I was in the pioneering batch of GEP during my time. It was definitely an interesting social experiment. I was the only person ever to get into GEP from my school (which doesn’t exist anymore – Lee Kuo Chuan Pri). My parents were very enlightened – they let a 9 year old decide if he wanted to go to Rosyth or not.

I decided to do it because I was bored out of my mind in school, I was always daydreaming in school because the materials in school then was not really challenging. I got scolded by teachers because I almost always did my maths without working because the answers seemed obvious then and sometimes I did things that got an answer which was not on the marking scheme. The teacher marked me wrong despite the answer – but i didn’t use the method taught.

It was a trying time in lower primary and ultimately that made me take up the offer to go to Rosyth. I enjoyed the very alternative learning that I received although it was a struggle because there were many other kids who had much better habits and worked a lot harder than I did.

I learnt that no matter how smart you think you are, hard work is just as important in many situations. Today, I wonder how many of the GEP kids are there because of ‘GEP prep classes’ and hothousing to train them to be GEP ready. I wonder if the goals of the program are really being met.