'O' Level English Woes
By Azlan Othman

Bandar Seri Begawan - The Minister of Education expressed his concern over the low percentage of passes in the English language in Cambridge GCE `O' level despite a steady improvement over the last five years in Primary Certificate of Education (PCE) and Penilaian Menengah Bawah (PMB).

Pehin Dato Hj Awg Abd Rahman, who delivered a speech at the National English Language Teaching Conference at the Civil Service Institute yesterday, said the `O' level standard is the benchmark to compare our successes and shortcomings.

"As many of you will know, I have been making visits to several schools in the country. On the whole, I am pleased to note that English language results in PCE (PSR) and PMB have steadily improved over the last five years, particularly those achieving grades A and B.

"This is an encouraging sign and an indication that effective practices are put in place in some schools.

To those who are making effective contributions in our schools, I would like to say `thank you'.

However, these improvements are not reflected in GCE `O' level results," Pehin Rahman said.

Curriculums and syllabuses need constant reviews and adjustments in order to remain relevant in a rapidly changing world, he added.

The ministry is currently reviewing the country's national curriculum and examination system and will be introducing further measures to ensure that we equip our youths to become useful members of society in the future.

A trend among many developing economies is to adopt a broad-based curriculum, with a fundamental base of core subjects for all, alongside extended levels across a broad range of subjects that encourage creativity, he said.

"It is important for technical and vocational subjects to be included alongside traditional academic subjects in order to provide relevant knowledge and skills to enable countries like Brunei to diversify their economies.

"Obviously, if we are to train our young people for the world of work, then the world of work needs to be included in schools from a relatively early age," he said.

The minister said an extension of this challenge is to develop Education for Sustainable Development.

"There is an increasing awareness that while we must develop our economies to improve the opportunities and standard of living of our citizens, we must do this in a way that safeguards our country's environment and resources, and our cultural heritage and values for future generations," he added.

He urged teachers to use the conference as an opportunity to identify benchmarks for effective practices in classrooms and to devise steps we need to take to go beyond our present standard in order to surpass our present level of achievement.

He also urged them to give a serious thought to issues related to raising standards, such as whether the inclusion of a literature component in the existing English language syllabus or the sustained inculcation of a reading habit would improve standards.

The theme for this year's conference is "Effective English Language Classrooms". -- Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin

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