Bandar Seri Begawan - With the objective of further developing cooperation between Brunei and the Republic of Korea in the field of ICT education, the Innovative ICT-Based Pilot Classroom project was yesterday launched at Rimba II Secondary School.

The objective is set through the establishment of a state-of-the-art classroom equipped with ICT hardware and software in Brunei, a project that cost half-a-million US dollars and is fully sponsored by the Korean government.

The Permanent Secretary (Core Education) at the Ministry of Education, Hj Mahrub Hj Murni was the guest of honour at the event, which also saw the presence of Korean Ambassador Choi Byung-koo, as well as the Assistant Minister for Primary and Secondary School Policy from the Ministry of Education and Science Technology (MEST) of the Republic of Korea, and delegation.

The initiative for ICT-based Innovation Classroom is part of international cooperation between Brunei, Columbia, Indonesia, and the Republic of Korea to explore the feasibility of 'future' school and to build strong and lasting partnership.

Through the project, each country can learn and benchmark partner countries' ICT usage at school and to strengthen, promote and develop cooperation between the Ministry of Education (Brunei) and MEST in the field of ICT Education. Additionally, a letter of intent has been signed.

As part of the cooperation programme, MEST has provided an Innovative ICT Classroom to Rimba II Secondary School. The classroom includes laptops, an interactive board, a printer, network devices, software and hardware for e-learning.

Educational personnel are expected to be able to see the full benefit of ICT in education to improve teaching and learning in their school, and this will also cover professional development of the teachers at the school.

Each partner country, through cooperation with the MEST of the Republic of Korea, will be able to inspire and motivate their teachers and school leaders to facilitate and enrich ICT use in education.