Brunei's Education System
At the last Friday prayer, one of the people who I always bump into every Friday but never really got to know well other than on a nod and smile basis, came over to me. He was asking me where I worked as he saw me sitting on stage at ICC when he was receiving his diploma. He was in his 30s and we chatted about why he is studying now when he already has a family to look after. He was very happy to receive his diploma trying to make up for his youth when he did not do very well academically and he was very glad to be given the chance to study again.What struck me are two things. The first is the determination of one person trying to make life better for himself by taking the sacrifice to continue his studying. He had undergone the 'school of regret' or 'sekolah menyesal' as most older people would say. He obviously saw that the future to a better life is best by taking up further studies. It was harder as he had to compete with much younger students though at the same time he had the maturity to do it. He was embarrased to be studying so late in his career but to me that's the beautiful bit, age does not matter. What is impotant is that he recognised it and is willing to overcome his handicap. At the same time, we should also help more people like him - those who are willing to go back to school to better themselves.
The second thing that struck me is our nation's education system and our traditionalist approach towards education. This is not the first time I have spoken about it. Though I am not an expert in this matter unlike some bloggers I have to defer to, who are much more opiniated about the subject matter. All I have is the experience of being a member of the Vocational and Technical Education Council as well as Academic Accreditation Council sub-committee on Management and Accountancy qualifications. But what I can sense from the traditional educationalist in the secretariats is that it will be a cold day in July before they stopped considering that it is not necessary for us to continue with our traditional schooling of 6 years primary, 3 year lower secondary, 2 year upper secondary, 2 years post secondary before completing university. GCE O levels and A levels are must haves, without which, they maybe unable to consider your univeristy's qualifications. Even though I am a product of the traditional education system and did very well, I also pitied those who did not have the academic inclination but go through on the trade route. This has always been one of the biggest issue that we have to go through at practically every meeting - the recognition of trade routes.
Being an insider, other people would say I should not have much difficulty in changing policies, but I also have to convince other members and generally have to defer to the council's collective decision. We require pressure from outside and this is where blog readers can come in to help spread the knowledge. I have said this before but to me it's worthwhile repeating - we should all be more concerned with our education system. Our country is too small for us to squander the few qualified people we have. For us to be too choosy may cause problems. But for us to be too liberal may also not be too good. A balancing act has to be achieved. Your role is to help highlight those issues.
Comments
Promotions dont come by so easily as the importance & abundance of degree / masters holders are primary factors to my promotion prospects. My former school peers are now holding good positions and even my siblings command higher than your average government officer B2 salary pay.
Today with family and "banking" commitments, the prospect of overseas courses are now distant & I am sure there are others like myself willing to take another shot and pray for the day UBD introduces part time BA courses!
Looking back i remember my former secondary teacher telling us students that only GOD knows how important it was to them to apply for "in service" at UBD during the late 80's.
compare the status of teaching profession in Brunei with the west, or even our neighbour spore or Msia. Wonder how high or how low we fare.
And rightfully so, because teaching is a job unlike any other, and there you are: a chance to make a significant difference in Brunei staring at you right in the face, every single day of your life. It is that chance you have to seize. You cannot be bothered by closed minded views of the 20s that teaching is some sort of a low status job.
That is all there is to it. Like I said, status is the least of our worries.
For example, no idea conceived by engineers could be transformed to a reality without the contributions of technicians, craftsmen and artisans. It's about time to recognise other trade routes....
yes...we should adopt the culture of life-long learning as well...
but hey, even Australia needs more people with PhD and people who would like to do research. Getting a degree is just not enough nowadays.
Salutations to the 30+ year old people who'd go for further education at their age. In Australia, you see 60yr old women driving. At such a wise age, embarrassment should be very trivial. Like they say, "education and learning shouldn't stop when you graduate from uni. It should stop when you die"
Being a teacher is a noble profession. We need more enthusiastic teachers. Teachers who could reach out to the youth today. Teachers could be very influential people in a young teenager's life.
Academic-oriented is the right word. The current education system is a bit lacking on the practical side. The spoon-feeding philosophy is still at large too. Quite worrying since it doesn't help them in the long run.
Probably because SOME policy makers can just easily afford to sent their children overseas & skip the whole Bruneian education system altogether. Not unless if their children study locally all the way then maybe they will constantly listen to their children complain about the system..but hey its free, so cant complain!
"If it doesnt look broken from the outside, dont fix it"
True about O & A levels, A friend had to wait a while to get his OZ degree accreditated because he did not have A levels!
Look at the other side of things. Correct me if i'm wrong, if students finish their studies earlier by a few years, wouldnt there be more unemployment given the current conditions?
---> Not that we cannot.. and no one says it is easy. But hey, nothing is easy. Just because something is difficult to attain, that doesn't mean we should not try and quit altogether!
Kuatkan semangat! Hehehe.
if in Brunei, what does EB mean in term of salary?
and if a teacher's salary is BND 1400 x 45, what does that 45 means? can u help me?
so that $45 means i will get $1400 per month for the 1st yer and $1445 per month for the nex year, is it?