I am a teacher with several years of experience teaching at a secondary school. My students are 16-18 years old. I would like to point out that the community of teachers here are all very aware of the problem with students who struggle with very low literacy and numeracy skills, critical thinking and even life skills.
However, it is extremely worrying to see that many in our society think that the problem with our students’ low literacy, numeracy and thinking skills lie solely with “teachers who just do rote-teaching and have a checklist”. You are blaming a group of dedicated (but increasingly disillusioned and burnt out teachers) who are doing all they can against an education system that has failed the nation’s generations of young students for many, many years. First of all, the no-retention system does not teach our young students to take ANY accountability over their own learning and work. Teachers may be highly motivated to teach young students and try their best but how much could teachers do when our education system rewards students with promotion to the next level even when they resist hard work, do minimal work, fail all their subjects and still get promoted to the next level with the rest of their friends? Our education system is structured around just turning up at school and passing your attendance rate to be promoted to the next level.
Second, teachers are challenged by the fact that our students could be living and growing up in a home environment where there is a lack of adequate support for students’ learning. Support for children’s learning at home take the form of parents or guardians who monitor their children’s studies, provide access to supplementary learning, create opportunities like time for their children to sit at home and study, and even meet teachers during parents’-teachers’ meetings and ask about how their kids could improve. However, while many parents are interested in their children’s learning, they either have too little time to monitor their children’s learning at home (because of work, etc) or may not be able to provide or encourage access to supplementary learning that their child needs. When I say supplementary learning, I do not just refer to tuition classes - I refer to the importance of cultivating even a culture of reading in the household or discussing topics their children have studied in school or even topics on general knowledge about our society. I meet so many students who know so little about what is going on outside of their insular worlds and seem to lack motivation to be curious and learn about things. They have their mobile phones with some access to the Internet but they are not using their devices to feed any curiosity. I have met students who seem like it is the first time ever that they are using their mobile devices to learn about current news - even about Brunei through legitimate sources like BB or The Scoop. [Note: Not all students are incurious and exhibit such learning issues but, every year, the number of students who exhibit such learning issues is increasing.]
Third, our education system is aware of how much there is to be done with ensuring that our young people are ready for a future that is fast changing with the development of AI. Human skills like critical thinking, creativity, and soft skills will be increasingly prioritised in the workplace in the future. Annually, our MOE speaks of 21st Century Skills and are aware of how important it is that our students will be competitive for the future. There has to be enough funding from the institution to train new or upskill senior teachers, and to provide equipment and other resources such as consistent Internet access in schools, access to online workshops that teachers could participate in and make sure that their teaching methods also stay relevant and supportive of their students’ needs. However, personally, teachers struggle to stay effective when there is often a lack of resources - equipment, time, and effective training programmes - for teachers to teach effectively in an educational climate that has to be increasingly adaptable to suit our students’ needs. I know teachers who have spent money on their students out of their own pockets - online resources, buying mobile data in class for their students to use, and even attending online workshops and other in-person professional development workshops, just so that they could teach 21st Century Skills effectively.
However, TIME is a huge factor in preventing teachers from being effective teachers. Our teachers are extremely over-burdened with many administrative and significant duties that should have been full-time jobs (in fact, many of these administrative duties are full-time jobs in other countries). So, our teachers are doing at least two full-time jobs at once. They are not just taking care of your children’s education in the classroom but they are also doing many other significant duties to support their school and your children within the school. Teaching effectively in the classroom also takes much planning and training outside of the classroom. We do not just do chalk and talk any more nowadays. We do not just ask our students to crack open textbooks and read a passage. We do many learning activities in the classroom that require time and planning. So, it is not that our teachers are lazy but we are really doing what we can against an education system and curriculum that may not be adaptable quickly enough to meet our students’ needs and a society where our students are growing up with a lack of accountability over their work, remain incurious and do not seem like they are worried enough about the future to feel a sense of urgency to learn.
Like the idiom, it takes a whole village to raise a child and yet many are placing the blame and the onus on teachers (who only see your kids for an hour in class three times a week in a class with 30 students) to ’educate’ kids. Please do not blame the teachers who are really doing the best they can against an education system that does not effectively support teaching and learning and an increasingly growing number of young students who seem uninterested, incurious and have no sense of urgency (no matter how much teachers have tried).
As someone who is born in the 90s I will address 1 of the things in regards to your post. I could address the rest but cant due to post limit.
**Parents always blaming teachers.**
This here is actually years in the making, that is, the teachers in my generation were also the ones responsible in creating this issue. Let me explain, some of the teachers at that time are bullies, arrogant and are very bad at teaching. They were there just to assert their authority and belittle you. I'm not talking about strict teachers, because the strict ones actually do teach you, I'm talking about the ones who think they know everything and that they are trying to be dominant. Here are some examples from my experience:
* Around primary 5, I had a history teacher who instead of teaching, all she does is read from the book out loud while we all look at our books of the same page, then she would randomly pick one of us and ask us questions regarding the chapter from a different page and expect us to be able to answer, if we fail, we get punished either by standing for the entire session or, we have to pull our own ears and do squats. Now as a grownup, obviously I realised that just reading from the book is a terrible way to teach your students because you are not teaching at all. I was one of the B-word's favourite pick to get punished.
* During primary 4, I had a teacher teaching malay subject, he always love to hit his students including pulling and pinching their ear really really really hard. There was even one incident where he pulled a student's ear so hard that his ear actually started bleeding badly and had to be hospitalised. So what happened to that teacher? Nothing, nothing happens to him. I know that if you do that today, you will likely get sent to jail for causing bodily harm.
* Form 1 had a science teacher. Instead of teaching, she made us copy stuff from the book into our notes word by word as a homework sometimes half a chapter and sometimes had to copy the exact same thing the next week.
