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China Focus: China debates special education for gifted children

Xinhua, June 9, 2015 Adjust font size:

For over 30 years, a Beijing high school has identified gifted students and placed them in express classes so that they can sit "gaokao" (national college entrance exam) when they are around 14 years old.

Despite much criticism, every year Beijing No. 8 High School selects around 30 students from thousands of 10-year-olds. They must pass IQ, knowledge and personality tests to be accepted onto the four year course, during which they will follow the same curriculum that their peers take from grades five to 12. More than 670 students have been admitted to the fast-track program since it began in 1985.

"Most achieve high gaokao scores, and many go on to take masters degrees by the time they are 20 years old," school president Wang Juncheng said.

Of the class of 1985, 19 are now involved in research, nine are professors and five are in professions such as medicine, according to Wang.

During a first-year class students read a classic text aloud. The students lead the class at their own pace, teacher Wang Li only intervenes if the students fail to solve the problems themselves. The class differs from the traditional style of instruction, where the teacher explains the meaning of the text sentence by sentence.

When asked whether the classes rush gifted students and deprive them of in-depth knowledge, Wang said: "The students are quick learners and they cope very well at this pace. For this kind of children, ordinary classes can be boring and detrimental to their enthusiasm."

Despite the success of the program, not everyone is a fan of accelerated education. A user on news portal sohu.com lambasted gifted classes for being counter to educational equality, as superior resources are assigned to gifted students.

Wang Juncheng said that treating students equally does not mean treating them all the same. "Forcing every student to learn the same things at the same pace may seem like equality to some, but it is unfair to exceptional students," he said.

Real educational equality offers each child the opportunity to reach their full potential, he said. Endi