The Ministry of Education would like to respond to several letters published in the Borneo Bulletin regarding the new integrated system of education by highlighting the following:

1. There is no increase in the academic of Islamic religious curriculum load with the introduction of the integrated system. In fact, the existing Islamic religious curriculum is now spread over seven years at primary level and eventually five years at secondary.

2. For pupils, the school hours in the integrated system are as follows:

* For Preschool/Prasekolah children (aged 5), there is no change in the school hours. Lessons begin at 8.00am and finish at 12:00 noon. There are no afternoon classes for preschool children.

* For Darjah 1 children, lessons in the morning are from 7:15am to 12:30 pm. However, they are required to be in school one afternoon per week.

On that afternoon, sembahyang Zohor berjemaah is from 1:30pm to 1:45pm. Lessons and co-curricular activities are from 1:45pm to 3:34pm. From 3:45 to 4:30pm, sembahyang asar berjemaah is carried out.

* For Darjah 2 and 3 pupils, lessons in the morning are as usual. However, they are required to be in school two afternoons per week, from 1:30pm to 4:30pm, including sembahyang Zohor and Asar times. One afternoon is spent on co-curricular activities and the other on lessons. In the previous system, Darjah 3 pupils attended religious school every afternoon of the school week; under the new system, with religious education incorporated in the school curriculum, they are in school only 2 afternoons per week.

* Darjah 4 pupils, in addition to the usual morning hours, come back to school every afternoon, from 1:30pm to 4:30pm, including prayer times. One afternoon is devoted to co-curricular activities and the other four to lessons.

In the previous system, Darjah 4 children attended regular school hours from 7:00am to 12:30 pm, and religious schools from 1:30pm to 3:30 pm five times a week. Thus, there is no significant increase in the school hours for children at this level in the new system.

3. Parents who find the one-hour lunch break inadequate for fetching their children and returning them to school, could perhaps arrange for their children to stay back at school during lunch break. Parents who qualify for a lunch subsidy(bantuan makan tengahari) for their children may apply through the Guru Besar.

4. As for teachers, the timetable for morning lessons is as usual, with free periods included. All teachers teaching prasekolah to Darjah 6 are required to be in school two afternoons a week from 1:30pm to 4:30pm. One afternoon is spent on supervising or running co-curricular activities and the other afternoon on teaching, lesson preparation, marking or professional development. This has, in fact, been the practice in the majority of schools. In the case of preschool teachers, although their pupils are not required to be at the school in the afternoons, they are expected to assist teachers of other levels with co-curricular activities on one afternoon, and to spend the other afternoon on lesson preparation or other necessary teacher duties. On average a teacher has around 33 periods (16 hours) of teaching load per week. And in the school year, teachers have a total of 75 school holidays spread over four terms.

5. The Ministry of Education would like to point out that under the new system, for Darjah 4, instructional or teaching time is actually 7 hours per school day, excluding breaks and prayer times, on four days.

At the lower levels of primary school, however, instructional/teaching time varies from 5 hours on most days to 7 hours on one or two days a week, not 8 or 9 hours as stated in the letters published in the Borneo Bulletin.

6. It is hoped the above clarification will dispel any confusion or misgivings on the part of parents and teachers. The implementation of any new system needs time to be properly established, and ongoing feedback will certainly help the Ministry of Education to fine-tune the implementation process and achieve the desired goals.

- Director General of Education
- Ministry of Education
- Negara Brunei Darussalam BB3510

Congatulations to the chairman and his team for organising a very successful convention on HRD in Brunei.

We are very proud to have someone who could deliver a fantastic speech before an international audience including Dr. Mahathir Mohammed who is a seasoned speaker.

As local participants we are indeed grateful to AEMC for organising such a big event with well known speakers. We have learned a lot from these experienced and knowledgeable speakers particularly on the topic of HRD.

A talk by Pehin Dato Hj Abd Aziz on the topic of 'Bersepadu' was also very enlightening and had very useful information to be shared with everyone.

Again the whole convention was indeed very successful and "eye opener". A big thank you to AEMC particularly to the Chairman and Director of AEMC.

- Proud Local Participants

I wish to salute Rosli Abidin's news item on Page 6 of BB 20/01 - particularly the paragraph "while some of the agents had acted in a responsible manner, there were cases of foreign workers being recruited without confirmed employment here."