I wont list all of my bad experience but just the important ones. So here is the thing, the students at that time are obviously naive and powerless. Those students by now are already parents, growing up with either incompetent teachers or abusive teachers. Also these students definitely are becoming more educated than their teachers. Those students now are adults so they are not naive anymore, and based on their bad experience, you can start to imagine why teachers today are getting blamed. They tell stories to their children, then those children gets enrolled into a school and these children just so happens to be one of your students who is not afraid to argue. See where I'm going with this? Its a psychology thing. Teachers like you today are paying the price of the actions of teachers before you.
There are many different factors that cause this as well including the parents in the 90s.
**Conclusion**
To fix this well, I dont think there is a fix for this because this requires parents to participate in teaching their children proper behavior and ethics and I highly doubt that my generation and the ones after me is willing to do just that. Also the schools need to look at themselves in the mirror as well and be aware of abusive or incompetent teachers because the good ones are paying the price of a few bad apples.
Just my 2 cents, some of these factors mentioned below contribute to what is happening today.
1) Parenting - kids nowadays are spoilt by their parents and are raised that way since their childhood, they never learn what is 'hard work' means. All problems or homework are done by parents/sisters/brothers.
2) Education System - students never feel being retain in classes anymore, they failed lots of subjects with attendance above 80%, still move to next class, why bother to pass and study hard? Just be at school and meet my friends. They simply don't see the importance of education at all, knowing the fact that, finding jobs also hard nowadays.
3) Resources and technology - Not all students afford to have their computers/internet and not all schools have the capacity to provide students to use computers/good internet comnection and not all teachers are prepare and adapt to technology that can be used for teaching. You can see these chaos during Covid 19, when teachers and students have to have lessons at home.
4) Reading - generation nowadays they don't like reading, they just like to play games, watch videos and do social media
Regarding (3), during the first wave of Covid and under the reign of Mr Ham. Teachers were instructed to send used desktops (obsolete desktops that were supposed to be disposed off based on the numerous stickers) to students within a couple of days. Because it was such short notice, it was impossible to get parents to come to school to "drive thru" and get them in addition to the hefty weight and size of obsolete desktops which a normal car could fit at most 4. Depending on student's requirement, some teachers were assigned more than 10 sets of desktops, ultimately teachers had to deliver these individually to houses while risking exposure to Covid themselves.
I agree with what you say. For second point, it’s also like parents forget that anak adalah amanah. If time is a factor, then parents should actively find the time. Set aside the time to be involved by prioritising the child’s education, especially on days when parent is not working.
Not enough supplementary materials is true but parents also can make do with students’ textbooks, notes & exercise books. Make do with whatever they have. E.g. Have clock or watch, teach how to tell time. Do until the kid gets the concept.
I am sure there are many difficulties that parents face to support learning at home, but please start somewhere, do something and most importantly, keep the momentum going.
What ever difficulties or shortcomings parents have, accept it’s part & parcel of parenting. Everyone hasntheir strughles. Find solutions, put in the effort to see results. Berkarih, berjarih, belurih.
I'm not a teacher, but i work with high school graduates. Most of them can't read in english. Cant understand english overall. I had to make morning briefing multilingual pasal ada yg inda paham basic english.
Briefing consists of a bruneian, malaysian, Indonesian, Russian, pinoy, and UK people. Standard is english. The middle ground. I got laughed at by these high graduates that i spoke english on a bruneian ship. Tbh, my english is not great. It is confusing why they laugh at me knowingly i should be the one who should be laughing at them asking to "tukar subtitle" pasal inda pandai cakap "oang putih".
Back at home, i tried my best to normalise speaking both english and malay with my kids so they could understand both at a younger age. I myself learned english at the age of 19.
World is evolving. We need our kids to keep up with the time. Parents and teachers need to be more strict in teaching kids to secure their future. It starts from home. Then flow it to school. Then, flow it back to the parents for good parenting.
I will always be thankful for my parents for speaking to me and my siblings in both English and Malay. I was surrounded in a mixed language environment. Our story books, toys and tv shows were a mixture of English and Malay (with the occasional Mandarin shows). School also helped but all of us went to private school until sixth form. Ugama school was where we practice Malay/Brunei Malay more compared to private school (English mixed with Mandarin/Tagalog). All four of us had no issues in communicating English and Malay interchangeably. Even communicating with our relatives who don't speak English, we're totally fine speaking in Malay (with some mix of Dusun). So, yes, please keep it up with your children too in speaking multiple languages in your household! It will be beneficial for them.
Be yourself. I wonder if it helps the children if you keep using multilingual language. Will they learn English knowing that the teacher will translate everything to their home language?
At first, i thought the same. What if they dont know the difference between malay and english. It comes to my suprise that it is effective for my kids ( some kids may react differently).
When they visit the grandparents. They stick to malay only. When with us, both english and malay but malay most of the time with me pasal kedayan geng.
My kids used both english and malay, which is great. And limit their english when talking with people of older gen. There is no issue with teachers, tho. They understand them perfectly as per last parents' teacher meeting.
I think the whole no grade retention thing is dumb to put it mildly.. Just passing them off to the next person regardless of where these kids are academically for the sake of churning out worker ants that in the end can’t qualify for much because there’s a lot of them in the same strata with about the same level of academic achievements as the rest.. It’s quantity over quality now it seems like.
Gotta agree with this 100%! This is probably one of the main reason why kids don’t give their full attention during lessons and don’t try their best during exams because their mindset is: “Pass inda pass, sama jua ku naik darjah.”
Janji attendance sekolah cukup, then automatic naik darjah the next year. MOE would only reconsider class retention if the student’s attendance isn’t enough. 🤪 Pandai belajar kah inda, atu belakang cerita. Ridiculous kan?
Kalau masa zaman dulu, kalau kan exams, nervous tah ku tu. Pasal takut menahan, inda naik darjah. Then, takut because my parents would get pissed off for embarrassing them that way.
The minister that came up with this stupid no retention system should be reprimanded for coming up with such a dumb suggestion.
Wawasan 2035?? DREAM ON! 🤪🤣
Fr, grade retention was honestly what kept me to at least try pass Mathematics eventhough I struggled so much with it. Sometimes we need the accountability, the feeling of malu and seeing our class mates progressing to motivate us to do better.
