Chapter 4: Gifted Education in Singapore

Singapore, a tiny, multicultural island nation of five million people in Southeast Asia, is recognized globally for its high-performing educational system. Education for gifted children has a long history in Singapore. Efforts in recent years have attempted to broaden and diversify talent development opportunities for more students across many domains. These provisions have their strengths and weaknesses. Strengths include the provision of high-ability grouping, challenging enrichment, well-resourced schools, and well-trained teachers. Weaknesses include little provision before grade 4, a strong reliance in the system overall on high stakes testing, and a weakly coordinated research effort. Specialized schools have been developed to address the needs of students with high potential in academic as well as nonacademic domains. All schools are supported to develop niche areas among a wide array of domains and to differentiate instruction in mainstream classrooms for high-ability students. Provisions for gifted or talented students do not end at the secondary level. Singapore universities have also developed differentiated programs and supports designed to meet the needs of high-ability students. Challenges to meeting the diverse needs of high-ability students across domains in the future include building teacher capacity nationally, increasing flexibility across streams, and maintaining quality in curriculum and instruction.