National Policies/Provisions

The information below is a compilation of data collected from Delegates serving the WCGTC. If you think any of the information below is incorrect or outdated or you have new information to provide, please email headquarters@world-gifted.org with details. The documents are meant to be a sample of available resources and are not an endorsement by the WCGTC. English translations are provided through Google Translate.

Last Updated: January 13, 2020

Country National Legislation Funding Available Note
Algeria No No The Algerian Association for the Gifted and Talented (AAGT) has developed a national strategy for the period (2016-2020), and some of the objectives have been materialized. Among the prospects of the AAGT is attention to the legislative aspect, demarcation of interest in the category of gifted people, and highlighting its position in achieving comprehensive development.
Australia  No (See note)  No The federal educational goals are equity and excellence for all students. At a national level, the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) promotes the educational needs of gifted and talented students in its Student Diversity Advice. Teachers are encouraged to use the Australian Curriculum flexibly to meet the individual learning needs of gifted and talented students. Furthermore, the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL) teaching standards incorporate a minimum level of proficiency in student differentiation. Each of the eight state and territories implement the national educational goals through state-based gifted education policies or guidelines. The Australian Association for the Education of the Gifted and Talented (AAEGT) promotes the national gifted agenda through advocacy and projects such as Gifted Awareness Week Australia (GAW).
Colombia No (See Note) No More information available here (Spanish version).
Denmark

Yes (See note)

 No In the Danish legislation gifted students are mentioned, as it says that all pupils have the right to get differentiated education according to their needs.
France No  
Germany No (See note)  No Each the German states have different pieces of legislation for gifted children. In 2018 the 16 states and the federal government started a program for gifted education called LemaS (Leistung macht Schule).  Over the coming 10 years they are planning to spend 125 million euros. All the 16 states are involved including 300 schools.
Hong Kong, China Click Here  Yes Funding is available to the Hong Kong Academy for Gifted Education, as well as the Gifted Education Section of the Curriculum Development Institute of the Education Bureau, Government of HKSAR. Schools and NGOs do not have funding for gifted education.
India Click here Yes

There are various schemes/programs for Gifted students funded by Government of India. Most of these schemes have national level tests or project assessments to short-list students for funding. There are government organizations like Office of Principal Scientific Adviser, Department of Science and Technology, University Grant Commissions which also funds researchers on project basis.

Details and links to these schemes are provided in the document linked in the column to the left.

Israel  Yes The gifted and outstanding division use government budget (Ministry of Education) and includes about $25 million per year for identification process and cultivation programs. In addition, we use external companies to assist in the implementation of some of the cultivation programs. These companies also fund part of the activity for students.
Italy No

The Italian school system has chosen total integration for more than 40 years, that is, to include all pupils in “normal” schools. The Italian school regulations are full of references that protect pupils with disabilities and specific learning disabilities. On the other hand, gifted pupils have always been “neglected” as they are not known and recognized in everyday school life. In the last seven years in Italy there are many associations of experts and parents who are dedicating time, attention, and services to gifted children and their families. The first specific school legislation for gifted students is very recent: ministerial note no. 562 of 3 April 2019. It highlights that gifted students are children with special educational needs, thus emphasizing the difficulties, rather than the potential and talents.
In addition, for over a year, the Ministry of Education has convened the major Italian giftedness experts to write guidelines to support gifted children in all Italian schools. This document should be ready in the coming months.

Japan No In January 2018, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry has started a study group on future education in Japan, including gifted education. As of November 2019, the study session has been held eight times.
Kenya Click here No  
Lebanon No No  
The Netherlands No Yes

The Dutch government recently started a funding stimulation program to meet the needs of gifted students in primary and secondary education. For the time frame 2019-2022 a total of €60 million is available (€15 million for each year of which 1 million a year is reserved for monitoring and impact research). This year, regionally collaborating school boards could apply for the funding by writing an activity plan and substantiated budget (based on the total number of students for which they are responsible; the amount per student is €5,74). The goal of the funding program is to stimulate more expertise and knowledge-sharing, to create more appropriate educational opportunities for gifted students, and to encourage collaboration between schools/teachers, parents, students, specialists in gifted education and youthcare professionals. A special committee has assessed whether the applications met the following criteria for success:

  1. Goal and vision: it is clear for which students the activity plan is intended and what their needs are; the proposed activities need to follow from an analysis of available expertise and provisions;
  2. Collaboration and support: it is clear which partners participate in the project and what everyone’s role and responsibility is; the joint interest for the target group is formulated and the plan contains concrete activities with regard to sustained cooperation and continuous increase of support;
  3. Expertise development and knowledge-sharing: the conditions under which the knowledge and (specific) expertise of those involved can be continuously developed are described; it is described in which way knowledge sharing between partners and internal knowledge sharing is organized and encouraged in the partnership;
  4. Progress evaluation: it is stated how the project is evaluated annually with the parties involved and how the results are used to improve the project; the activity plan also states (growing) insight into the needs of the target group and the required adjustments to the education program and its organization; attention is paid to monitoring the (changing) needs of individual students;
  5. Feasibility and sustainability: potential risks and control measures are described; it is clear how cooperation will continue after the subsidy period and which activities will be undertaken for this; the plan shows that sustainable continuation of the project is possible after 2023 (without additional funding).

