Group wants to aid gifted Filipino kids

LYCA learned her songs for the competition by sheer will and with an ultra-absorbent brain. A nonprofit organization has raised the need to set up a database that would provide facts and figures on Filipinos with extraordinary talent. RODEL ROTONI

MANILA, Philippines–A nonprofit organization has raised the need to set up a database that would provide facts and figures on Filipinos with extraordinary talent.

The Philippine Center for Gifted Education Inc. (PCGE), a nonprofit actively searching for gifted Filipinos and providing ways to improve their talents, estimates that up to 10 percent of the country’s young population of over 50 million (aged 1 to 21 years) are gifted but not all of them have been identified.

With the help of the Department of Education (DepEd), the center is considering establishing a database and the crafting of programs for the gifted through the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) Summit on Giftedness on Oct. 24 and 25 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Ortigas Center, in Pasig City.

According to Ammie del Rey of the PCGE, the center has been working closely with the DepEd since 2010 to identify gifted and high-ability children.

“Up to now, the Philippines has no data and statistics on gifted children nationwide,” Del Rey said, attributing the absence of a database to lack of awareness in identifying giftedness and high ability, as well as the reluctance of parents to have their children identified as gifted.

Del Rey said there were previous cases where gifted children were “overexposed” and their parents feared they would be treated differently.

She said the PCGE and the DepEd would soon begin the identification, assessment and profiling of gifted and highly-able children.

“Through the summit, after we have identified them, we hope to determine what abilities they need to enhance and come up with programs to address obstacles to their growth,” she said.

The US-based National Society for the Gifted and Talented (NSGT) describes giftedness, based on the US Department of Education definition, as the characteristic of “youth with outstanding talent who perform or show the potential for performing at remarkably high levels of accomplishment when compared with others of their age, experience or environment.”