP classes. As for why number of GEP classes is shrinking continuously for a few consecutive years, some say birth rate has fallen…real reason no one knows for sure.

[Ruhemut]

My DS is a December baby. According to his birth certificate, he was the 37xxxth baby born in 2008. I feel 400 could be a reasonable number in GEP this year.

After the briefing, I am quite excited about the program. I have the feeling that the children will enjoy the program. They need more stimulation than other kids at the moment and the program will stretch their ability. However, it does not mean that they are alway smarter than the rest. Children do not grow at a fixed rate. In the future, other children may catch up or even overtake those who passed the test now. But right now, it is good for them. They will be exposed to more things, broadened knowledge, in depth thinking. Of course, I personally hope they do not have too much homework but more CCA or field trips. These are more valuable than exam marks. If you believe in your kids, they will also be able to do well in PSLE. Just have some faith in them.

[zac's mum]

I saw this from somebody’s blog, not sure accurate or not. For 2017 classes, the allocation per school was like this:


ACSP - 2
CHS - 2
HPPS - 1
Nan Hua - 2
Nanyang - 3
RGPS - 2
Rosyth - 3
St Hilda’s - 1
TNS - 3

If average 25 per class, that’s a total GEP cohort of 475.

So for 2018, if estimated 400 selected, perhaps Nanyang cutting from 3 to 2 classes is reflective of the falling birth rate. Any other school reducing by 1 class? Was it declared during the briefing? Since there’s 475-400=75 drop in numbers, maybe Rosyth and TNS will also reduce to 2 classes each?

[Ruhemut]

zac's mum:

I saw this from somebody's blog, not sure accurate or not. For 2017 classes, the allocation per school was like this:


ACSP - 2
CHS - 2
HPPS - 1
Nan Hua - 2
Nanyang - 3
RGPS - 2
Rosyth - 3
St Hilda's - 1
TNS - 3

If average 25 per class, that's a total GEP cohort of 475.

So for 2018, if estimated 400 selected, perhaps Nanyang cutting from 3 to 2 classes is reflective of the falling birth rate. Any other school reducing by 1 class? Was it declared during the briefing? Since there's 475-400=75 drop in numbers, maybe Rosyth and TNS will also reduce to 2 classes each?

Both Nanyang and Rosyth told me 2 classes. Last year Tao Nan has 2 classes.

[Happy70]

Ruhemut:

My DS is a December baby. According to his birth certificate, he was the 37xxxth baby born in 2008. I feel 400 could be a reasonable number in GEP this year.

After the briefing, I am quite excited about the program. I have the feeling that the children will enjoy the program. They need more stimulation than other kids at the moment and the program will stretch their ability. However, it does not mean that they are alway smarter than the rest. Children do not grow at a fixed rate. In the future, other children may catch up or even overtake those who passed the test now. But right now, it is good for them. They will be exposed to more things, broadened knowledge, in depth thinking. Of course, I personally hope they do not have too much homework but more CCA or field trips. These are more valuable than exam marks. If you believe in your kids, they will also be able to do well in PSLE. Just have some faith in them.

I hope all the parents and DC who are excited about the programme do join and enjoy it. My boys did.

It is true that being in the GEP does not translate into being among the top performers in the PSLE. My older son is living proof of that.

There are many things that kids lose marks for during the PSLE -- not using the proper key words in Science open-ended questions, not showing all necessary working or writing the word statements, forgetting to put down the units, transfer errors (the worst kind of mistake! but it happens). And MT -- some kids may be very strong in Eng, Math and Science, but have their T-scores pulled down by MT, which accounts for 25% of the T-score.

In my view, the PSLE tests not only for knowledge in 4 subjects (2 of which don't feature at all in the GEP screening and selection tests) but also meticulousness, diligence in adhering to certain rules and ability to perform with as few careless mistakes as possible. MS and GEP kids who can do all this will do well in the PSLE. GEP kids (who have certain abilities assessed on fixed but limited criteria) who don't might not do as well.

My older boy has learnt that being careless and playful and disregarding the \"rules\" that he does not agree with does not pay off where the PSLE is concerned. But no regrets; he has matured, become a better person and is doing very well now.

All the best to everyone's DC who are going to take the plunge into the GEP. It is a great programme, I feel.