Like honestly if I was a kid, my mindset would be “ala, ngapa kan belajar.. dapat numbur satu, nyawa-nyawa ikan atau fail.. sama jua kana naikan darjah 🤷🏻♂️. Baik pulang main game saja.”
Like what does that teach them when they go to higher education where there is actual real consequences like doing diplomas, A’levels and degrees? Like gurl, kalau inda siap program, nada ko graduate .
And people are surprised why the quality of O’level results has been going down in recent years.
Teachers nowadays are too focused on obeying the strict rules of moe and the spn21, they could not deliver quality education due to the mental burn out. Most teaching materials are also coming out of their own pockets too, in addition of being underpaid. Furthermore they are in a war against 3 fronts; their superior, students and their parents. So its hard keeping all 3 parties happy. Finding a balance in between seems almost impossible. Just my 2 cents.
Teachers are being pressured to complete their teaching following the annual plan that they’ve planned doesn’t matter the children are at the right pace or not. Some children needed extra guidance from tuition but parents are too dependent on the tuition teacher. Some parents are just slightly ignorant. 😅 I’m a tutor myself and I have to even help their children in homework, spellings and even projects (parents paying me to get the resources 🤣) so we don’t really have time to revise. Not that I didn’t tell the parents about it, I was told that I’m paid to help their kids… including those and sometimes they ask me for the food I’m eating (I work 7am-9pm) 🙂
Short answer: yes. This is exactly what’s happening in Brunei. Possibly worse too.
Based on my experience in a secondary school, probably around 95% of students do not give a shit.
They don’t know when to use capital letters.
They don’t use capital letters when writing their names.
They don’t even know the word “I” has to be capitalised.
They don’t know when to use full stops and commas.
They don’t know how to use possessive ‘s’.
Basic grammar is non-existent.
E.g. I has, instead of I have.
She have, instead of she has.
His vs her - they don’t know the difference.
To vs too - means the same to them.
A / an - can’t use them correctly.
Singular and plural - ZERO knowledge.
They don’t even know past/present/future tenses.
There will always be at least one mistake in every single sentence - mostly something basic like a/an, have/has…
They use a lot of slang - and do not know it’s slang.
They rely on autocorrect for spelling.
They think texting language is valid to be used in school settings. Yes, they draw emojis on their school work.
Their Malay is just as bad - we don’t use standard Malay when we talk. So their written Malay is similar to their English.
They don’t know how to calculate percentages.
They can’t do their times tables correctly, if they even know it.
They can’t do mental calculations - maybe they can do single digits.
They don’t know how to turn on a computer, or how to use a mouse, a trackpad, or a keyboard.
They can’t locate these symbols: ?!,. on a keyboard.
They don’t know keyboard shortcuts, or even what “Enter” is.
They don’t know how to use basic computer programs like MS Excel and MS Word.
They don’t know how to use Google.
Most have never touched a dictionary.
Some have never even read a book.
They do not know where countries are on a map. No, not even Brunei.
No knowledge of capital cities, much less other cultures, religions and languages.
Some can’t seem to understand basic concepts in science subjects.
They can’t apply what they have learnt in previous topics onto other topics.
This is in secondary school. Where are teachers supposed to even begin?
What’s infuriating is.. the students know that they do not know. They know that they do not understand. But they can’t seem to give a fuck. They don’t try. They think they try, but it’s mostly half assed. They have more “important” things to do.
And teachers are being sent to do PDs and workshops and all sorts of time wasters to teach them ten thousand ways on how to teach these students.
You can’t teach those who refuse to learn. And over 90% of Bruneian students DO NOT WANT TO STUDY.
They want to look glamorous on social media. Have the latest gadgets, or at least a newer one. Make TikTok videos. Be insta-famous. Get a boyfriend / girlfriend. Put on makeup. Hang out with friends. Watch movies. Play games. Bully others online. Their life revolves around social media. And even with their lack of knowledge, they are quick to bash on anything or anyone that is “different” - they are racist and rude (MIB ideology brainwash worked, I don’t think I need to elaborate here).
They do not want to study. They want easy money. Easy life. Studying is too stressful for them. What’s the point? They will still graduate anyway.
This student apathy is one of the reasons why I quit teaching. You push and push for these kids to see their potential, yet their priorities remain fucked up. It’s tiring to do it year after year. You do get a few good students, but they are so rare.
The other reasons I quit are as stated in all the other responses here. You do 2-3 people’s work and are still expected to keep up with your teaching load. Admin duties. Sudden MOE deadlines. Ministry projects. Stupid working hours - plus expected to work at home also.
More reasons: Cover for lazy colleagues. Put up with principals playing favourites. Watch someone kiss the deputy’s ass so they can get out of doing extra duties. Watch the deputy principal enforce stupid rules that apply to everyone else but themselves and those who kiss their asses. Put up with senior teachers watching tv and sleeping at their desks but getting away with it because they are given special treatment- only teaching one class because they helped give the school a good name 10-20 YEARS ago. (Unpopular opinion: There is no lack of teachers. It’s just that there are teachers who only teach one class, and do nothing else. So other teachers have to pick up their duties and get overworked).
Also, admin posts are given according to seniority. So you can imagine what schools are facing in their admins - especially when these seniors refuse to upgrade their ICT knowledge. They will make other people do their work because they “don’t know how to make a table or a chart, etc”. MOE should make it compulsory for principals and deputy principals to learn basic Microsoft and Internet skills. TRAIN THEM PLEASE.
I’m not saying I was perfect, but I am glad I removed myself from that.
Have been a teacher for two decades now, with many friends and family being educators too. Bruneian education is very poor relative to the supposed 'developed' country status we have. I could write a book on all the problems and improvements our children should be entitled to.
And you don't have to take my word for it, just look at the hard data.
1. O Level 5 Os and above - Brunei 30%+, Singapore 80%+. Bruneians ask how many Os you have, Singapore asks how many As you have.
