One of the many impacts of the Cultural Revolution in China was a lost generation of students, particularly high ability students who could not pursue their academic goals. On a societal level, this led to introspection about how to invest in future generations of human capital to fuel China’s growth. In 1978, the University of Science and Technology of China created a program for accelerated education for gifted students [20]. According to Chan, the writings of Confucius categorize the intellect/abilities of people into superior (上)、mediocre (中) and inferior (下). Further, though naturally talented people, tian cai (天才) were thought to be blessed by heaven, Confucius emphasized the role of education and effort in becoming smart [21]. At the same time, Confucian beliefs of obedience and harmony, in retrospect, hindered the development of creativity in education practices [22].

In China, the percentage of the gifted children is estimated to be between 1% and 3% of the total population of children. For example, in Beijing (2010), the number of the children under 14 years old is 1.878 million of which 18,800 would be considered as gifted (there are 6 school districts in Beijing, comprised of 2,671 (1361 kindergartens and 1310 primary) schools (2007). On a national level there are 289.76 million children under 14 years old, and therefore, about 8–10 million gifted children 14 years or younger in China (Though the population size is of Japan is much smaller than China, it is worth noting that in contrast, in Japan, there are a total of 12.5 million students in the entire K–12 pipeline) [23]. There are more than 55 thousand K–12 schools in China, distributed across 23 provinces, 4 municipalities (Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, and Chongqing), 5 autonomous regions and 2 special Administrative regions (Hong Kong and Marco). There are 65 “top” middle schools and 44 top high schools in Beijing, 92 top universities in China [24]. Many of these universities are in urban cities such as Beijing, Guangzhou, Nanjing and Shanghai.

By 1985, Middle School Number Eight in Beijing collaborated with the Chinese Academy of Science created the “middle school gifted education class”, also named “Shaoer” (少年) class [25]. Since the program began in 1978, more than 70 primary or middle schools in China have created gifted children’s classes. The Shaoer program has continued for more than three decades and there are more than 900 Shaoer graduates. Eighty percent of Shaoer graduates have continued on to graduate schools. The percentage of enrollment in the top 10 graduate schools in China averages approximately 10% of applicants [26], while the percentage of Shaoer students admitted into China’s graduate schools is over 70%.

In China, there are three modes of provision of gifted education: advancement, enrichment, and pull-out (such as the Shaoer program described above). Advancement includes early admission and grade skipping. In China, children begin primary school at the age of 6 to 7 years old. Gifted children may gain admittance earlier. Gifted children are also allowed to skip grades, depending on the level of their performance. Enrichment and pull-out are also provided.

The first gifted (primary to high school) school was established by the University of Science and Technology (UST), Beijing. Students are selected by an entrance exam in primary school. Upon graduation from UST, students enter university without having to take an entrance exam [27]. Other ways that China supports the education of gifted students include High School level “Olympiad” competitions in math and physics. Students, via a screening exam are eligible to take special courses to prepare for the Olympiad competitions. Winners of these competitions are granted admission to the top universities without having to take an entrance exam. In China, there is a standard entrance exam for all universities, unlike Japan, in which each university has its own exam (which is a boon to the supplemental education industry in Japan, as test prep must be tailored to each exam).

The most famous Gifted Education Institution in China is the “Supernormal Class” which is administered by the GUCAS (Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Sciences), Beijing and Beijing YuCai School. The students are enrolled at the age of 6 and attend primary, middle and high school through the program. In China, the Supernormal Class of GUCAS is known for its students’ performance, most of them become well-known scientists, entrepreneurs, scholars and the like [28]. Hong Kong, partly due to its small size compared to mainland China, has been able to develop a wide variety of gifted interventions.

The national government’s attention to gifted education began in 1990, when a group of educators from the Ministry of Education proposed to establish a commission to investigate the potential for gifted education in Hong Kong. In this year, the Education Commission (The Commission was comprised of representatives from Ministry of Education) Report No.4 initiated the development and implementation of gifted education in Hong Kong (HK) by recommending the development of school-based programs to cater to the needs of gifted students. The report also explored the definition of gifted children and their learning needs [29]. In the academic year 2008–2009, there were over a million children in the 2,336 K–12 schools in Hong Kong. Of this number, about 50,000 were gifted.

Referring to the Education Bureau (EDB) of Hong Kong’s multi-faceted definition of gifted, the 1990 report concluded that giftedness should be determined by a composite measure of natural abilities and competencies [30]. In 1994, The “Pilot School-based Programme for Academically Gifted Children” was launched by the Education Department (which became the Education and Manpower Bureau in 2003). Hong Kong has one of the most developed gifted education policies of the countries studied, and it provides highly attenuated levels of provision of gifted services, while attempting to expose all students—not limited to those identified as gifted—to some level of gifted education. Government subsidized gifted schools are supplemented by private and international schools offering supports for gifted learners. The figure below illustrates the three main levels of provision, and how each is further separated into general enrichment and specialized curricula [31].

