Gifted Education Programme

Main article: Gifted Education Programme (Singapore)

The Gifted Education Programme (GEP) was set up by the Ministry of Education in 1984 to cater to the intellectually giftedstudents.^[22] This programme aims to develop gifted children to their top potential and it places a special emphasis on higher-order thinking and creative thought.^[23][24] There are currently 9 primary schools offering the Gifted Education Programme: Anglo-Chinese School (Primary), Catholic High School (Primary), Henry Park Primary School, Nan Hua Primary School, Nanyang Primary School,Rosyth School, Tao Nan School, St. Hilda's Primary School, and Raffles Girls' Primary School.^[25] The Secondary School Gifted Education Programme was discontinued at the end of 2008 as more students take the Integrated Programme (IP);^[26] this has been replaced by a "School-Based Gifted Education" programme.^[23]

Pupils enter the programme through a series of tests at Primary 3, which will identify the top 1 per cent of the student population.^[27][22]In the programme, pupils are offered special enrichment programmes to cater for their needs.^[27][28] However, GEP students are still required to take the national Primary School Leaving Examination like other mainstream students.^[27] Currently, GEP students are mixed with other non-mainstream students during classes to better facilitate integrate the two groups of students.^[28]

Some people have raised concerns that this programme would breed elitism in the education system, saying that this programme runs against Singapore's meritocratic principles.^[29] Some parents have also pressured their children to get into this programme,^[30] some spend large sums of money to enroll their children in tuition centres to prepare them for the GEP admission test.^[23]