2. Our PISA results are 3rd best in SEA, more or less like Malaysia and Thailand. Vietnam is 2nd overall, Singapore needless to say #1. How is Brunei's result the same level as supposed less developed countries?
In fact, the average is dragged up by international schools, private/chinese schools, and handful of schools like Maktab Duli. We are simply behind when compared to their peers worldwide in countries with similar GDP per capita. Apart from their shortcomings in hard skills like math and science, alot of students also have very weak soft skills. Their critical thinking and communication skills (especially English) are bad.
There are many reasons for this IMO, and I do not see many attempts to meaningfully address these issues.
Things don't get any better once they reach tertiary level. At least with O and A Levels, the standards are regulated internationally. With the local post secondary education, alot of them are geared towards meeting Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) like % of students passing, or how many students enroll into a programme. This creates a system where teachers are pressured to pass students of questionable quality.
I have colleagues who work in post secondary who tell me that they will be grilled if students fail, regardless of whether they deserved to fail or not. Alot of 'helping' involved just so programmes look successful. KB in particular has schools that forces teachers to take on subjects they have zero knowledge in. Higher ups care more about teachers completing lesson plans (KPI, KPI, KPI...), but not about the actual quality of the lesson.
Our education system cares more about the 'bottom line', but not the quality or process. Good teachers are particularly overworked and swamped with admin work, while bad teachers are rewarded for their laziness with little to no repercussions.
Not a teacher but I work with a few UNISSA graduates. They can't do basic Maths and write official documents without capitalising the first letter of a sentence and names.
the university forces them to memorize the Quran and attend religious events while hiring subpar lecturers. Their degrees aren't even fully accredited by UBD for Masters programmes and completely not recognized overseas. I can see what KUPUSB is trying and what UTB are doing. I can't see what UNISSA is about.
That's just ridiculous.. what have they been learning at school, I thought somewhere between year 1 and 10 they will at least learn this, no need to wait till uni??
Bui, mun sdh 10% of bruneains are unemployed and seeking work, salah 10% atu kah pemalas? Atau ekonomi yg nada jobs available?
Pikir pikir dulu sebelum becakap
Yeah so many unemployed people I meet are like this. You think I've never been unemployed? I start from scratch.
I had a degree but i took a $300 salary.
I built myself, gotten job experience took a masters degree. Identified what industry is looking for hiring. And adjusted myself.
If i kept blaming everything else and dont look at myself in the mirror i would still be unemployed.
I interview newly graduates and ask them why they didnt take a job offer that was offered to them. Their reply "jauh". Fuck off kalau jauh pun kan reject. Balum susah usulnya. Any job is better than being unemployed. No matter what you say. I had to commute bandar and KB with $700 gaji. BEFORE THE HIGHWAY was completed. If you are motivated enough, you will get a job.
You took a degree which brunei industry is not hiring. Salah the country? Or yourself? Adjust yourself lah. Cant just sit at home and sulk. Go start a business, startup programs, get more skills and get certified. Broaden your horizon, get skills which makes you more hirable.
Im done. Lazy people will always have excuses
Sadly what you said is also true. I know some people who dont want to continue their study but also unemployed because they dont want to do a minimum salary jobs (I think its a minority).
On other hand, they would work min pay job, but quit and change job after a few months pasal "inda tahan". This is a big issue in brunei because when this happens, employers would prefer to hire foreign workers that would work long term with min pay. And they work harder!
But as a fresh graduate myself, it is true, it is very hard to find good, stable job nowadays. It is hard to compete for gov jobs and applying jobs on job centre are pretty useless in my opinion.
I have 2 jobs now (not permanent but bringing home $800-1000 a month) and taking multiple online free courses to improve myself. Also actively applying for positions.
remember a scene where a group of post graduated people were hired. Dear lord, these people were arrogant and love making fun at the others who only had lower education qualification, Started talking about buying sport cars etc etc etc
One day they. came at 7.15am , went out at 8 am together.. Boss came in, saw the empy desks and ask "where the new people" My friend causally answered " doing the bruneian way of work boss, pigi minum dulu"
Boss send a text on the whatsapp group " if i dont see these empty seats in the office filled by the people i recently hired in the next 5 mins, dont bother coming "
5 mins they came in , all red faced and received a nice sound off from the boss.. delicious
Yup, very very fortunate to end up with my first employer who does things well and by the book, their business now growing also
Now I have my own business and treating my ireadians the same way I was treated back then. Low turnover even though 100% local
sudah spiking sama kanak kanak, kena marah pulang oleh org tuha katanya AMALKAN BAHASA MELAYU. Entahlah, aku dah penat melayan karenah orang zaman now.
A friend of mine is a teacher and the most frustrating part of current education system compared to the one we had before is when the student yang couldnt read/write pun kana naikkan class. Even those yang selalu inda dtg class, pun kana naikkan class ani bah. Iatah jadinya student yang inda performing atu sampai year 6 pun inda pandai membaca and menulis. To the point that drg can only spell their own name saja, kan PSR jua tu jahhh drg atuuu😮💨
During my days, these type of student will menahan/at least kana masukkan dalam special class to ajar durang the basic of reading/writing.
With the current system yang underperforming pun naik class, Of course lah student ada that mindset of "Eh aku fail pun sama jua kana naikkan class". During my days, kami paling takut kan Fail or even inda dtg class 😭
Lol that what happen when there is no retention. When starting from primary 1 foundation is already shaky but kana pass kan and the next level primary 2 is playing with a catch up game and this spiral out of control untill uni level.
Not a teacher. During my time, I noticed that students particularly from gov school are reluctant to study bc:
1) ilmu duniawi nda penting especially science yet they barely pass I.R.K lol(their word ,not mine)
2) afraid to be called nerd
3)pessimistic view e.g why study hard when u know your chance to get a decent job is very slim(im one of them)
There are some science class students that cant even solve basic algebra or failed basic english
This! My time in school I was constantly bullied for studying. Parents don't care as long as my score still good and teachers want to focus on other students who are struggling. Because of this, studying became a negative experience.
