Hi Anton

I believe there is no right or wrong answer. It depends on you, the parent.

We had our younger child tested because she was so different. To us the test result was to help us be better parents. To understand if our child was just street smart or need extra stimulation to remain appropriately challenged. Without early testing, gifted children will go unnoticed. I believe the GEP test will not identify all the gifted kids and many will “fall through the cracks”.

I know of 4 kids (in upper Primary and lower Secondary now) who I believe are gifted but was never selected for GEP. They cleared round 1 but not round 2. They do not fit the high achiever profile (i.e. study or get hot-schooled) and their parents did not send them for test either. Rather their parents down play their children’s abilities.

Child A – Photographic memory, really amazing.
Child B – No tuition, parents did not hot school her and she gets 90s in all subjects from P1 through P6. T-Score in PSLE was 262.
Child C & D – Broken home and challenged financially. Read story books or falls asleep in classes, can’t afford tuition, yet get results in the 80 marks range.

I will like to believe if they were tested and results made known to MOE, their studies might have taken a different path.

Kind regards