Press Release

(Hong Kong – 28 January 2015) Teaching in accordance with the aptitudes of students is an important element in gifted education, given the uniqueness of every gifted learner. Because of their distinct thinking patterns and perceptions of the world, gifted students can hardly be recognised under the ordinary education system, and hence special education is needed to help them demonstrate their potential.

The Hong Kong Academy for Gifted Education (“HKAGE”) has planned to become an integrator and hub of gifted education this year by forming a close collaboration with other major providers of gifted programmes in HK to offer young gifted learners more courses and support. Apart from this, the affective development of gifted students is also a focus of the Academy, which provides the relevant programmes for parents and teachers besides students. This enables different stakeholders in gifted education to be appropriately catered for in the affective development of gifted students, allowing for a more comprehensive growth and development of the gifted youngsters.

The HKAGE has paid close attention to prospects for the development of gifted students. In order to understand the mental journeys of the gifted that have succeeded in early admission to university, the research division of the Academy has recently invited some of these students to share their experience.In Hong Kong, it is uncommon for young gifted learners to be early enrolled on university. They decided to choose this uncommon path only because their eagerness for knowledge was unable to be satisfied in the ordinary school curriculum. Although early admission to university has been widely recognised as one of the effective ways to nurturing gifted learners overseas, it has not become normality in the gifted education community of Hong Kong. Moreover, there is no guarantee that planning in advance will result in successful early admission. To succeed, the most important thing is that gifted students and their parents can reach a consensus. There may be a lot of doubts, such as whether the mentality of the youngsters has been mature enough and whether they have been well prepared for university life in going through this purpose. The role of the HKAGE is to give advice and provide assistance to deal with such problems.

Since the inception of the HKAGE, we have nurtured a large number of gifted students to achieve remarkable results in international competitions. Hong Kong will be the host city for the International Mathematical Olympiad (“IMO”) and the Asian Physics Olympiad in 2016. The Academy will provide the relevant training and send Hong Kong representatives to then compete in the Olympiads with their peers from all over the world, hoping that our student members can participate in academic exchanges in such elite contests. Prof SHUM Kar Ping, Chairman of IMO Hong Kong Committee, and Prof WONG Kwok Yee, Michael, Chairman of Hong Kong Physics Olympiad Committee, also attended the press meeting and shared their experience in and advice on international competitions.