Singapore’s education culture has to change alongside gifted programme revamp: experts

While more policy revamps and cultural shifts are needed, observers note mindset change among parents will also take time

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Pupils leave school after class in Singapore. The education ministry has tried to make the system fairer and less stressful for students, experts say. Photo: Xinhua

Published: 12:00pm, 26 Aug 2024

In his first National Day Rally speech as prime minister, Lawrence Wong announced that a sacred cow of Singapore’s school system, the gifted education programme (GEP), would cease to exist in its current form.

Instead, high-ability programmes would be offered in all schools to more students who could also be selected for these initiatives at multiple junctures between Primary 4 and Primary 6, the education ministry said on Monday.

Pedagogy experts This Week in Asia spoke to said while the move was in line with the ministry’s bid to make “every school a good school”, more policy revamps and cultural shifts would be needed to make education more equitable and less stressful on students. This would be challenging since some policies have competing objectives, they added.

Introduced in 1984, GEP tested Primary 3 students, typically nine years old, to see if they were cognitively “gifted”. Currently, the top 1 per cent of students get into the programme which is only available at nine schools, meaning that some students who qualify have to switch schools.

Singapore Prime Minister Lawrence Wong delivers his National Day Rally address on August 18. Photo: EPA-EFE / Singapore’s Ministry of Digital Development and Information

Wong acknowledged during last week’s rally that not everyone was convinced by the slogan that “every school is a good school”. Referring to the schools in his neighbourhood that he attended, he said: “And I think I turned out OK.”