Whiz kid
Posted by DAVID BC TAN under: Special Needs on 22 Dec 2005.
Adi Putra Abdul Ghani, a six-year-old mathematics prodigy from Perak is drawing attention from government types. Minister of Education Datuk Seri Hishammuddin is impressed. “He sat on my chair just now. He looked so comfortable there that I started to worry that I may lose my job to this brainy boy,” joked the Minister.
The boy’s father Abdul Ghani Abdul Wahid is a Tenaga Nasional Berhad officer while mother Seri Hana Ilias teaches English in a school. News reports said Adi who was taught at home (he was never enrolled in a kindergarten is what they mean) surprised everyone with his grasp of algebra, trigonometry and indices. Meanwhile the Terengganu State government announced that it was adopting Adi, and that educational expenses and training programme of the math genius would be borne by the State government.
But what caught my eye was what Hishamuddin said next.
According to Hishammuddin the ministry was looking into ways to promote a more flexible education system which could be equally accessed by all students regardless of their social backgrounds. “We don’t want to see any students in rural areas, who are poor, handicapped or smart like Adi Putra, to be marginalised or deprived of access to education,” he said.
Although I suspect homeschooling was not on the minister’s mind when he talked about a flexible education system, wouldn’t it be great if the MOE start looking at it as an option – and not just for rural kids?
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