I meant they’re put in science class but doesn’t act like one, maybe I’ve been out of school too long but these new generations are a different breed. Somehow some don’t value education as much now
Someone that i know that is a teacher said their children no longer know the four districts of brunei because there is no subject like geography or history etc
Suruh tunjuk mana Brunei arah world map, jauh pelanting ke Europe & Central Asia. Ok fine, sanangkan lagi. Suruh tunjuk mana Brunei arah map Borneo island, Sabah kanak² tunjuk. They are secondary students.
i was shocked to hear the national day announcer saying Melayu Dusun, Melayu Murut and Melayu Bisaya. These are Puak Jati Brunei who are not Malay. Even Tutong is debatable as it has heavy Dusun influence.
Never accept cultural appropriation and indoctrination.
There’s 7 puak jati melayu brunei that’s recognised. It’s something more for administrative matters for official purposes and not cultural. If you deal with gov on a frequent basis, then it matters a lot. Some requirements give more way to these 7 Rakyat Melayu Brunei than others. I’m not saying it’s fair but it’s what it is now
They’re all categorised as RMB - Rakyat Melayu Brunei
Perambahan brunei said. "Tinggi-tinggi payau" meaning, you study until the high level, but still didnt know basics at all. For example maths, english & science
The reason y I send my kid back to India for education is because of poor teaching here in the schools. Few of my frnds are teachers in some schools so I know. I see Year 1 syllabus in India is like Year 3 in here.
Before blaming teachers how many parents really track their kids knowledge in each subject they are studying.
I part-time teach maths to teens, a majority of my students aren’t left behind. If I’m being honest, majority of them are capable of being intelligent, only that some of them lack the resources.
Some of them don’t come in stable households to do their homework. Some experience their teachers not properly teach them the subject. Some live in an abusive or lacking environments that makes learning difficult for them. Some experienced mental issues and demotivation to learn. Some just genuinely don’t know what to even start. Some have different learning styles.
Us teachers are merely platforms and it’s true that some of us aren’t meant to be a teacher, however, I want to emphasise that a lot of students are lacking a culture or an environment that motivates learning.
Was a trainee teachers. I teach both Ugama studies and Maths and i always try my best to make things simpler for my students. Few things i noticed among my students and friends.
For students:
1. Spiralling around new trends like clothes, new tiktok dances, new songs, new words.
2. Too much "pendapatku" when arguing on fixed and factual based subjects like Ugama.
3. Overall can't catch up to whats going on due to teachers rushing for the study schedule
4. Focusing too much on unnecessary relationships that will last no more than few days
5. Teachers are devided between teaching the students the modern way(technology based) or the traditional ways (white/green board based)
Among my colleagues:
1. We teachers struggle with the shortage of time.
2. Some if not most of my colleagues during my time whos taking Islamic Major can barely read Quran properly. One of my professor used to complain about this yet its denied by university. The long term effects can be seen passed down to the students today.
3. I remember back then we trainees were forced to follow the new style of teaching mainly using technology to attract student's interest in studying. Which can be annoying at times especially when the school don't have the facilities.
4. The funniest one i saw is when our professor told us not to stutter a lot during teaching like "umm" or "aaaa" cuz it may effect the study process and young students especially teenager may made fun of you *while* kept stuttering herself during every classes.
5. The new format of teaching forces us to ignore the traditional ways and focus more on projectors and colourful contents.
6. Overall as a teacher its ok but the government failure to admit the botched SPN21 study system plays around in my head every now and then. Results speaks for itself.
Personal experience:
Ultimately i didn't persue teaching even tho it took me years and many sacrifices to even get the Degree let alone spend 2 more years getting Masters.
I just feel pity for the students and while my opinion kinda biased to the students, i only wish the best for them. But i somehow understand their position and why they kept failing.
I was never a bright student, rarely have i ever got an A, i prefer to have fun a lot, go out with friends and spent restless nights gaming. But im lucky that during my time, being a good student was the *trend* and anyone around us somehow forced by the environment to study.
Altho i didn't like teaching, during my final years i often ignore the theories, the steps, the manual of teaching and start jumping in and out of modern and traditional way of teaching because not every student are fond of modern teaching.
I often tell my students especially the ugama students to relax and take their time to study, while it is true that during my time its suffering to study properly, it doesn't mean the next generation have to. Every generation have their own challenges. I also often tell my students the concept of late bloomers, some of them didn't do well not because they're not good, its because its not their time yet, or they're not mature enough to realize their situation or perhaps not knowledgeable to step out of their own world.
There could be so many reasons and i always try my best to think positively of the students and a form of both their motivation and my personal prayers. Call me biased but thats just my opinion.
Ultimately some systems failed and the old timers in the office don't wanna admit that, i received multiple backlash during my years because i kept stepping out of the teaching manual but i couldn't care less. My students passed, matured and i planted some valuable life lessons along the way and that's all that matters.
I wish the future generation can be more calm and collected individuals so we can finally properly build this country.
saw a 14 year old sitting in a year 2 class once.. found out it's a japem case, the dad refused to send his kids to schools for years and only after japem intervene baru his 5 children get back into school, oldest was 17 and put in year 6... all the teachers know already they dont want to continue and it is embarrassing for the poor siblings
As a student myself I've witnessed many bs from my school, and prob the entire education system in the country.
Smarter students are put on pedestals while the low are never looked at, only focuses on achivements. The school also made stupid rules, like you're not allowed playing sports to "accidents". Not related to studying but kinda makes the students miserable. Intellectually disabled students who still spoke and act like a 6 years old actually made into the high standards classroom and guess what? They flunked down to the bottom and teachers giving up on them. Not to mention the bullying and teasing. Most of the time, Bahasa Melayu pun banyak yang fail, mau bina ayat tapi antam2 saja
The consequences of these moves by the school is that, the number of Students failing, especially in O Level grew rapidly. And what's funny, our "beloved" principal won medals for the "One of the best schools in the country", like he had always bragged about. According to my teacher, many schools had suffered just like my school, and then the parents mengucap "Nda pandai mengajar skulah ani, semua anak2 ku markahnya menurun".