In the Netherlands, there are 152 regional collaborations of school boards of which 142 have received funding for the plans they submitted, after an initial assessment round in which they received feedback for improvement from the committee. They represent 96% of the student population. Several research consortia are now applying for the funding budget of €2,708,000 that is available for the impact study, which is an in-depth study of the interventions that are carried out in the context of the funding program. In addition to the monitoring study, the impact study examines the potentially effective mechanisms and preconditions. The impact study provides insights about the relationship between the interventions and:

  1. The development of students with characteristics of giftedness;
  2.  The design of programmes for these students;
  3. The expertise development of professionals;
  4. The cooperation between the parties involved. These insights serve to support (policy) practice.
New Zealand  Click here Yes (See note) There are gifted financial awards available for students and teachers. Some student events are funded. All details are at https://gifted.tki.org.nz/.
A Network of Expertise called Gifted Aotearoa is also funded – https://www.giftedaotearoa.nz/
Limitations are around the amount of money given and who can apply. Gifted Aotearoa is open to all state funded school teachers from Year 1 to 13.
Palestine Currently in Development No  
Paraguay Click here No

Translation of relevant sections of legislation:

Presidency of the Republic of Paraguay
Ministry of Education and Culture
Decree Nr. 2837
which regulates the Law Nr. 5136 “Of Inclusive Education” from December 23, 2013.
Asuncion, December 22, 2014

Article 4: To ensure the access of all students with specific needs for educational support, all educational institutions be it public, private or private with allocated state funds, in different levels and modalities, will progressively include in their Institutional Educational Project, technical measures according to universal, national and local specifications emitted and regulated by the corresponding instance.
Article 5: According to what was disposed in Article 2 of Law 5136/2013, the specific concepts used in the present regulation have the following connotations:
a) Student with specific needs for educational support: Consider every student with specific needs for educational support that due to: physical, intellectual, auditory, visual and psychosocial disability, specific learning disorders, high intellectual abilities, late entry to the educational system, personal conditions or school history demands support or adjustments to reach the maximum possible development of their personal capacities.
d) High intellectual abilities: Consider that a student presents specific needs for educational support due to high intellectual abilities when they manipulate and relate in a simultaneous and efficacious manner multiple different cognitive resources, of logical, numerical, spatial, memory, verbal and creative ways, or stands out especially and in a extraordinary manner in handling one or several of them.

Article 22: Students with Specific Needs for Educational Support who have achieved the established objectives, will be promoted to the following grade and will obtain the certifications corresponding to their capacities and competencies, and their permanence in educational services must be guaranteed. Those who demonstrate curricular competencies that are superior to those corresponding to their age group, will be offered curricular options according to their level of abilities and knowledge.

Romania No No There was a project for a law in 2006/2007 but it is still not implemented in schools at a national level, and there is no methodology for its implementation. There was an attempt to create Centers for Excellence, which are in place but which really deal with children who participate in Olympiads in different domains at schools with no other opportunities for these children.
Saudi Arabia  Yes The University of Jeddah (UJ) in Saudi Arabia has a leading role in developing unprecedented legislation and provisions for gifted education in higher educational institutions. As a result of such legislation, UJ has implemented the unique program of Attracting and Nurturing Gifted Youth, which aims to attract the school-identified gifted students, supporting them with specialized educational provisions, empowering them to pursue their talents during their study at UJ. UJ offers the first academic acceleration system in Saudi Arabian Universities, (i.e., content-based acceleration and grade-based acceleration) for high school graduates. Also, UJ offers a wide range of enrichments programs in different domains, which meets students’ needs and interests and accelerate their future.
Slovenia
  1. A chapter on gifted education was authored in a white paper about Education in the Republic of Slovenia in 2011. The chapter gives an analysis of EU and Slovenian gifted education context and suggest future directions for gifted education in Slovenia. The white paper may be accessed here.
  2. In 1999, The National Education Institute Slovenia authored a professional guideline for elementary and upper secondary schools for identifying and teaching gifted students. That report may be accessed here (English Translation). An updated version is currently under review.
Spain Yes
  1. Scholarships and study grants are some of the instruments that contribute most effectively to making the principle of equal opportunities possible. For more than 20 years, there have been aids for specific programs complementary to the regulated education for students with a specific need for educational support associated with high intellectual abilities.
  2. For some time, professional have acknowledged the necessity of an adequate attention for the gifted and talented students, and the parents have shown the satisfaction of seeing it recognized from the higher instances of the corresponding legislation to the attention to their children’s special educational needs (Recommendation from the Europe Council) legislation that at all the times protects appropriate educational opportunities for the student body according to the Convention on the Right of the Child (1989), in art. 29, paragraph 1, in which it is established that the education of the child shall be guided to develop the personality, aptitudes, and the mental and physical capacity to the maximum of their possibilities.
  3.  The Organic Law of Education (at the level of the entire State) exists on the subject of gifted students from the appearance of the Royal Decree 696 / 1995. Since then, all the different Governments of the State, have followed taking into account these students. There are 17 autonomous communities which have competencies in education while maintaining the Organic Law of Education statewide.
    The Organic Law of Education (LOE), stated in Articles 76 and 77 (BOE, May 2006):

    • “It is the education authorities take the necessary measures to identify students with high intellectual capabilities and assess their needs early. Also it is their responsibility to take appropriate action plan for those needs.
    • after consultation with the Autonomous Communities, the rules for flexible duration of each stage of the education system for students with high intellectual abilities, regardless of their age.”
United Kingdom No (See Note) No (See Note)
Pending Update
United States of America Click here Jacob K. Javits Gifted and Talented Students Education Program While the needs of gifted and talented students is noted in Federal law, there is not a mandate to serve gifted education. The decision on provisions and funding is at the discretion of each state.
Uruguay  No  No  
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