More Technical Expertise Needed
By Shareen Han

Bandar Seri Begawan - The Ministry of Education, concerned about the quality of education in primary and secondary schools in Brunei Darussalam, yesterday disclosed the need for more technical expertise in various areas.

The ministry's permanent secretary, Dato Paduka Sheikh Adnan Sheikh Mohamad, said that the declining number of students undertaking pure science subjects indicated the need for an inter-sectoral approach with other ministries such as the Ministry of Communications to incorporate ICT in teaching and learning processes.

In a briefing session attended by the director of United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) office in Jakarta, Dato Sheikh Adnan said Brunei needed assistance from international organisations such as Unesco through partnerships and "more work for inclusive based education". Dr Hubert Gijzen, director of Unesco's office in Jakarta, speaking to some 20 officials from the Education Ministry, stated that a comprehensive strategy of new programmes and projects required strong human resources and infrastructure such as laboratories.

He said that it was important for Brunei's education sector to know where the government was heading in order to provide the needed human resources in its efforts of economic diversification. "Unesco has introduced school science projects as one of the approaches to deal with the downward trend in the number of students taking science subjects," said Gijzen, who is on his first visit to Brunei.

Unesco has also initiated other projects, including a Natural Sciences Programme and capacity-building in basic engineering sciences, natural resources and renewable energies.

Gijzen explained that one of the roles of Unesco was to provide universal access to quality education through its Education For All Programme.

In addition, Unesco was actively setting up projects in the communication and information sector to strengthen people's access to information and subsequently strengthen democracy while at the same time promoting its cultural programme activities to sustain cultural industries, further developing cultural policies and fostering intercultural dialogue, he said.

"Some of the possible approaches that can be done to address challenges such as interagency cooperation is to truly decentralise within offices for better delivery," he said.

Gijzen, who became the director of the Unesco's Jakarta Office in July this year, arrived in the country yesterday. He paid courtesy calls to permanent secretaries of the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports and the Ministry of Development yesterday and will be making separate visits to the Ministry of Communications, Ministry of Industry and Primary Resources and Ministry of Foreign Affairs during his four-day visit.

His areas of specialisation include education, training, research and advisory services in the field of pollution prevention and control, environmental biotechnology and microbiology.

He has also been involved in. teaching and curriculum development in both undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in sciences and environmental engineering at universities. Brunei became Unesco's 191st member in 2005.-- Courtesy of The Brunei Times

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