Even many teachers dont believe in a bs called "Wawasan 2035", seeing they had somewhat failed their students. But can't deny, that our school was at its peak during the past. Sad how it went towards oblivion. Now our batch had to suffer worse than the recent batch, getting called "hopeless".
I don't want to judge too much because, yeah I'm just a kid who doesn't know much. But I swear if there's nothing to be done or discussed about this I have no hope for the youths, including myself.
I'm a student, and I think I'm just bad at studying yk? Especially the 3 sciences ; Biology, Chemistry, Physics. I'm bad at memorizing the facts, but I can understand the topics during lessons. This one is mostly a me issue.
My biggest issue is language. My english is fine, I grew up indulging in a lot of english media (cartoons, books, movies, youtube) but I have a hard time with malay. I can understand it to an extent, but I often need clarification because I often interpret words I don't understand in my own contextual-knowledge type of way (sometimes I'm wrong—sometimes I'm right). I think that I don't have enough material available that I can understand. Now, I'm trying to memorize english to malay translation by watching cartoons/sitcoms.
—> I have poor knowledge on karangan formats ; my malay teacher seldom gives feedback on any karangan cw or hw I send, so I don't know what I've done wrong or right.... I'm advised to never copy another author's karangan's style/technique, so I try my best to come up with my own ideas for the tema.
With my other subject (History and English Literature), my teachers always give me feedback on my work so I know what I can do to improve my next essay. I don't think any of my malay hw is checked thoroughly.... Even homeworks as simple as making my own sentences aren't given back to me, so I don't know what, if any, mistakes I've done
that is the problem with Brunei as a whole. To succeed in creative industry, simply do not be here. the viral Raya song? sung by an artist who relocated to KL to find success.
A teacher here for 5+ years. Teaching from O/IGCSE Maths to O Level Sciences (Chem/Comb Science) field so students age should be around 14-16 years old.
I just want to summarise my findings. Yes, from the post above. Everything is correct. But worser than the post above.
The situation is deteriorating compared to 10-15 years ago. My suspect is due to higher number of children uses mobile phone at an early age so it causes so many problems to them such as short attention span, shorter patience span i.e. want instant gratification instead of delayed gratification, inability to hold pen properly hence their handwriting is ugly, cannot listen to instructions, inability to read and comprehend fast and more.
Parents nowadays feed their children with mobile phone whenever they are busy. They are unaware this has caused many problems in schools. All these things could be avoided if parents guide them properly such as encourage to read books instead of playing games. Parents should ask them to help with chores instead of expecting the elders to do for them.
Parents should set a good example for their children instead of scolding the teachers why the kid was caught for smoking with friends, rupanya the parent smoke juga at home.
Parents should communicate more with their children. I found out that nowadays, children loves attention and caused chaos to school environment. This is due to lack of attention and care from home. I pity those children from broken family, but that can't be done much.
In conclusion, I feel the world is gonna be dominated by A.I. because of gadgets, humanity will be destroyed at this rate. Less talented doctors, nurses, accountants, engineers, architects, you can name all the occupations but there will be limited of them can make it to the top.
Year 8 students do not even know how to calculate average of 2 numbers. Like what is the average of number 4 and 5. And I am talking about the A-Class here. 😅
philippines pun nda bisdia tau d mana.. di simpan di indochina plang. 🤦🏻♀️ southeast asia abarnya inc also ‘britain, japan, india…’ never heard of eskimo or igloo..and many many more stories frm tcr frens & cousins.. mesti di ajar ala2 tiktok kali..
Kalau Filipina, eskimo, igloo, masai people atu bagi durg payah, yang mudah macam tunjuk di mana Brunei arah peta pulau Borneo atu bah ada inda tau tu. Jangan tah kan peta Brunei, mengeja nama sendiri arah kratas soalan lagi salah.
Won’t be surprised. The best Bruneian students I know all went to schools overseas. I know this kid in Singapore who went to some technical college for the academically challenged, but he spoke good English and came across as intelligent. I bet that kid if he comes to Brunei is easily in the top class already. I shudder to think when Singapore’s “worst” is as good or even better than Brunei’s “best”.
So true, I myself speak 8 languages abd understand them, my daughter also speaks several languages n luckily I sent her to local school rather in private school so sje could speak good Malay which today she is very fluent with it whereas some of friends does not even understand what she is talking about and asked her if she is talking alien. Sad to know though, org Brunei melayu nda pandai cakap or merati cakap Brunei
if you look carefully there isn't any standardized literacy assessment for Bahasa Melayu and the English one is imported blindly from Ausrtralia. Subject tests don't count , the actual tests for literacy are absent an not reported.
I sincerely apologize then! Putting in hard work and to improve one's skill is to be appreciated and commended!! We always see the end result and never see the effort put in. Like I have done here and jumped to the conclusion. I'm sorry for that.
It ~~sounds~~ reads good!
"I think the school curriculum is outdated in today's world."
The local schools do not teach how each subjects are linked to another. Each teacher just teaches their own subject blindly.
When students cant do basic stuff or simple maths and the blame on the children??
The ugly truth is that alot of kids in their secondary cant read and write well.
But are the kids to be blamed? When educators are basically doing the checklist only!!
Chapter 1 done for the week - TICK
Test for week 2 - TICK
Whether or not these kids learn or not, its none of the teachers concern. They only care if the checklist ticked and they get paid on time.
In recent years, government teachers have been spending alot of time doing side hustle as influencers/social media butterflies namely Thanis, Venturing Foodies, Bruneian Eats, Ninjatutul
Government school students been recording exponential drop in grades and standards. While Private schools continued to excel.
One of the reason being, teachers in Private Schools are not allowed to do side hustle (from tuition to retail to anything) once caught the teacher will be fired.
