By Saiful Bahri Kamaruddin
Pix Shahiddan Saidi

BANGI, 10 December 2014 – The National University of Malaysia (UKM) and the PERMATApintar programme will do all that is necessary to protect and nurture gifted children.

UKM Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Industry and Community Partnerships) Prof Dr Imran Ho Abdullah fully supported the views of the Prime Minister’s wife Datin Paduka Seri Rosmah Mansor that Malaysia’s gifted children should not be lost to other countries. Rosmah is the patron of the Permata programme.

Closing the International Conference On Gifted and Talented Education (IC-GATE) here today, Prof Imran noted that gifted or highly able individuals are those who demonstrate outstanding levels of aptitude and competence in one or more domains.

The domains include any structured area of activity with its own symbol system such as mathematics, music, language and or painting, dance, sports.

The conference is the first of its kind in Malaysia. Participation of renowned researchers such as Prof Francoys Gagné, Prof Dr Joyce Van Tassel-Baska, Barbara Reynolds, Dr Linda Brody and Prof Joseph Renzulli showed that special education for gifted students and the talented have received worldwide attention and suitable to be practiced in Malaysia .

Prof Imran hoped the instruction techniques practiced in Pusat PERMATApintar Negara would be empowered and developed in other schools in Malaysia.

Congratulating Pusat PERMATApintar Negara and UKM for organizing the 2014 IC-GATE, he said

The conference should help build networks among parents, teachers, educators, and gifted education specialists saying that findings, conclusions and action plan resulting from the conference will contribute to the enhancement of Gifted and Talented Education worldwide.