The Defence of GEP

I would like to address the recent controversy over the Gifted Education Programme (GEP) . I would like to show that the concerns of elitism, poor social skills in GEP students and lack of socialisation between the mainstream and GEP students are misguided and that the recent schemes to integrate the two to a greater extent in order to encourage socialisation create a bigger risk of balloning the problem instead of solving it.

Starting off, allow me to rebut the subject that " GEP = elitist". From the year that the Gifted Education was formed, there was always the problem of having elitist. But one black sheep in a herd of white sheep does not mean that the whole herd is black or either white. So in other words, you cannot blame the whole group as being elite and better than mainstreamers, or either not blame anyone as elitist when someone in the deserves to be scolded by giving a "I, me and myself" attitude.

Next to rebutt, GEP does not have poor social skills. Instead, it is the Mainstream which holds this problem. Quantity is not Quality. Mainstream has a higher tendency to stick out with bad friends as they get friends ever where they go. So they will just pick and choose like the Japanese chose anyhow in the Operation Sook Ching during the WWII. Instead GEP pupils, will see if this person is "good and beneficial" to the person choosing, like doing a spot-check.

There was a problem that GEP and Mainstream is just like oil and water, never blending in. But this is a biased opinion. GEP's size, compared to the Mainstream, is a big difference. So how on earth is GEP going to make friends with the whole Mainstream in 3 short years? (Yeah their very short.) They choose quality against quantity, that means to them each friend is very valuable to them. So how do you expect them to make friends with a large mass every day?

But if we combined the Mainstream and GEP, the problem will be balloned as you are adding more people to the elite, not making the group more ordinary, causing more people acting like Wee Shu Min. Even though you can enjoy your elite position, you cannot flaunt it in front of other peoples face to let them know that you have an advantage over them.