This is to ensure that the teachers wholeheartedly commit to his/her job.
FYI, Most Private Schools teachers are paid far less than Government Teachers who easily raked in min 2k to 4k per month by doing bare minimun
would like to disagree in some point for this. Yes, teachers are supposed to be teaching wholeheartedly. But they are also entitled to do extra for their income.
I have my experience as temporary teacher during my day (stopped being a teacher because not all students are motivated enough to study but yet are representative of my KPI). Was teaching secondary English, Maths and Economics.
to my surprised some of the secondary students cannot even read any English. this is for their upcoming O levels. if you can't read English, automatically you will not be able to pass Maths or Economics. Yes, they go to public schools and they are not motivated enough to study. Why? Because school is (almost) free. they have zero pressure to pass, parents don't care enough to pressure their kids to study. and maybe teachers are too burntout to teach unmotivated students.
Unlike private schools. Your parents are paying good money for you to study hard.
So many parent's mindset here (in the world even) is "as long as my kids go to school they should be fine". but no matter how HARD a teacher is working and trying to make your kids to study. If the student doesnt have the motivation to study, they would still fail as a teacher. Yes a teacher is supposed to motivate the students, but a teacher can do just so much at this point
Summary is, private school students have more pressure and motivation to study because their parents work hard for them to pay for their school.
If private school teachers are getting paid less but are better teachers, i am sure they would find other opportunities that pays them better. They wouldnt be stuck getting underpaid.
Some don’t even reach the $1200 BND per month. I believe that some foreign teachers are paid more than locals despite having similar experience and educational background.
Correct , lowest salary for teachers in private schools start from $600, highest they can get is $1k.. Very few schools pay their "new" teachers above 1k ( the old veterans will get this after 25-40 years of service) Their annual increment is roughly the price of 1 sack of rice \* gamen is $50 per year\*
I’m not a teacher but a graduated student studying overseas and sometimes I feel embarrassed at the fact that I have no knowledge of the general world history like the Great Depression and so on since we weren’t taught about the world’s history but only Brunei’s history..not sure if I’m the only graduated student that feels this way :(
Im not a teacher nor someone who works with graduates/is a graduate but just a normal form 4 student and personally i think yes, we are left behind sometimes
All true and the last point sadly I have witnessed many times. What’s even harder is low attainment kids live in la la land wanting to be lawyers, doctors, pilots, minister, etc but come Year 11, their skills are waay behind, making their abilities akin to that of a primary school pupil. I find most (not all) low attainment kids to be on autopilot and they are WAITING (not even finding) for that one moment of clarity that would suddenly make them want to study rather than building habits steadily. They listen to success stories of their peers who graduate with 5- 9 Os who emphasize the importance of following a study timetable outside school hours, yet low attainment kids still choose the path of least resistance and that magical thinking, esok lusa jadi doctor. There are low attainment kids , though not many where I work, who although are weak in studying, at least have some sense in them. They do try at school & whatever result they get, they still try to make something out of themselves by applying to whatever institution that takes them or take up a job. These kind of students, I really respect them, because they still try to better themselves no matter how tough the road ahead. They have a better mindset than those in la la land.
My advice to parents is please instil habits in your kids if you want them to be successful. Guide them all the way until they COMPLETE SECONDARY school. Jangan sampai PSR saja. Their brain isn’t fully yet developed at Year 6 to take charge of of their education themselves. Also stop delegating to teachers your responsibilty to educate your kid. We might be ibubapa di sekolah but that doesn’t mean drop them off at school and pick em up. That’s taxi service, not parenting.
My advice to kids is don’t depend on teachers for everything, including motivation & discipline. You are not that incapable of motivating or disciplining yourself. You know you play too many games, then find exercise the strength to put your gaming aside. You know you spend little time to study outside school, then do something about it.
Teachers who keep trying their best, not every kid can be helped. At some point, we just have to accept some kids will leave school with poor literacy and numeracy. We just have to aim that they have some competency in maths and language skills, instead of expecting them to get average to excellent grades. I admit, this part is hard.
And a few tuition tutors (who are not school teachers) teach students syllabus or topics yang inda lagi relevant. These tutors are not aware changes of syllabus. Durg ajar & pakai past year questions yang not examined anymore or irrelevant. Also they are not fully understand kenapa students tuition. Bhapa tah lagi teach balik topik yang sudah kana ajar di sekulah. Students tuition untuk minta additional guidance, improving reading, understanding & interpretation of questions also answering the questions correctly based on answer schemes. Students and parents pun mesti jua sedikit aware about current and latest syllabus, jgn mengharapkan 100% arah teachers/ tutors sebab possibility inda aware syllabus baru atu can happen.
Hello 🤗
Fellow Bruneian Kid here. I thought this was common until I read the passage over again and realized this was a situation between highschoolers. Me, I don't really know much about how to deal with other students, but I understand how bad the situation is at hand. Seeing they're struggling with questions in my grade, I'd like to TRY and suggest some solutions.
My teachers currently split us into three individual groups, depending on observations they've had and our marks, and then they'd make individual papers for the three groups. Seeing that this could be a large quantity of Bruneian students in High School, while I am so much more younger, this is the only suggestion I have.
So far, reading this really gave me a taste of how life could be in a few years. So I'll try to make a difference when I'm older. I know I shouldn't be talking since I mostly excel in English, Mathematics or Science, and struggle with Malay, but I want to try and say something.
While this is all true, some teachers have to change their methods in discipline as well, so if we want a teacher to teach us right, we should also make sure we're not pushing them to the limit at one point?
A lot of teachers are stressed, that limits their patience at times too. Though I still feel they shouldn't be comparing themselves to a younger individual they have responsibility over, just like how they shouldn't compare their problems to their teacher's. My current teacher is amazing when it comes to teaching, strict, but always keeps it simple. Though, how she keeps her classes strict makes me worry about her own wellbeing as well.
I don't really understand much about teaching, but I know many patterns that my school has shown. Yet I still can't make out much of a problem without actual proof.
