Some parents might be overjoyed to learn that their child had been selected for the Gifted Education Programme (GEP). But not Ms Pamela Liu. Her problems with GEP began a year after her son was enrolled there.
In a lengthy Facebook post written on Thursday (26 Jul), Ms Liu details her son’s experience with the programme, as well as his perilous journey to a degree.
This week, 18-year-old Sean graduated from The University of Queensland (UQ) with a BSc in Computer Science. Admittedly, Sean’s degree might just be a piece of paper. But to Ms Liu, “it’s a paper full of sweat, tears and stories.”
Sean’s problems began just a year into his GEP experience, writes Ms Liu.
We were told we had to withdraw him from the programme because they didn’t want him after spending a year there. Instead, they wanted to put him into a school for special needs children.
This went against the advice of a psychologist, who felt that the special needs school environment was not right for Sean. The school’s response to this was to apparently isolate Sean from the rest of the school.
They would put him in the principal’s office … ‘What if you allow him to take PE and recess with his peers?’ I asked. It was a straight no.
I couldn’t send my son to school to sit in the principal’s office all day long, he would never understand why he was not allowed to mingle with his friends. So I took him home.
In search of a solution, Ms Liu took Sean and 3 other children to Australia. The older 2 attended university there, while Ms Liu homeschooled her younger 2, including Sean.
(Sean) was 10, and we moved quickly from Year 4 work to Year 12 work. All within six months. He was attentive and a quick learner. He even won some medals for his SAT exams for being a top scorer. Jo moved from Year 8 to Year 12 in that time period too.
Just a year after starting homeschool, 11-year-old Sean enrolled in UQ, becoming the institution’s youngest ever attendee. Given his age, Ms Liu had to attend all of his classes with her son.
The experience was exhausting, to say the least. Ms Liu describes 40 hours of lessons a week, in addition to her other parenting responsibilities. No word on where her husband was at this time but Ms Liu claims that she had to do it all by herself.
Things hit a snag when Sean began to fail his subjects and confided in his mother that he missed having peers his own age.
Instead of going all Tiger Mum on him, Ms Liu listened to his concerns and enrolled him in high school again.
Things turned around for Ms Liu and Sean when he re-entered university, aged 16. Or at least they seemed to.
A few months into his programme, he was diagnosed with narcolepsy, a serious sleep disorder. But the university was extremely accommodating of his condition and made some provisions for him to continue school.
Just one year later, Sean graduated with his hard-fought degree.
Ms Liu never explains why Sean had difficulties in Singapore, so it’s hard to criticise either the Ministry of Education (MOE) or his school for its handling of the situation. But as she points out, that’s not the point of her post at all.
As Sean’s greatest cheerleader, she wanted to celebrate his achievement – and celebrate she deserves to.
Homeschooling isn’t too common in Singapore, with about only 50 students doing it every cohort. But it is legal; parents just have to seek permission from the MOE first. Homeschooled students can’t run away from the PSLE either, which they must sit for.
But officially, MOE appears to discourage the practice. A spokesman told The Straits Times,
MOE would like all Singaporean children to attend our mainstream schools to acquire a common set of core values, knowledge and skills, interact and learn with fellow students, and grow up together so as to forge a common national identity and engender social cohesion.
If anything, Sean’s story highlights homeschool as a viable alternative to our own education system. Congratulations, Sean and Ms Liu. You’ve earned this one.
Featured image from Pamela Liu’s Facebook.
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