gifted student exams are 'illegal and ridiculous', MOE claims The Ministry of Education emphasized on Thursday that the joint examination for selecting "gifted sixth-grade students" held by local governments in central Taiwan last Saturday is "invalid," urging these local governments to suspend such examinations and to select gifted students in accordance with the appropriate laws. Last Saturday, over 20,000 sixth-grade elementary school students, participated in the joint examination sponsored by Taichung County Government, Taichung City Government, Changhua County Government and Nantou County Government. Chou Tsan-der (周燦德), deputy minister of the MOE, said that even though local governments have the power to hold such examinations, they are "not entitled" to use the exams as a gauge of which students are "gifted" and form special classes for them, because the way in which the exams evaluate the students violates the Special Education Act and related laws. However, despite the MOE's contentions, elementary and primary education are, under current laws, controlled by local governments. The local governments of Nantou County and Changhua County, which have stressed the legality of the tests, have dealt the MOE a slap in the face by announcing their decision to continue such exams as scheduled, with a second being held on Saturday. The National Alliance of Parents Organization and the National Teachers' Association criticized the exam for trying to "establish classes of gifted students based purely on test results." The groups claimed that pushing students to pursue high scores distorted the "true spirit of education" for genuinely gifted students. The National Teachers' Association urged the MOE to put a stop to this way of thinking, warning that elementary school students would end up spending all their spare time in cram schools in order to be accepted into classes for gifted students later in their academic lives. Speaking at the Legislative Yuan on Thursday, Education minister Tu Cheng-sheng (杜正勝) explained why the exams violated laws stipulating how a child should be identified as gifted and their ensuing placement in special classes. Tu stressed that, under current laws, the identification and placement of gifted students should be implemented by a professional committee, a principle to which he claimed the local governments in question had not adhered. Moreover, the laws state that before children can be identified as gifted students, they must take a range of tests and be recommended by teachers, parents or experts who must provide information corroborating claims regarding the children's ability. Also, gifted students should first be "found" by schools and then introduced to appropriate special education classes, or have such classes set up for them. Not only did the joint examination decide which students were gifted through a written test, the schools concerned established special classes before the students were "identified," the MOE said. Chou also pointed out what he called a "ridiculous aspect" of the system, namely that students were required to pass tests of language ability, and math or science to gain entry into classes for talented art students. A clearly upset Yang Hsiu-pi, vice president of the NTA, stressed that the welfare of the children should be the priority, noting that gifted children face unbelievable pressures. "I've found that many children who study in gifted class have to study until 2 a.m." said Yang. These children are required to do well across the board, but a talented student is not necessarily good at every subject, she pointed out. "I really do not want to see any more gifted children commit suicide," said a tearful Yang. However, according to local media, many parents and students who participated in the exam, or who have been preparing for such exams, were disappointed with the MOE's announcement that the exam is illegitimate and by its request that the exams be suspended. The parents of one student surnamed Huang noted that they have spent over NT$100,000 on cram school fees in a bid to help their daughter pass the exam and gain entry into a special class for gifted children. One student surnamed Sun said she was devastated that she had studied so hard for the exam, and that her effort now appeared to be in vain. However, Tu responded by insisting that the "genius" of what he called "genuinely gifted" children was "innate" and that no one could become "gifted" just by attending classes at school. Source:Taiwan News(2006/05/19 13:44:20) URL:http://www.etaiwannews.com/etn/news_content.php?id=104110&lang =eng_news&cate_img=49.jpg&cate_rss=news_Society ※ 編輯: zmcse 來自: 59.115.130.97 (05/21 13:17)