Is GEP really necessary?

[2ppaamm]

Tempted to share another case. This one is the opposite. At P5, he became strange and refused to go to school. For the whole year, he attended only Term 1. He missed terms 2, 3 and not sure if he also missed term 4. This one gets to stay in GEP. :? No problem = stay. Problem = go?

[jtoh]

GEP is not a guaranteed passport to an elite education. There have been cases of students ending up in neighbourhood secondary schools. Also those who have not had their GEP status renewed and hence are not awarded EESIS.


It is true though that there’s an unhealthy frenzy by parents to get into GEP thinking that it’s a guaranteed pathway to success in life. There was even a post by a forummer who thought being a GEPper guaranteed the student Officer status in the Army and a good career. It is this mistaken belief or kiasuism that’s led to a flourishing of GEP preparatory centres.

GEP isn’t a guaranteed path to success. Neither is not getting into GEP a guaranteed path to failure or mediocracy. If you are good in your studies, you will still get a place in a top school and you will still get your EESIS scholarship. This student will not be any worse off nor better off than a GEPper.

[2ppaamm]

Mawar:

Is GEP really necessary?

If it's designed to cater to kids with special needs, yes.
If the intention is to groom leaders or specialists in a developing country to raise the quality of the human resource, yes. But Singapore has progressed beyond this need.

Unfortunately, the GEP is used as a guaranteed passport to an elite education. This is the grand prize that pushes all parents to overdrive.

So much is invested in so few, and these few are given the best tools and resources. And at the end of P6, the same students fight an unfair placement fight with the GEPpers given an almost confirmed DSA. The leftover places in coveted secondary schools forces parents to a feeding frenzy.

I like the cater to kids with special needs part. I think that's what I think should be it, too! As it is, those who survive the GEP will survive anywhere and are great achievers with or without GEP. Let's land help to those who need it most. Those with special needs and learning disabilities but clearly bright intellectually and cannot fit in. That way, we nurture more capable folks into the work force and possibly lead in many areas as well.

[2ppaamm]

verykiasu2010:

2ppaamm:

Plus a scholarship for the rest of your secondary school years, plus all the benefits you get, plus the cohort you mix with, plus the branding. Sure is the rest of your life for some poor families who cannot afford this kind of education.

O, plus better DSA chance into a good sec school.

Imagine a child gifted in English ONLY from a poor family. He will have no opportunities to go to a good sec school, deprived of a GEP class he deserves. I have one such case. Fortunately, he was identified in 1996 (P4). He could not afford an IP education without that GEP scholarship. Imagine, this same person nearly had no tertiary education. And, guess what. He is gifted, so gifted in humanities and write so well that he is rare...

IP only started in year 2004, and EESIS is not restricted to GEP only

Ok, not IP school. School which school fees was $200+ then. Independent school?

I'll share a little about what he said.

He told me he felt out of place all these years in GEP because he was gifted in Humanities and not Science and Math. It exasperated the teachers, he could not cope at all with those subjects. But wow, his humanities was like really fantastic. So his teachers had wanted him to drop out of GEP at secondary school because of his science /maths subjects. However, he comes from a very poor family, and if they were to remove him from GEP, he would have to go to a neighbourhood school, because the school fees in his school was $200+, and his family could not afford that. So his teachers help him stay in GEP until Sec 4.

This student then went and signed on with SAF after A levels. He returned to school after his contract to finish his tertiary education after he earned enough to put himself through university.

As true as it can get. Anything else to pick?

In today's world, he will have no chance of GEP, go to an independent school, but making it to uni? Maybe, if he did not go astray.

[autumnbronze]

Hello,


Just managed to skim through the posts here.

May I know what does EESIS stand for??

Thanks in advance

[2ppaamm]

autumnbronze:

Hello,


Just managed to skim through the posts here.

May I know what does EESIS stand for??

Thanks in advance

http://www.abbreviations.com/EEIS End-to-end Information System or Engineering and Evaluation and Investigation Services :evil:

Or, someone else will put up the full name of this scholarship.

Hm... good idea. Everyone should be on the same criteria before they get their scholarship, GEP or not. I think that is good. Do you think this will be fair? How come GEPers have a different set of criteria for EEIS as of today? Might as well don't do PSLE.
http://www.moe.gov.sg/initiatives/edusave/funds-grants-awards/eesis/

[simple2005]

2ppaamm:

verykiasu2010:

[quote=\"2ppaamm\"]


Plus a scholarship for the rest of your secondary school years, plus all the benefits you get, plus the cohort you mix with, plus the branding. Sure is the rest of your life for some poor families who cannot afford this kind of education.

O, plus better DSA chance into a good sec school.

