Country Report

Country Report: Ideal School

Brunei Darussalam

Presented by

Miss DK Nur Izzah Nazurah binti Pg Mohammad

Mr Mohd Shah Risal Amir Hj Mohiddin

THE IDEAL EDUCATION SYSTEM FOR THE FUTURE

Quick overview of our country Brunei Darussalam (the abode of peace)

Brunei Darussalam is a small country which lies on the north-west coast of Borneo. It is divided into four districts namely Brunei-Muara, Belait, Tutong & Temburong. Bandar Seri Begawan is the capital city. It is located in the Brunei-Muara District. The official language of Brunei Darussalam is Malay, though English is widely spoken. Islam is the official religion of Brunei Darussalam. Economically, Brunei Darussalam is dependent on the production of crude oil & natural gas as its source of revenue. Now we are in the implementing stage to diversify the economy.

Education. What do you understand by the term education ? Why should we take it as something very important in our life ? Why do we have to go to school everyday? Why not just stay at home enjoying yourself, playing games, have telephone conversations, surf the internet….why do we have to spend most of the time in our young age to study ? Well there is one word which can answer most of these questions – future.

The first thing that most parents would think about their children is how to develop the future of their child…here education plays as an important part.

Education is one of the most important factor in development of a country. A country without educated youths is like a car running out of fuel. We need educated youths for human resource development so that by decreasing the number of foreign employees, it will help us to slow down the flow of our money to outside our country.

Education is like a bridge that can close the gap between cultural differences and promote unity and cooperation – the reason why we are invited to this country (Thailand).

The education policy of Brunei Darussalam is to make sure that each child have 12 years of school, in a 1-6-3-2 pattern. At the age of five, the student will start with Pre-school education. After Pre-school, the student will proceed to primary school for 6 years and sit for an exam called PCE (Primary Certificate of Education), then 3 years of lower secondary school and 2 years of upper secondary school. They will do the PMB (Penilaian Menengah Bawah) in the the third year of secondary school and the G.C.E O-Levels exams in the fifth. (See Appendix 1 for the complete educational system).

National Education Policy

The education policy of Brunei Tries to create the most effective education system for Brunei. Education is a continuous, never ending effort to develop individuals into being educated, religious, dynamic, disciplined and responsible people. People’s strength should meet the needs of the country and should be based on Islamic spiritual values. The education policy of Brunei emphasises faith and obedience to Allah, the importance of the Malay Language, and loyalty to the Monarch and the State.

The education policy is outlined like this:

1.	To encourage an education system in which Malay is the most important language, but English is not ignored.
2.	To educate students about Islam and to use the curriculum to integrate Islamic values and an Islamic way of life into the education system.
3.	To provide 12 years of school for every Bruneian child – 7 years primary, 3 years in lower secondary and 2 years in upper secondary.
4.	To provide same curriculum and public examinations in all schools in the country.
5.	To offer every child the opportunity to help Brunei to develop so that the people can meet the needs of the country.
6.	To offer higher education to students who are capable and qualified, according to the needs of the country.
7.	To build a national identity, so that people will be loyal to the Monarch and the State, and at the same time making the education system efficient and flexible in order to meet the development needs of the country.

1.	To encourage the general development of each student physically, mentally and spiritually and to make him or her into a Bruneian citizen who will support the aspirations of Brunei.
2.	To make every student fluent in Malay language and realize its importance as the official language, to make every student proficient in English.
3.	To teach the Islamic faith so each person honours and is faithful to Islam and follows its guidance.
4.	To encourage loyalty to the Monarch and the State and the Law and to encourage people to be aware of their responsibilities as citizens.
5.	To cultivate the values and culture of Brunei society in each person, based on the principle of Malay Islamic Monarchy.
6.	To teach a love of peace, harmony mutual help and unity among the people living in Brunei.
7.	To create in each student these thing: a desire for progress, confidence in what they can do, creativity and awareness of the need to change to meet the needs of our time, but knowledge that these changes must be consistent with our values and the goals of the country.
8.	To quickly develop the resources of manpower in Brunei so that people can improve their standard of life and help Brunei to develop.

The recent and continuous development in technology have brought about changes into the world. There seems to border between countries as each are in a process called globalisation.

We now have tele-officing, tele-banking, tele-shopping and also tele-education. Tele-education at this moment is not that popular yet but some people expect that this will be the system to be used in the future.

However, we don’t agree about this fact. We are not saying that we should stop using this new technology in the educational field, it is just that computers should not be overused in the field of education.

The disadvantages of using only tele-education are :

3.22 Teaching methods

At the moment, computers are being introduced more and more in every aspects of life and this includes the educational field.

Computers is now used in what we call CAL (Computer Aided Learning) where the applications include making accurate graphs in Mathematics, interactive software programs, make experimental statistics, etc.

Teachers should vary their teaching methods, i.e. not limited to only verbal teaching. The human mind is not made only to listen to remember something, but to see, do , touch, experience,etc.

Special extra class should be introduced if necessary for under-achieving students so as to locate their difficulties in the subjects and improve their understanding. Revision exercises at the end of the week or month ( at least every fortnight ) would be helpful to make sure the students remember and understand what they have learn previously so as to maintain their consistency and to help them realize their ability for each topics.

3.23 School Environment

The school is the place where the students gain their knowledge. Therefore it is important to make sure that each students is comfortable with the school environment and this is also applied to the teachers.

An ideal school environment should provide students with facilities needed to give them a better understanding of the subjects. The facilities should include scientific apparatus, computers and laboratories. Sports facilities may be needed so as to give the students some place for recreation.

3.24 School System

After we both experience the present educational system in our own country, we are very satisfied with it and would like it to be maintained for the future. However, some parts of the educational system have to change in line with the current affairs and development.

We noticed that there is a huge difference between the primary format and the secondary one. As a results many students do not do well in their secondary school. Therefore we suggest that the present primary education format should be made more complex so that it is in line with the secondary education format.

3.25 The Course Curriculum

We think that the students should not only spend most of their time in the classrooms, but also conduct activities outside. This includes field trips, co-curricular activities such as sports, music,etc.

The educational system must also have connections to employment opportunities in the country, otherwise the students will end with unemployment. So the ministry of education must do thorough research on what fields are needed in the human resource development.

The curriculum surely would be more dependent on the use of computers and information technology due to the fact that computers are being introduced more and more in the employment sectors and have caused unemployment and deployment.

Cultural and religious knowledge should not be neglected because without these values, the population will have no guidance in what they do and may cause disasters, crimes, fraud, etc.

Lastly, to promote cooperation understanding between the SEAMEO member countries, it would be a good idea that we have the same educational system and syllabus so that students can continue their studies anywhere unlimitedly throughout the Southeast Asian region.

++++END OF REPORT++++ END OF REPORT++++ END OF REPORT++++ END

3.	Education in the future
3.1	What most people expect in the future

	1)	Individuals tends to be anti-social due to the fact that they don’t have t go outside their homes
	2)	Teachers will not know if the student have a problem
	3)	Hard to understand the subject
	4)	Cheating may occur
	5)	Hard for students to express themselves and to have a good relationship with others.

1)	They must have wide knowledge on the subjects they are teaching and keep in touch current affairs involving the subjects
2)	A person who is caring
3)	Have teaching technique which can take the attention of students
4)	Open minded and ready to take any critics from the students for improvement
5)	Creative and humorous to make the class more lively

done by :	Md Shah Rizal Amir Hj Mohiddin (Science College)
	Dk Nur Izzah Nazurah bte Pg Mohammad (SMPAPHM School)
	Brunei Darussalam