A: All students in all classrooms are exposed to high order thinking skills, creativity and personal-social competence, all of which are core tenets of gifted education.

B: Differentiated teaching tailored to the needs of the groups with enrichment and extension of curriculum across all subjects in regular classrooms.

C: Pullout programs for gifted students, where the emphasis is on teaching to a homogeneous group of high achieving students, while augmenting general curricula in the regular classroom.

D: Pullout programs in specific subjects, including math and art, which allows systematic training of students demonstrating high performance in these areas.

E: Individualized educational arrangement for the exceptionally gifted who requires resource support outside the regular school (e.g. Counseling, mentorship, early entry to upper level schools, etc.)

The early development of Gifted Education in Hong Kong (HK) was led by the Ministry of Education, in collaboration with specific education institutions, including Fung Hon Chu Gifted Education Centre. In August 2008, the Hong Kong Academy for Gifted Education was established jointly by Sir Joseph Ho Tung and the Ministry of Education, which funded 1 million Hong Kong dollars each. Since 2008, the Hong Kong Academy for Gifted Education has led the selection and education of gifted children in HK [10]. In terms of provision, the Academy focuses on Level 3 learners (the highest ability group), representing the top two percent of the population of learners [32].

From 1997 to 1998, the Education Department conducted the evaluation on “Pilot School-based Programme for Academically Gifted Children” to examine the process and outcomes of the pilot scheme. As a result, further improvements to gifted education were made [30]. Under this programme, educational psychologists provided regular school-based support to the pilot schools on programme planning, curriculum development, student selection and teacher training. Like Hong Kong, Taiwan began with a local-school level pilot that was scaled out to the national level.

Interest in gifted education in Taiwan began after a group of primary school administrators proposed new approaches to enriching the education of their brightest students; in 1962, the “Fourth Conference on Education” in Taiwan proposed creating gifted education on the principle that gifted children should be educated appropriately to their level of aptitude. At this time, a screening method was established, and initial identification for subsequent testing was done in collaboration with classroom teachers and parents. Eligible students take an intelligence test where an IQ of 130 or higher is the benchmark for giftedness. Former Education Minister Kuo Wei-fan estimated that based on these criteria, the ratio of gifted children is between three to five percent. These students might be allowed to skip up to two years ahead of their age cohort. In 2010 in Taiwan there were more than seven thousand K–12 schools educating three million students, including a gifted population of up to 150,000 students.

The notion of giftedness has broadened over time in Taiwan. For example, Articles No.4,28,29 of the Special Education Law (Education Administration, 2008) show that the definition of giftedness has been enlarged to include students with excellent potential and outstanding performance in six domains: general intelligence, academic character, art, creative ability, leadership skills and other specialties. There are also laws for high-achieving students who are able to enter school at a younger age and skip grades.

In Taiwan, there are three main methods of gifted education provision, namely, enrichment, acceleration and grouping. Enrichment includes extended curricula, in-depth teaching materials, and a greater variety of learning activities than those for regular students. Acceleration includes early admission to upper level schools, compacted curricula timelines, grade skipping, as well as exemption from certain (e.g., university entrance) examinations. Grouping includes special ability-based classes and resource room based teaching (“resource room” here means the talented students are grouped into special classrooms having more diversified and varied materials and/or equipment) [33].

In accordance with The Act of Special Education promulgated in 1984, gifted and talented students are divided into three types of classes for instruction:

There are nine provinces and six municipalities in Korea. 19,313 K–12 schools educate 8.3 million students. As of 2008, about 50,000, or 0.72 percent of elementary and middle school students participated in education for the gifted (out of an estimated 415,000 high ability students) [35], Gifted education in Korea was slower to develop than other East Asian countries (save Japan). For example, the first introduction of specialized education, sponsored by the Ministry of Education, began in 1983 when a science high school was established in Seoul.

In 1995, the government introduced acceleration systems including early entrance into elementary school, grades skipping and early graduation. In 1997, special admission to universities for prize winners from international (science and math Olympiads) competitions was established. In the 1980s and 1990s in Korea, however, the focus was mostly on grade acceleration rather than same grade enrichment.

The 1997 Korean IMF Crisis (precipitated by the Asian Financial Crisis) led to rapid developments in gifted education, as national leaders recognized weaknesses in developing national human capital. By 2000 a new Gifted Education Law was enacted and became effective since March 2002. According to the Law, gifted education is implemented in three ways: gifted high schools, gifted education centers (for primary and middle school students) as a pull-out program operated by universities and school boards, and gifted classes as a pull-out program in regular schools.

