Brunei: 10 Students to1 Teacher Ratio

Every 10 students have a teacher in Brunei
August 18, 2017

| Azlan Othman |

ON AVERAGE, there were 10 students to a teacher across schools in Brunei Darussalam last year, according to the 2016 Education Statistics and Indicators Handbook from the Ministry of Education (MoE).

The statistics, which was revealed this week, showed that last year saw an average of 443 students and 44 teachers per school. As of last year, the number of schools stood at 252, while the number of students totaled 111,698 and teachers 10,985.

Brunei-Muara District surpassed other districts with 158 schools, 85,846 students and 8,188 teachers; followed by Tutong (with 42 schools, 9,483 students and 1,109 teachers); Belait (38 schools, 14,407 students and 1,436 teachers) and Temburong (14 schools, 1,962 students and 252 teachers).

There were 192 pre-primary and primary schools last year (compared to 195 in 2015), while the secondary and sixth form centres maintained at 40 schools for both 2016 and 2015.

Tertiary and vocational education had increased to 13 institutions (compared to 12 in 2015), while the number of higher institutions remained at seven institutions for both 2016 and 2015.

Last year saw an increase in pre-primary and primary level enrolment, with a recorded 54,082 students compared to 53,698 the year earlier. Meanwhile, enrolment into secondary education had dropped to 40,731 students compared to 41,735 students in 2015.

Enrolment into higher education institutions also dropped to 12,027 compared to 13,040 students in 2015, as did enrolment into vocational and technical education, with a recorded 4,858 students compared to 5,514 the year earlier.

The number of teachers at the pre-primary and primary levels increased to 4,854 compared to 4,812 in 2015, while for secondary schools and sixth form centres, it had increased to 4,728 compared to 4,704 in 2015.

At higher education institutions, it had dropped to 808 teachers last year, compared to 820 in 2015.

The number of vocational and technical teachers has also declined to 595 compared to 643 the year earlier.

The number of graduates from local higher educational institutions last year totaled 4,035 students.

The statistics also revealed that there had been a percentage increase in the number of students who obtained two ‘AS’ and above passes in the BCGCE ‘A’ level examination, with 79.76 per cent in 2016 compared to 75.46 per cent in 2015, (up by 4.3 per cent).

The percentage of students who passed with five ‘O’ and above in the BCGCE ‘O’ Level exam dropped to 29.99 per cent in 2016 (compared to 32.37 per cent in 2015) for government schools.

The same was reported at private schools, with a drop to 63.04 per cent in 2016 compared to 64.38 per cent the year earlier.

The percentage of pupils who passed the Primary School Assessment (PSR) in 2016 also dropped to 85.72 per cent last year, compared to 86.41 per cent in 2015.

As of 2015, the total literacy rate stood at 98 per cent, with the literacy rate for males being at 98.6 per cent and females at 97.4 per cent.

Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin