National Organization for Development of Exceptional Talents
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National Organization for Development of Exceptional Talents (NODET; also known by its native acronym SAMPAD) is an Iranian organization founded in 1976 that governs a series of selective schools.[1]
History
The organization was founded in the Autumn of 1976 by Iraj Broomand as National Iranian Organization for Gifted and Talented Education (NIOGATE), with two mixed-gender schools in Tehran (Alvand and Bolvar), with a budget of 13 million tomans.[2][3][4] It was to serve as a model of excellence for education in Iran. This innovative organization was short-lived but its influence in the country was significant.[5] Several international and American organizations collaborated with this nascent program,[3] including the University of Southern California and the United Nations Education Commission.[6]
After the 1979 Revolution, the organization was continuing its work unofficially, until it was re-established in 1987 as National Organization for Development of Exceptional Talents (NODET; Template:Langx Sāzmān-e Melli-ye Parvaresh-e Este'dādhā-ye Derakhshān, acronym Script error: No such module "Lang". SAMPAD).[7]
Schools
The organization has 99 middle schools and 98 high schools.[7][8]
The schools are informally called Tizhooshan (Script error: No such module "Lang"., literally "sharp minds"). The boys schools in Tehran are often named Allameh Helli (Script error: No such module "Lang".) and the girls schools are often named Farzanegan (Script error: No such module "Lang".).[9]
Entrance
The organization recruits students annually through a two-step set of nationwide exams at both middle school and high school levels.[10] The tests are designed to measure intelligence, talent and creativity rather than prior knowledge.[11][12] The rate of acceptance is less than 5% for the thousands of students who apply annually.[7]
The entrance for the educational and administrative staff is also selective.[10] The teachers tend to be the best in the country.[7]
Education system
The educational materials, facilities, instructional methodologies, coursework and curriculum are different in these schools, and intended to develop the students' talents.[10][13]
The courses are college-level in fields such as biology, chemistry, mathematics, physics and English. The schools usually offer only two majors, mathematics-physics and experimental sciences.[7]
Virtually all medals in the Iranian Science Olympiads are won by the NODET students. The students are also top performers in many International Science Olympiads.[7][14]
Alumni
NODET alumni usually pursue higher education up to postgraduate level.[7]
Some of the alumni are world class researchers in STEM fields and medicine.[7] Notable alumni include the mathematician Maryam Mirzakhani,[15] chess grandmaster Elshan Moradi, computer scientist Farinaz Koushanfar, and Unicode expert Roozbeh Pournader.
References
External links
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- ↑ a b Script error: No such module "Citation/CS1".
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- ↑ Broomand, Iraj. Simaye Kolli-ye Sazman-e Melli-ye Parvaresh-e Este'dadha-ye Derkhshan, pp. 34-35 (in Persian), cited by: Script error: No such module "Citation/CS1".
- ↑ a b c d e f g h Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ For more information about the history of the schools and their statistics, see Exceptional Talents, 1997 (Spring) Vol. 6 , No 1.
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- ↑ a b c Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
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- ↑ For more statistics on this matter, refer to Script error: No such module "Citation/CS1".
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