Education Policies for Gifted Children Within a Human Rights Paradigm: a Comparative Analysis

Ivona Ninkov

doi:10.1007/s41134-020-00133-1

Abstract

Gifted students are the most important part of every society and keeping the gifted child challenged and engaged is necessary. This paper aims to offer suggestions for the appropriate education system to enlarge their knowledge and creativity, without disturbing their usual life and educational surroundings. The author uses a comparative method, focusing on different countries worldwide and comparing and interpreting the various concepts of education in those countries. Based on the United Nations regionalization, the author focuses on the countries of the Eastern European Group (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Hungary, and Serbia) and Western European and Others Group (Austria, Germany, Netherlands, UK, Turkey, and the USA). The study finds that inclusive education as an alternative framework is potentially the best education system for gifted students. The prevailing opinion in most countries is that the concept of inclusive education primarily refers to children with special needs. This authorexplains that there is no logical obstacle to applying inclusive education to gifted students as well. Such an inclusive education system would require changing current education systems and programs and, most of all, hiring various professional staff as social workers and trained teachers who can meet the various demanding needs of gifted students in any community. The study concludes that it is necessary to improve existing policies in education to provide the inclusive education framework to gifted children and to understand that the essence is not only to agree on differences but to stimulate the individuality and diversity of the gifted at all levels; the greatest gem of each country is its educated children. Inclusion of gifted students has a positive outcome not only for the individual but also for the other students in the classroom. Gifted students stimulate the others, pushing them to reach their potential academic capabilities. Also, the unidentified students who could learn at elevated levels could benefit from this kind of education model and a high level of instruction could push them in the same way that it challenges the gifted students in the classroom.

Highlights

Human rights are universal and inalienable, indivisible, interdependent, and interrelated
Gifted education is often an afterthought for many schools whose focus is on general students’ proficiency, and not much money is allocated for gifted programs
Based on extensive research and all aforementioned evidence, we conclude that inclusive education enables the development and empowerment of gifted children, in accordance with their specific abilities, talents, and needs

Summary

Introduction

Human rights are universal and inalienable, indivisible, interdependent, and interrelated They are universal because everyone is born with and possesses the same rights, regardless of where they live, their gender or race, or their religious, cultural, or ethnic background. They are inalienable because people’s rights can never be taken away. They are indivisible and interdependent because all rights—political, civil, social, cultural, and economic—are important and cannot be fully enjoyed without the others. They apply to all and all have the. Human rights are primarily universal moral norms that bind all people on the planet; we observe them through the prism of internationally recognized conventions that legally grant these rights (Gordon 2013)

Objectives

Methods

Discussion

Conclusion