Since the first science high school was created in 1983, each year new schools have been added. Currently there are 16 science high schools. In addition, the Busan Science Academy was established as an official gifted school in 2001. With the financial support by the Ministry of Science and Technology, fifteen gifted education centers affiliated with universities have been established and are currently providing enrichment programs of mathematics and science. Sixteen of the twenty-three school districts provided pull-out programs for their gifted students. Furthermore, as of 2008 more than 3,000 students attended enrichment classes (weekends, summer) at university affiliated gifted education programs. About 7,000 students, ranging grade 4–9, are enrolled in gifted classes [36].

Gifted education is mainly implemented following three processes: student selection, education, and evaluation for reselection. In Korea there are a number of ways to identify gifted students. Two common criteria across approaches in Korea are that they share a ‘multiple-step evaluation processes’ and ‘evaluation based on mathematical creativity or advanced mathematical thinking capability [36]’. Entrance to science high schools is determined by performance in math and science (measured by placement tests and/or science Olympiad performance), as well as an oral examination.

As mentioned above, the Busan Science High School (BSA), established in 2001, was the first official gifted school. The selection process of new entrants to BSA consists of three phases. Applicants are screened on the basis of math and science test scores or top performance at national or international science and math competitions. In the second phase, creative problem solving abilities in mathematics and sciences are evaluated. The third phase of the selection process is a four-day long camp. Students demonstrate their abilities in problem identification, experimental design, data collection, drawing conclusions, and presenting and communicating results in front of audience.

In 2009, Seoul Science High School began the process of conversion into a school for the gifted. Further, the Primary and Middle School Education Act (2009) and the Gifted Education Act (2009) promoted the creation of specialized high schools and additional schools for the gifted. In 2005, a program was undertaken to identify and educate the gifted children of socioeconomically underprivileged people. Since then, more than 1,800 students have joined the program. Unlike applicants for education centers or classes for the gifted, these candidates were selected through critical thinking tests (not subject-oriented tests, often thought to have a bias towards students of a higher socio-economic status) [35]. Singapore is similar to Korea in its nurturance of high ability students—regardless of socioeconomic status, and in addition, country-of-origin.

In 1981, the late Dr Tay Eng Soon, the Minister of State for Education, led a mission to study the gifted education programs in other countries. This mission’s findings confirmed a compelling need to start a gifted education program—given that Singapore was a small country, with little more than its human resources as a basis for its future prosperity [37].

In 1984, a pilot project was started by the Ministry of Education (MOE) in 2 primary schools, Raffles Girls’ Primary School and Rosyth School, and 2 secondary schools, Raffles Girls’ School (Secondary) and Raffles Institution. This pilot became the basis for national policy, the “Gifted Education Programme (GEP) [38,39]”.

Students scoring in top ten percent on achievement exams in Singapore are eligible for additional testing to determine eligibility for gifted services. Thus Singapore has the broadest definition of the gifted among the countries studied. Further, the Gifted Education (GE) branch of the MOE determines if a child is “exceptionally” gifted by looking at 4 sets of information: a psychological report, achievement and aptitude/above-level test scores, samples of the child’s work, and teachers’ recommendations. The Ministry of Education (MOE) formally identifies the academically gifted and caters to the top 1% of the national cohort through the Gifted Education Programme (GEP), beginning at Primary 4. It also caters for the exceptionally gifted. About 500 pupils (out of 4000 pupils tested) are admitted into the Program at primary grade level 4 each year [40].

Interventions for gifted children are extensive. These include enrichment (student learns topics which are taught in greater depth and breadth), self-paced instruction, online courses (above grade level), mentorship (student is matched with a mentor who provides advanced training and experiences in a specific content area), subject acceleration (student is placed at a higher grade level in the specific subject while remaining with his/her age cohort for other subjects), dual enrollment (in more than one school), early primary school admission (at age 5), and grade skipping (up to 4 grades) [41].

According to the Ministry of Education in Singapore, the number of pre-university children in Singapore is 521,594 (2009) [42]. In a normally distributed population, there are about three such exceptionally gifted among 100,000 children [43]. So it is estimated that the number of exceptionally gifted children in Singapore is 16 in 2009. Despite its small population, Singapore has found a unique way to increase its numbers of gifted and talented youth, and other countries have taken notice.

Singapore has become a city-state to emulate, as communities all over Asia (including Okinawa, Japan) try to copy its success. Decades of smart national policy—prioritizing infrastructure and human capital investment while attracting foreign direct investment–are the basis of Singapore’s success. Its national innovation system architects, including Philip Yeo, have focused on investment in education [41]. The national government has expanded its gifted education policy to attract the best and brightest from other countries to settle in Singapore. One example is the “guppies to whales” program sponsored by The Singapore Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A Star) [44,45]. Rising star primary, middle and high school students with talent in math and science are identified in Singapore and other, particularly Asian countries. They are then eligible for Singapore national government sponsored scholarships and fellowships all the way through to doctoral study. To enhance the long term brain gain for Singapore, foreign students are required to accept Singaporean citizenship and are also required contractually to work in Singapore for at least 3 years upon graduation [46,47]. Local students are also eligible for similar sponsorship programs [48]. Japan’s situation is quite different.

There is virtually no formal structure in Japan to support the education of gifted students. There are no “gifted” schools in Japan. The majority of schools rely on MEXT (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology) curriculum guidelines (for public schools this is mandatory). Consequently, classroom teachers have had little latitude in providing differentiation and/or acceleration for academically talented students (and thus might be a partial explanation of the size of the market for supplemental education in Japan). However, there are a few examples of individualized, adapted education practices, including those designated by MEXT as Super Science High Schools, including the Kyoto Municipal Horikawa Senior High School [53]. As part of the 2002 MEXT reforms, an attempt was made to balance rote learning with more individualized education yutori kyoiku (ゆとり教育), but with the existing emphasis on entrance exam preparation for middle school and the higher grades, this has proven difficult [54].

Also in 2002, the Japan Science and Technology Agency, part of MEXT, initiated the Super Science High School (SSH) program in response to declining student scores and interest in math and science. Under SSH, designated high schools are provided with additional funds to support science and math education and also to foster links with universities, including faculty-student mentoring programs. In 2010 there were 126 Super Science High schools in Japan [55]. In 2006 there were 12.6 million K–12 children in 48,107 schools. Estimating at five percent of this population, more than half a million students could be gifted. Since Japan lacks a formal identification system, the Japanese government does not track statistics on the number of gifted students at this time.

A government task force was established by MEXT in 2007 to explore possibilities for reforming the national education system in support of science education. In 2010 a report was published indicating the need for the creation of a national system of talent education. One finding was that students attending a SSH were far more likely to participate in International Science Olympiads [56]. Since the field of gifted and talented education is so new in Japan, the bulk of Japanese scholarly research on gifted education has heretofore focused on studies of other countries, often China and Korea [57,58,59,60].

Due to the “relations” that many private schools have in placing graduates in elite universities, the competition to attend private primary schools is high. Entrance is said to be based on aptitude of the students, but entrance exams also include interviews with parents. At the middle school level, private schools have curriculum designed to prepare students for entry to high school and subsequently elite universities, and a more tailored, especially science-based curriculum is available to students. For those aiming to attend university, the “test” (o-juken, お受験, おじゅけん) system begins as early as pre-school. A multi-billion dollar a year test-prep industry is fueled by the intense competition within the school entrance exam system in Japan. Companies such as Kumon and Benesse have built multinational corporations in this space as a result [61,62].

At the high school level, the pressure to prepare students for university entrance exams is fierce (long lines are to be found at Shinto shrines to pray for success, each Spring just before the March university entrance exam season), and curricula tend to be structured around test preparation (in Japan each university has its own test, there are no nationally standardized university entrance exams such as the SAT or ACT in the United States). As mentioned above, there are Super Science High Schools, but the small number means that only a tiny fraction of all students are impacted [63].

At the district level, public primary schools do not have a ranking per se. As students move up to middle and high school, however, the ranking in terms of university placement success becomes more stratified. Private schools, being tuition driven, have many resources (including enrichment programs) unavailable to public school students. In Japan, each school district has a ranking of schools, and the highest performing students (based on an entrance examination) enter the top schools. In this sense, clustering of students by ability does occur throughout Japan (at least at the high school level and to a lesser extent at the middle school level). Matsumoto (2007) has argued that a kind of de-facto gifted education system of sorts has evolved in Japan, because of the ability-based sorting by school and supplemental education described above. However, due to the small number of programs, weak development of student creativity in problem-solving skills (e.g., “outside the box” thinking), and cultural bias against “elitism”, Matsumoto concludes that progress in developing a national system of gifted education shall remain minimal [64].

Japan is grappling with the aforementioned challenges in its attempt to develop a comprehensive national policy aiming to develop human capital in support of a national innovation system worthy of global competition in the 21st century. Further, given Japan’s long legacy of struggle to integrate Korean and Brazilian Japanese, it is difficult to imagine Japan’s national government adopting a Singapore style “guppies to whales” program that attracts high ability students from all over Asia, inviting these students to become Japanese citizens.