Imagine a child gifted in English ONLY from a poor family. He will have no opportunities to go to a good sec school, deprived of a GEP class he deserves. I have one such case. Fortunately, he was identified in 1996 (P4). He could not afford an IP education without that GEP scholarship. Imagine, this same person nearly had no tertiary education. And, guess what. He is gifted, so gifted in humanities and write so well that he is rare...

IP only started in year 2004, and EESIS is not restricted to GEP only

Ok, not IP schol. School which school fees was $200+ then. Independent school?

I'll share a little about what he said.

He told me he felt out of place all these years in GEP because he was gifted in Humanities and not Science and Math. It exasperated the teachers, he could not cope at all with those subjects. But wow, his humanities was like really fantastic. So his teachers had wanted him to drop out of GEP at secondary school because of his science /maths subjects. However, he comes from a very poor family, and if they were to remove him from GEP, he would have to go to a neighbourhood school, because the school fees in his school was $200+, and his family could not afford that. So he remained in GEP until Sec 4.

This student then went and signed on with SAF after A levels. He returned to school after his contract to finish his tertiary education after he earned enough to put himself through university.

As true as it can get. [/quote]I know of a somewhat similar case.

In your case written here, the teachers wanted him to drop out, but he had a choice to decide that he didn't want to drop out and continue with the GEP program? So I reckon that the GEP program allowed him the choice, or did the review committee decided he was worth the effort to be kept in based on his ability in humanities subjects.

Cheers.

[2ppaamm]

simple2005:

I know of a somewhat similar case.

In your case written here, the teachers wanted him to drop out, but he had a choice to decide that he didn't want to drop out and continue with the GEP program? So I reckon that the GEP program allowed him the choice, or did the review committee decided he was worth the effort to be kept in based on his ability in humanities subjects.

Cheers.

He had no choice. Have a thought about this boy (now adult). He is from a poor family, parents illiterate. He was fairing badly in Maths/Science, he was very matured, but he was completely lost in those subjects. He felt GEP is too Science/Math-geared. So he was lonely and lost. Fortunately, they considered his family background and put him back into the program. I shudder to think what would have happened otherwise. You should see him today. What a fine young man. He writes better than many Singaporean Professors, no kidding!

I spoke to some GEP teachers in those era, and they shared how difficult it was to help such cases. They are so humanities-geared, or so gifted in one area, it is almost impossible to teach them maths at all! These teachers face the consequence of poor O levels results (principals will downgrade them), so they put pressure on these kids. Just so crazy... the same old KPI thingy...

So these days, to make things easy, just choose students who are good at both English and Math, and leave these gifted ones behind. Leave those who are more gifted in either behind... What a pity... what a pity...
And, remember, that's one of the reasons why I believe many GEP kids these days are not 'gifted' in that sense, but more high ability or prep'd children. They do take up places that would have gone to these gifted kids. Sorry GEP parents, I am just being very frank here.

[Mawar]

In life's nothing's guaranteed but a leg up goes a long way.


I have nothing against the GEP program. I think most of the GEPpers are smart but I also believe few of them are truly gifted. :siam: :siam: That's why I wrote earlier that to a certain degree, it is the luck of the draw.

I encouraged my own kids to go for the tests. The reason is the leg up to the secondary school of their choice. They are strong students, and I can confidently say that given the chance, they would do as well as the next GEPper. They did not go for special coaching nor do they have tuition. But they, like many other high ability students, will face an unfair competition at the end of P6. More than half of the DSA places will be offered to GEPpers who might present a lower score than them.

If we take away the DSA advantage, would the feeding frenzy cease? I think so. Then more parents will think twice. They will view the GEP as an alternative pedagogy to meet their kids' learning needs rather than an elite path to success.

I say let the kids fightly fairly and win squarely based on PSLE scores.

[2ppaamm]

Mawar:

In life's nothing's guaranteed but a leg up goes a long way.


I have nothing against the GEP program. I think most of the GEPpers are smart but I also believe few of them are truly gifted. :siam: :siam: That's why I wrote earlier that to a certain degree, it is the luck of the draw.

I encouraged my own kids to go for the tests. The reason is the leg up to the secondary school of their choice. They are strong students, and I can confidently say that given the chance, they would do as well as the next GEPper. They did not go for special coaching nor do they have tuition. But they, like many other high ability students, will face an unfair competition at the end of P6. More than half of the DSA places will be offered to GEPpers who might present a lower score than them.

If we take away the DSA advantage, would the feeding frenzy cease? I think so. Then more parents will think twice. They will view the GEP as an alternative pedagogy to meet their kids' learning needs rather than an elite path to success.

I say let the kids fightly fairly and win squarely based on PSLE scores.

Hahaha... I don't even think we should have PSLE but that's another topic.
But I have to agree. Being able to do a test well once cannot be used to determine the future of 9 year olds, or 12 year olds for that matter. Times have changed, the sophistication of parents have changed, the society has changed, but the system is still there, after almost 30 years.