r-brunei-full-2014

Bilingual education in Brunei: the evolution of the Brunei approach to
bilingual education and the role of CfBT in promoting educational change:
full report
Both the MoE and CfBT were credited with contributing to the relationship shift. A number of
restrictions were eased on the ministry side, which allowed for more effective implementation and
reach of CfBT programmes. One of the main factors cited was that for the first time in 20 years, CfBT
teachers across the board received a pay increase. Indeed, one of the common interventions applied
among significantly-improved education systems identified by recent research was the improvement
in the structure of teachers’ and principals’ salaries. 128 Another factor in the Brunei context was
that (again for the first time) CfBT were given the go-ahead to work with school staff and students
outside of school hours, conducting examination ‘clinics’ for students and training workshops for
teachers. There was also a significant investment in the new English Project for Pre-School (EPPS)
programme, which introduced bilingual education at pre-school level and challenged the original
model favoured by Hugo Baetens Beardsmore of starting bilingualism later, at Year 4. The Early
Years intervention was expressed by the MoE as providing a better start for students in the form of
a ‘staggered subsidy’, especially to those who were not able to access kindergarten (or ‘pre-preschool’)
for various reasons (financial or geographical) and thus started school at a disadvantage
compared with other children who had attended kindergarten. This showed the Ministry’s awareness
of international evidence on the importance of investing in the Early Years and how this had the
potential to provide benefits in terms of better educational outcomes in the longer term.
From the mid-2000s CfBT was no longer seen as just a recruitment agency but an organisation that
could promote improvement in teaching and outcomes, and work in fruitful partnership to support
the Bruneian government’s increased expectations of improving the quality of its education system
and student outcomes. In this Brunei was showing a pattern common to many governments across
the world that wish to improve student attainment and support economic development (for example,
the OECD has recorded that the impact of PISA and TIMSS acts as a catalyst for many countries to
review their educational systems to enhance performance and economic competitiveness). 129
On the CfBT side, the implementation of the SCOPE project (and the design of the various strategies
by John Stannard, brought in as an external consultant) was seen to have far-reaching implications
for student attainment at a national level. The increased ‘singularity of focus’ of all parties to bring
about improved attainment in the English O Level exam via targeted interventions, for example
the MoE, department for schools (JSS) and teachers (both Bruneian and CfBT), was perceived
to contribute significantly to the resulting change. The project initially sought to target all students
at the C/D grade boundary and work to shift them into C-grade bands and above. However, this
strategy was also perceived to promote a positive spill-over effect, with shifts from lower bands
into higher grade bands system-wide, creating a ripple effect across the attainment spectrum
for O Level entrants, and increases in entries overall. While the perceived success of the project
and improved O Level results helped to build further trust between the MoE and CfBT, there was
also a perception that teachers who had initially been sceptical of this type of approach had been
‘won over’ and convinced that individual students and teachers were able to reap the benefits
of the different strategies applied. SCOPE was also viewed as having facilitated more systematic
and comprehensive collection and analysis of data for use at the individual student, class, school
and national levels, which had not been implemented before in a system-wide fashion in Brunei.
Moreover, there was recognition of the benefits of focused professional development and improved
resources and materials. Trust in CfBT was also built on other major valued contributions, such as
being able to mobilise practitioners and work closely with the MoE to deliver the EPPS programme
within a short time-frame, and to produce teaching and learning materials that prepared students for
O Level examinations and supported the development of writing skills.
128
Mourshed, Chijioke and Barber (2010) p. 61
129
Döbert, Klieme and Sroka (2004)
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