Sever, Z. 2011. Nurturing gifted and talented pupils as leverage towards a knowledge- based economy. In: Zhou Q. (Ed.) Applied Social Science- ICASS 2011, Vol. 1: 454- 458. IERI Press, Delaware USA.

1. Nurturing gifted and talented pupils as leverage towards a
knowledge-based economy
Zvi Sever
College of Arts and Sciences, University of Indianapolis, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
P.O.Box 39671, Tel-Aviv 61396, Israel
sever@giftedworlds.com
Keywords: Education, gifted and talented students, knowledge-based economy,
academic institutions, R&D, engineers, leadership
Abstract. The world's economy is becoming increasingly knowledge-based; i.e.
fewer working hands and greater mental activity, which in turn conceives
technologies that produce the responses to human needs. Such knowledge originates
from research, and is transferred to development on the one hand, and to the students
on the other. Nurturing the gifted and talented students will guarantee a constant
reservoir of individuals who will later lead both this research and development, and
education, thus continuing to propel recruitment of the community, the State, and
humanity at large toward a knowledge-based economy.
Introduction
The world’s economy is becoming increasingly knowledge-based [1,2,3], and a large
part of this knowledge is created in academic institutions, and in the research and
development departments of industries by the graduates of academic institutions. The
academic institutions, in turn, are fed by the education system, whose elite are the
gifted and talented students [4,5,6], i.e. the top 5% of students [7,8,] (true geniuses are
a minute component of the overall population of gifted students).
The existence of a knowledge-based economy indicates that there is less manual work
being carried out and more brain work; and the latter, in turn, conceives technologies
that produce the responses to human needs. Distinguished academic institutions [9]
contribute to the basic research, while talented researchers and engineers in R&D
implementation teams lead the successful economies of the world [10,11]. Thus, a
continuum extends from the education system, through the academic institutions, to
the know-how of intensive industries and technology, which, under conditions of a
national macro-economic policy, increase the competitive fitness [12,13] of the
country in the world.
This paper attempts to present the current global status of identifying and nurturing
gifted and talented students on the one hand, and the importance of their education en
route to academic, economic and social leadership on the other, which will in turn
guarantee recruitment to the knowledge-based economy.
Methods
This attempt to determine the extent to which gifted individuals in the different
countries of the world are nurtured, was based on an examination of various
publications, with emphasis on whether the country operates a comprehensive
national action by which to identify and nurture gifted and talented students in the
education system.

2. In order to examine correlations between excellence in higher education and the
economic success of a country, a comparison was conducted among the various
countries' ranking in the reports of academic institutions worldwide, [9] and their
ranking in the Global Competitiveness Index [13], which contains, inter alia, the
implications of the Global Innovation Index and the Science and Engineering
Indicators, which support knowledge-based economy.
Results
Table 1. Operation of national action with gifted and talented students, distributed
according to continents.
National action with gifted and talented
students
Continent Number of
countries in
the continent Number of countries
operating activity
Percentage of
countries
operating activity
in the continent
Oceania 14 2 14
Europe 47 15 32
Asia 46 16 35
Africa 54 0* 0
North America 3 2** 67
Central America 7 0 0
South America 13 0* 0
Total - 184 35 19
* In Nigeria, Brazil and Chile, although there is a certain level of activity with gifted
students, most of this operates in the private sector; there is no continuity from
kindergarten or elementary school to high-school, and education for the gifted is not
"for all".
** In the USA, only 37 out of 50 states (64%) have legislation in support of the
gifted, and out of these only 6 states actually fund education for the gifted. In Canada,
only 3 of the total 13 provinces and territories (23%) have enacted such laws and
indeed employ activities to promote the gifted.
Table 1 clearly reveals that most countries in the world are insufficiently prepared for
the economic era they have already entered – that of the knowledge-based economy.
Consequently, an organized national process of identifying and nurturing gifted and
talented students only takes place in 19% of the countries in the world. The situation
is all the more perturbing in a distribution by continents, i.e. three of the seven
continents operate no activity whatsoever for identifying and nurturing such students.

3. Table 2. Countries whose academic institutions are ranked among the first 27 in the
academic world ranking [9], distributed according to continent
Possessing an academic institution
among the first ranked 27
Continent Number of
countries in the
continent Number of
countries
Percentage of
countries in the
continent
Oceania 14 0 0
Europe 47 2 4
Asia 46 1 2
Africa 54 0 0
North America 3 2 67
Central America 7 0 0
South America 13 0 0
Total - 184 5 3
Table 2, reveals that no country in Africa, Central America, South America and
Oceania possesses an academic institute numbered among the first 27 academic
rankings of world institutions.
Table 3. The number of countries ranked among the first 27 in the Global
Competitiveness Index [13], distributed according to continent.
Among the first 27Continent Number of
countries in the
continent
Number of
countries
Percentage of
countries in the
continent
Oceania 14 2 14
Europe 47 12 26
Asia 46 11 24
Africa 54 0 0
North America 3 2 67
Central America 7 0 0
South America 13 0 0
Total - 184 27 15
As illustrated in Table 3, no country in Africa, Central America and South America
is numbered among the first 27 states in the Global Competitiveness Index.
While Table 2 has shown that only 3% of the countries have academic institutions that
are ranked among the top 27; Table 3 reveals that 15% of the countries are ranked
competitively high, i.e. X5.

4. Conclusion
The present findings indicate that only 19% of the countries in the world identify and
nurture gifted and talented students. Such students are no less than a national
resource, the neglect of which is tantamount to the neglect of any other valuable
resource at a country's disposal. Not only should every country in the world seek to
identify and nurture gifted and talented individuals – from kindergarten to high-school
graduation [14], but they should also be obliged to inculcate in them such values as
community responsibility and national leadership, so that as they develop and
progress in life they will strive to lead the country and the region at large to scientific,
economic, and social excellence, as has been achieved in a leadership project for the
gifted and talented in peripheral areas [15,16].
The gap (X5) between the number of leading countries in the Global Competitiveness
Index and the number of countries in which excelling academic institutions operate, is
encouraging, since it indicates that, when enterprise and innovation are employed, a
knowledge-based economy may be established even if the academic gaps are yet to be
bridged. This finding serves to enhance the leadership value of the gifted and talented
graduates of the various education systems.
Summary
In order to advance humanity at large toward a knowledge-based economy, by way of
educating the gifted and talented, it is advisable for countries to locate such projects
among the top national priorities. Every country should enact laws that promote the
gifted and talented, and education systems should develop the means by which to
identify and nurture such elites, while placing emphasis on providing workshops that
foster values of community responsibility and leadership. Moreover, this vital human
resource should be accompanied by a trained team throughout the academic studies
and during the graduates' integration as economic, academic and educational leaders,
as well as local, national and global leaders.
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