After that he goes on to say that cases of abuse of quotas also happened, being given to employers when workers were recruited to work as freelancers and the workers had to pay those quota owners a fee of $50 per month.

As I understand it, after registration and paying the B$500 for licence of a 2-year duration, agents will have to pay the so called "Security" or name it as "Warranty" and no specific amount as yet determined.

Say, if the security fee is thousands dollars the VerySMEs may not be able to pay, so what is the benefit of applying now?

Of course, big companies or enterprises who have hundreds and thousands of workers and staff would also very much like to be registered (unless there is a Clause that these people are not allowed to) enabling them to recruit and employ foreign workers. So what may happen is those VerySMEs may be left with no business.

Other agents (the VerySMEs) may join me in having such vision after they are registered legally.

Much more to be said but a forum may absorb all opinions. The answer to this point to ponder is definitely in the hands of agents, companies/employers (perhaps for Amahs as well) and those gearing towards being Brunei best!

- S Dayang

Nowadays, many people are conscious of their health, regardless of their age - young or old.

Many would choose to jog at the stadium, hike at Bukit Shahbandar, while the busy ones would find time to go to gyms and aerobic centres.

However, there's a couple of aerobic centre which has started business near Gadong.

I have noticed that while one centre would control their volume, the other would put their volume up to the maximum, and the instructor would shout loudly as well.

Please respect other people's wishes to keep nise under control.

- Keep Fit Fan

With regards to the letter asking for speedbumps outside the Anti-Narcotics Bureau, I believe that the contractor has done such a poor job of laying hotasphalt that he has built into that stretch of road surface more bumps than were there originally.

There is even a deep 6inch-wide hole in the middle of the newly laid section. JKR must supervise these road jobs.

- 'Jarred', BSB

In a recent opinion published in the "Opinion" page of Borneo Bulletin dated 12th January 2005 on the issue of 'Confused over Easi problems' by the writer 'Customer', DSTCom through its Easi Unit wishes to thank you for the feedback and will advise accordingly with regards to the Easi service.

Easi Xtra Roaming service launched on April 30 last year, offers greater flexibility with the availability of 101, 102 and 103 by making IDD calls, checks credit balance and recharges easily.

The introduction of 102 service by simply keying in *102# refines further the use of checking the credit balance of both local and overseas Easi customers from the normal 159 service.

In enhancing its service, DST has further implemented a "2-stage" credit notification system for the convenience of Easi customers as a reminder in the form of SMS prompt notification. The SMS notification will be sent to the Easi subscribers at an interval of 7, 3 and 1 day prior to credit expiry date to top-up or recharge their credit balance.

This is to advise proactively all Easi customers to take note of the timing for them to do the necessary top-up.

Nevertheless, the expiry date will only be applicable with the availability of the present credit account and will only become invalid if the account were to be exhausted earlier before the actual date of expiry.

DST would also like to bring to light dialling DSTCare 151 and EasiXtra on *102# (for inquiring credit balance) that the service is available 24 hours and would like to assure its valued customers that no charges incur on their credit balance affected when dialling those numbers regardless of exhausted credit owned by the customers.

As pointed out by the writer with credit balance expiry on the 4th instead of 10th of that month, in order to facilitate and identify the cause, we wish to invite the writer to come forward to our Easi Unit on the First floor at DSTGroup Yayasan branch at your own earliest convenience.

DSTCom hopes by giving this clarification, Easi users will be able to utilise the information given at their disposal and DST will always take a positive note on any feedback received and would endeavour to continuously enhance its services.

- Pg Hj Zahari Pg Hj Damit
- Manager Corporate Communication Unit-DST Group

Each time I visit the Rimba Clinic to check my children's health, I find the service at the clinic quite efficient.

However, I am sure that everyone who visits the clinic would notice that at the back of the clinic, the road near the dumping area has not been attended to for quite a long time.

Could the authorities do something about this road?

- Rimba Patient, BSB

We would be happy if the Mamih could open at least one branch in KB because there aren't much competition here in KB.

We are bored with eating expensive food at the current restaurants in KB.

We feel Mamih food is the best thing we have ever tasted. There are so many Mamih centres in Brunei/Muara.

Why not set up at least one branch in KB?

- Mamih Fan, KB