'Genius children should be allowed to skip grades'

'Genius children should be allowed to skip grades'

JAKARTA (JP): Exceptionally gifted children should be allowed
to skip grades at school, an education expert said yesterday.

Wuryanto, the former rector of the state teachers' training
college IKIP in Semarang, said that this policy would allow
gifted children to advance according to their capabilities,
Antara reported.

The practice of allowing gifted children to skip grades was
recognized during the Dutch colonial era, and some schools
continued the practice after independence in 1945 and on into the
1950s and 1960s.

The practice was stopped when the emphasis of the country's
education policy shifted from striving for excellence to giving
access to education to everyone, he said.

Wuryanto, who is also a member of the House of
Representatives, argued that allowing gifted children to skip
grades is the best method of dealing with gifted children in the
absence of special schools to cater to their needs.

He doubted that the so-called superschools which are now being
established in Indonesia can address the problem because these
new schools, while they may boast academic excellence, are
intended more for wealthy children rather than gifted ones.

The government, he said, should establish clear policy
guidelines to schools on when they could allow certain children
to skip grades.

Criteria necessary to allow children to skip grades should
include intelligence and maturity. The latter is essential
because children who skip grades will be joining older ones, he
said.

Wuryanto said so far, he can only find one school that truly
caters for specially gifted children, the Taruna Nusantara senior
high school in Magelang, Central Java.

Under the supervision of the Armed Forces, the school, which
charges no tuition fees, combines academic excellence with strict
military discipline.

Taruna Nusantara produces graduates whose qualities are
excellent, he said. (emb)