1. Gifted Education in Vietnam and ASEAN
- The need of regional cooperation in
research and practice.
Sydney, November 2011.
By Minh Kim
University of New South Wales, Australia
Email: minh.kim@student.unsw.edu.au
Website: www.1vietnamedu.com

2. Short introduction.
Kindergarten’s Founder and
Administrator (Hanoi,
Vietnam)
Graduate Student in Gifted
Education (UNSW, Australia)
A pull-out program
coordinator for gifted kids
at maths (Hanoi, Vietnam)

3. ASEAN – Where are we?
ASEAN: Association of South East Asian Nations.
(Source: http://asiapacific.anu.edu.au/newmandala/2010/06/27/10061/)

4. ASEAN – Who are we?
• Total population: 590.844 (million) - 8.8% of
the world population
• Total land area : 4,435,670 (km²) - 3% of the
total land area of Earth
• GDP (2010): US$1.8 trillion. If ASEAN was a
single entity, it would rank as the 9th largest
economy in the world.
(Source: http://www.asean.org/stat/SummaryTable.pdf and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASEAN#cite_note-8 )

5. ASEAN education – An overview
• Total of the Region students (K-Universities): Appro. 123 million
students.
• Schools (K-12): Appro. 460,000 schools and 5,243,000
teachers.
• Budget for Education: Appro. USD 24 Billion.
(Source: http://www.seameo.org/images/stories/SEAMEO_General/SEAMEO_Statistics/Education_Histogram/ED_Histogram.htm )

6. Gifted Education in ASEAN
•Policies
•Practices
•Cooperation

7. Gifted Education Policies in ASEAN
Gifted Education is under the umbrella of Special
Education (including education for disabled
students) or stand –alone. Malaysia: I could not
find strong evidence of Malaysia’s position.

8. Gifted Education Policies in ASEAN
• All countries commit supporting gifted and/or
talented students in the Education Laws,
Strategies, Policies.
• Official Bureau/Branch/Centre/Unit (in Ministry
of Education) to cater for gifted education:
Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar,
Philippines, Singapore, Thailand.
(In Cambodia, Malaysia there is no clear evidence for this. Vietnam
doesn’t have this official Unit. There is only stand-alone Gifted
Education Branch in Singapore, the other official units in above list
take care of both education for disabled and gifted students.)

9. Gifted Education Policies in ASEAN
• State-supported gifted schools, some examples:
Philippines: Manila Science High School ;The Philippine Science High School (1 Main
Campus and 10 regional campuses)
Singapore: 9 primary GEP (Gifted Education Programme) centres; 7 IP (Integrated
Programme) secondary schools that offer School-Based Gifted Education (SBGE)
Indonesia: 162 schools (most of them are Schools of Excellence) which had
implemented acceleration programs from several provinces in Indonesia.
Malaysia: 49 MARA Junior Science Colleges and 61 Fully Residential Schools (Sekolah
Berasrama Penuh)
Laos: School for Gifted and Ethnic Students, National University of Laos (NUoL).
Thailand: 26 Special Schools for Gifted Persons that were set up. (The other 150 of
both public and private schools provide other-type Programs for gifted student).
Brunei Darussalam: Paduka Seri Begawan Sultan Science College, Rimba Secondary
School.

10. Gifted Education Policies in ASEAN
Vietnam: 76 selective upper secondary schools nation wide, including
9 gifted “schools within schools” in the universities and other models.
•Currently, Vietnam plans to spend VND 2.31 trillion (USD 118.6
million) towards the development of its gifted high schools (upper
secondary schools) system:
•Specifically, about VND 624 billion (USD 32 million) will be spent on
professional development.
•By 2020 each city or province will have at least one gifted high school.
The number of students who attend gifted high schools in a city or
province accounts for about two precent of the total number of high
school students in that area.
•The country also has set a goal that by 2015, all gifted high schools
across Vietnam will reach a national standard.

11. Gifted Education Practices in ASEAN
• Malaysia: PERMATApintar Gifted student Centre offers
four programs namely a Talent Search and Management,
School Holiday Program,PERMATApintar Education
Program and ASASI Pre-University Program.
• Philippines: Philippine Science High School Foundation -To
maintain educational excellence by bridging the gap
between available government funds and the actual
financial requirements needed by the school.
• Singapore: The ASEAN Scholarships aim to provide
opportunities to the young people of ASEAN to develop
their potential and equip them with skills that will enable
them to confidently step into the new millennium.
Students who are ASEAN nationals (except Singaporeans)
can apply for the scholarships.

12. Gifted Education Practices in ASEAN
• Vietnam:
 FPT Young Talent Centre (FYT for short) has attracted and nurtured
soft skills and social knowledge for more than 220 members, including
100 excellent students with International Science Olympiad medals
and 185 with national talent contest prizes.
 Institute of Potential Leaders (IPL): Selects Vietnam’s brightest and
most aspiring young people and provides them with rigorous, cutting-edge,
international business training programs, increasing the supply
of talented leaders in Vietnam’s business community.
 Viet’s Intellects Club: A weekend pull-out class for nurturing young
gifted in Maths (12-13 years old).
• Centres/ Associations for giftedness/gifted education/gifted and
talented: Vietnam, Thailand, Philippines, Malaysia, etc.

13. Regional Cooperation Models
• The International Student Science Fair (In Thailand -2011):
ISSF is open to students between the ages of 15-18 and has
so far travelled from Thailand to Korea, India, Japan,
Singapore, and Australia.
• ASEAN+3 (China, Japan and South Korea) Centre for the
Gifted in Science (ACGS – in Korea)
• Asian Gifted Student’s Fair (in Malaysia): Exposing
students to application of physics in the process of making
radio controlled aeroplane. Promote cross-cultural
communication and educational exchange.
• Asia-Pacific Federation on Giftedness - a non-profit
organization for the development and education of gifted
and talented children in Asia-Pacific region.

14. The way ahead
• Cebu Declaration on the Acceleration of the
Establishment of an ASEAN Community by
2015.
• Therefore, it is time for ASEAN gifted
education community to set up the regional
cooperation models holistically.

15. Some pioneer models to consider
• Regional Movement: European TalentDay
(Hungary 2011): -> ASEAN TalentDay (or
Week)
– Talent Day
– Talent Fair
– Conference
– Performances
– Roundtable discussion
– Declaration.

16. Some pioneer models to consider
• A research and application centre in a leading University:
GERRIC: Gifted Education Research, Resource and
Information Centre ( University of New South Wales -
Australia) -> ASEAN giftedness research and application
centre.
– Research and support graduate students in the field
– Advising for the state and nationwide policies/professional
development.
– School holiday programs of enrichment and extension.
– Weekend courses for parents of gifted students.
– An internationally recognised Certificate of Gifted
Education program for teachers.

17. Some pioneer models to consider
• An interstate Association: NAGC: National
Association for Gifted Children (US) -> ASEAN
Federation/Association of Giftedness and
Talent.
– Setting standards
– Building networks
– Advocacy and Legislation
– Research and Development
– Raising funds/foundations.

18. Thank you!
www.1vietnamedu.com
Kimkimvn on Twitter
minhkn@gmail.com