Tuesday April 14, 2009
Get more children to take online IQ test, says Rosmah
PETALING JAYA: State education departments have been roped in to get as many children as possible to take part in an online IQ test to identify those who are gifted.
Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor, the Prime Minister’s wife and National Permata Pintar programme patron, said education department heads were being enlisted to spread the word as they had received disappointing response since the programme was launched in early March.
She said they only received 20,000 hits on the website since the launch and only 1,900 students successfully completed the IQ test.
“The figure is disappointing as according to statistics, there are about 2.8 million students in the 10 to 14 age group, “ Rosmah said yesterday when launching the Permata Pintar programme at the Wawasan School Complex in USJ15, Subang Jaya.
Concerned VIP: Rosmah looking on as Teh Wee Sheng, 14, from the Wawasan School Complex answers questions in an online IQ test. Looking on are UKM vice-chancellor Datuk Prof Dr Sharifah Hapsah Syed Hasan Shahabudin (left) and Education director-general Datuk Alimuddin Mohd Dom. The complex houses SJKC Tun Tan Cheng Lock, SK Dato’ Onn Jaafar and SJKT Tun Sambanthan. “According to experts in the field, about 5% of children below 14 are gifted,” she said, adding that the deadline for the online IQ test was at the end of May.
Those who score the required percentage of points will sit for another test before being chosen to attend the first school holiday camp for gifted and talented children at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) in December.
Rosmah said the programme was aimed at identifying as many gifted and talented children as possible regardless of race or religion or school.
The programme’s tests were developed with the help of the Johns Hopkins University’s Centre for Talented Youth (CTY) in New York.
Children aged between nine and 15 can take the online IQ test, known as UKM1 at www.permatapintar.com.my where they need to answer 60 questions within an hour in English or Bahasa Malaysia.
Rosmah said the best 300 children who passed the first two tests would attend the two-week camp where they would be taught a special curriculum designed by education experts from CTY and UKM.
Later, Rosmah signed autographs for the students at the complex.
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