Hi, just happened to chance upon the site. Know of this learning centre at Clementi offering general ability course. It promotes the acquiring of such skills for self improvement so that at the higher levels our kids can cope with their tedious studies. Has a friend from Nanyang Pri who sends her kid there. She told me her son loves to attend the lesson. If not mistaken, should be The Learning Quotient http://www.learningq.com.sg. Have been wanting to send my son but he is quite packed. Probably later part of the year.

Hi wwcookie & EN,

Well he was crying about attending Math in class - sitting there, cannot move etc (he is in the top class of his level) - so the principal arranged for the school counsellor to talk to him. My son told the counsellor that he ranks school, especially Math, 4 out of 10. That’s when we decided to seek gep’s opinion and maybe recommend him for accelerated math (ie. let him attend P3 math class).

But the result was that he was ‘bright & should be given challenging work differentiated from his classmates. It will not help even if accelerated’ and therefore, no need for acceleration but just wait till P3’s gep test.

So sad. Don’t see any new learning for him in Math.

Hi All,

It’s interesting to following the different opinions each of us have regarding the education system in Singapore. My son was ‘recommended’ to take a test at the GEP dept in June this year. I took up the offer as he is always quite reluctant to go to school and he finds Math ‘very boring in class’. So I thought of taking the opportunity to see what GEP can recommend. In the end, it wants his class teacher to give him special worksheets to challenge him and then wait till he ‘gets into the gep programme’ as he is already quite accelerated (he’s a mensa member).

I am not as keen on the gep as much as I would like him to be learning and feeling happy at school for the next 4 years. He’s in a neighbourhood school and the challenge is so-so. I could do some comparisons as I was an ex-primary teacher. My question to gep dept was what if he does not get into the programme - does that mean that he will only be challenged ‘separately’ from his classmates? I am in the process of considering a transfer but being born in the year of the dragon, there are practically no vacancies everywhere, even another better neighbourhood school.

I am really in a loss as to what best to do so that he could be challenged appropriately together as a group with his friends. I quite agree with the newspaper article regarding identifying some bright kids earlier so that they can be put together to ‘enjoy their own pace of learning’.

cheers