They are also not meant to introduce higher subject levels ahead of time, said the education minister, addressing the revamped gifted programme announced in August.
Currently, 1 per cent of the cohort is selected for the GEP, studying at one of the nine primary schools that offer the programme from Primary 4. Another 7 per cent of the cohort is part of the school-based programmes for higher-ability learners.It is timely to update Singapore’s approach on developing higher-ability learners, said Mr Chan.
With the new approach, students can exit the programme or modules at any time if they find themselves unsuitable or want to pursue other interests, said the education minister. “For all of us familiar with teaching and teaching pedagogies, we know that it is actually very tough to teach to the average, where you have a class of very diverse abilities from very high needs students to very high ability students,” he added.
Class size depends on the needs of the students, and “both ends of the spectrums” tend to have smaller class sizes, said Mr Chan in response.
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