and if gep was merely going to be scraped, nationwide, because the new system at the four schools (the three original gep schools + chinese high) will provide the necessary stimulation and support structure for top students, i would merely mourn the gep, after 19 years, as an era ending, and accept that the new system will serve the same functions, essentially being the new gep with a different name. but what makes me absolutely furious is that only the original gep schools are closing, and the others, the second-stage ones (the thought of those still set my teeth on edge) are going to remain. you realise what this means for the gep. worse than dilution, but a massive step backward. no, not within the 3 schools. it's definitely true that, while gep traditionally consists of the top 1%, it really won't be much a matter of dilution since ri and rgs students are typically top 3%, and some of the brightest people i know weren't in gep. and afterall, in the last 2 or 3 years, gep had already expanded to more than that size nationwide, when schools like dunman and nanyang could offer classes (god i am still furious that they expanded, and i know there are many people who feel venomous about it) so whatever "dilution" there is has already taken place. besides, while i do see the expansion as a dilution, i also try very hard to remember that, well, our reaction has something to dow ith the fact that no one in an exclusive group ever likes expansion. not to mention that, when gep started, they were only taking the top half percent of students, but by the time we were in gep, they were accepting the top one percent, and people were saying then that that was a dilution, that we are the diluted lot. so no, the question of dilution alone isn't exactly why i'm furious. this is quite a different matter. it is quite obvious what will happen, especially now that students don't opt for secondary schools until after the release of psle results, people will have fewer qualms about opting for the top schools. the core group of students that would have been in gep would go into the new system and the students who would have been taken into gep under the expanded admission system will make up the ENTIRE of gep. that's not a dilution, that's worse than that. a new elite program is being created at the original gep schools, but without the name - in effect, the gep, insofar as it refers to the topmost students, will go on, and the gep, retaining its name as the gifted program of the nation, will take in inferior students for a outdated curriculum and environment, a corrupted program which will eventually become a mockery of its own prestige. my dad said i should now understand how the nanyang u people felt when nanyang u became ntu. they hate NTU, which is not the original nanyang u in any sense, furthermore lacking in prestige because of the appendaged T, but neither can they say NUS is their alma mater. a displaced lot. and i think this is what's going to happen to us.
but i am excited about the seachanges for the 7 schools involved. zaobao has a full page report with interviews, but i expect most people would prefer to read the straits times although it leaves out a lot that was in the zaobao report, like the end of gep. acs is scraping o levels totally, 6 year direct access to IB, refusing to take girls still, however. chinese high is scraping chinese o levels, understandable cos it's too easy for them anyway, and they can concentrate on a tougher course of chinese literary studies. ri and rgs are adding philosophy to the secondary curriculum, but we'll have to wait till tomorrow's press conference for the details of their curriculum change.
all this just makes me want to stay in singapore and join moe. except, dash it, if i was going to do that i should have taken psc. now who'd want a non-scholar?!?
but for today i'll mourn gep and go look for my gep tshirt.
my god. every one of you reading this should care, and go and get a copy of the zaobao if you read chinese, becos this covers all of us: ri, rgs and acs are no longer going to have gep. this comes with the new 6 year system in the 4 top independent schools and affiliated jcs. i am not exactly in shock, but i can hardly bear the idea - no more gep! that was our life! my best friends, my most important memories, the turning point in my school career - they are all tied to being in gep. i can't think about rgs without gep. remember the proposal that was floated when we were in lower sec? to have a separate gep school? i was v troubled then and i would still be now, i just don't see how i can decide between whether i wanted to be in raffles - i've wanted to be at no other school ever since i was 8 - or in the program which made so much difference. it was a happy coincidence that raffles was the gep school then. i cannot imagine being in a gep school and not a part of rgs, nor being in rgs but outside of that community of people who've grown so close - so many of whom are my best friends today. i'm not objecting on the grounds of education standards or anything like that. of course the new system is going to offer the best students as much in terms of challenges, so there is no fear of a common system being disadvantageous to quicker students; in fact, i think school will be much more challenging than ever before, and of course those who rise to the top naturally would be given even more opportunities than before. and the same people who would have gone to gep at those schools would continue going to the schools, just without the name, so it isn't the students or the school reputation i'm thinking about. what i can't bear about the end of gep is that there will no longer be a special community - it's not the same not being in the same program, being in the same class with the same people, that means so incredibly much.