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Frequently asked questions

GEP is changing: should it still shape your P1 school choice?

MOE states that from 2027 the GEP in its current form will be discontinued; until then, the existing arrangement - identification through a two-stage process at Primary 3 - continues. MOE's page states that existing GEP classes continue until 2028, when the last batch completes Primary 6, and directs families to its COS microsite for details of the replacement - school-based provisions and centre-based advanced modules for primary students with academic strengths and talents.

Context

For decades the Gifted Education Programme (GEP) identified pupils at Primary 3 and moved them into a small set of schools, which made it a quiet factor in some families' P1 choices.

What this means for your family

For a family registering at P1 now, the practical conclusion is simple: do not pick a primary school as a bet on GEP placement. The child entering P1 in the coming years will meet the refreshed arrangement, not the old one, and its shape is not yet published. This also defuses a familiar sales pitch - preparation courses aimed at the P3 screening are marketing toward a test whose future form is unannounced. If your child turns out to be ready for more, the published direction is toward supporting higher-ability learners more broadly at primary level; the right P1 move is the same as it always was - a school whose daily environment fits the child, chosen on things you can verify today.

Steps you can take now

  1. Take GEP placement out of your P1 shortlist reasoning entirely - the current form ends from 2027 and its successor is unpublished.
  2. Be skeptical of any course or consultant selling preparation for the old P3 screening to a child entering P1 now.
  3. If you want to track this, read MOE's own pages - the gifted-education page and the COS microsite it links to - rather than forum speculation about the successor arrangement.
  4. Choose the school on what is checkable now: environment, commute, care arrangements, MTL fit.

How to know you’re done

Your shortlist reasoning contains no assumptions about GEP, and you know where the official details of the refreshed approach will appear when published.

Sources and check dates

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