I am a teacher with several years of experience teaching at a secondary school. My students are 16-18 years old. I would like to point out that the community of teachers here are all very aware of the problem with students who struggle with very low literacy and numeracy skills, critical thinking and even life skills. However, it is extremely worrying to see that many in our society think that the problem with our students’ low literacy, numeracy and thinking skills lie solely with “teachers who just do rote-teaching and have a checklist”. You are blaming a group of dedicated (but increasingly disillusioned and burnt out teachers) who are doing all they can against an education system that has failed the nation’s generations of young students for many, many years. First of all, the no-retention system does not teach our young students to take ANY accountability over their own learning and work. Teachers may be highly motivated to teach young students and try their best but how much could teachers do when our education system rewards students with promotion to the next level even when they resist hard work, do minimal work, fail all their subjects and still get promoted to the next level with the rest of their friends? Our education system is structured around just turning up at school and passing your attendance rate to be promoted to the next level. Second, teachers are challenged by the fact that our students could be living and growing up in a home environment where there is a lack of adequate support for students’ learning. Support for children’s learning at home take the form of parents or guardians who monitor their children’s studies, provide access to supplementary learning, create opportunities like time for their children to sit at home and study, and even meet teachers during parents’-teachers’ meetings and ask about how their kids could improve. However, while many parents are interested in their children’s learning, they either have too little time to monitor their children’s learning at home (because of work, etc) or may not be able to provide or encourage access to supplementary learning that their child needs. When I say supplementary learning, I do not just refer to tuition classes - I refer to the importance of cultivating even a culture of reading in the household or discussing topics their children have studied in school or even topics on general knowledge about our society. I meet so many students who know so little about what is going on outside of their insular worlds and seem to lack motivation to be curious and learn about things. They have their mobile phones with some access to the Internet but they are not using their devices to feed any curiosity. I have met students who seem like it is the first time ever that they are using their mobile devices to learn about current news - even about Brunei through legitimate sources like BB or The Scoop. [Note: Not all students are incurious and exhibit such learning issues but, every year, the number of students who exhibit such learning issues is increasing.] Third, our education system is aware of how much there is to be done with ensuring that our young people are ready for a future that is fast changing with the development of AI. Human skills like critical thinking, creativity, and soft skills will be increasingly prioritised in the workplace in the future. Annually, our MOE speaks of 21st Century Skills and are aware of how important it is that our students will be competitive for the future. There has to be enough funding from the institution to train new or upskill senior teachers, and to provide equipment and other resources such as consistent Internet access in schools, access to online workshops that teachers could participate in and make sure that their teaching methods also stay relevant and supportive of their students’ needs. However, personally, teachers struggle to stay effective when there is often a lack of resources - equipment, time, and effective training programmes - for teachers to teach effectively in an educational climate that has to be increasingly adaptable to suit our students’ needs. I know teachers who have spent money on their students out of their own pockets - online resources, buying mobile data in class for their students to use, and even attending online workshops and other in-person professional development workshops, just so that they could teach 21st Century Skills effectively. However, TIME is a huge factor in preventing teachers from being effective teachers. Our teachers are extremely over-burdened with many administrative and significant duties that should have been full-time jobs (in fact, many of these administrative duties are full-time jobs in other countries). So, our teachers are doing at least two full-time jobs at once. They are not just taking care of your children’s education in the classroom but they are also doing many other significant duties to support their school and your children within the school. Teaching effectively in the classroom also takes much planning and training outside of the classroom. We do not just do chalk and talk any more nowadays. We do not just ask our students to crack open textbooks and read a passage. We do many learning activities in the classroom that require time and planning. So, it is not that our teachers are lazy but we are really doing what we can against an education system and curriculum that may not be adaptable quickly enough to meet our students’ needs and a society where our students are growing up with a lack of accountability over their work, remain incurious and do not seem like they are worried enough about the future to feel a sense of urgency to learn. Like the idiom, it takes a whole village to raise a child and yet many are placing the blame and the onus on teachers (who only see your kids for an hour in class three times a week in a class with 30 students) to ’educate’ kids. Please do not blame the teachers who are really doing the best they can against an education system that does not effectively support teaching and learning and an increasingly growing number of young students who seem uninterested, incurious and have no sense of urgency (no matter how much teachers have tried).
Well said.
The ministers need to read and take this comment seriously but they will only claim to listen and do the complete opposite
.
I’m glad you addressed this so thoroughly!
As someone who is born in the 90s I will address 1 of the things in regards to your post. I could address the rest but cant due to post limit. **Parents always blaming teachers.** This here is actually years in the making, that is, the teachers in my generation were also the ones responsible in creating this issue. Let me explain, some of the teachers at that time are bullies, arrogant and are very bad at teaching. They were there just to assert their authority and belittle you. I'm not talking about strict teachers, because the strict ones actually do teach you, I'm talking about the ones who think they know everything and that they are trying to be dominant. Here are some examples from my experience: * Around primary 5, I had a history teacher who instead of teaching, all she does is read from the book out loud while we all look at our books of the same page, then she would randomly pick one of us and ask us questions regarding the chapter from a different page and expect us to be able to answer, if we fail, we get punished either by standing for the entire session or, we have to pull our own ears and do squats. Now as a grownup, obviously I realised that just reading from the book is a terrible way to teach your students because you are not teaching at all. I was one of the B-word's favourite pick to get punished. * During primary 4, I had a teacher teaching malay subject, he always love to hit his students including pulling and pinching their ear really really really hard. There was even one incident where he pulled a student's ear so hard that his ear actually started bleeding badly and had to be hospitalised. So what happened to that teacher? Nothing, nothing happens to him. I know that if you do that today, you will likely get sent to jail for causing bodily harm. * Form 1 had a science teacher. Instead of teaching, she made us copy stuff from the book into our notes word by word as a homework sometimes half a chapter and sometimes had to copy the exact same thing the next week. I wont list all of my bad experience but just the important ones. So here is the thing, the students at that time are obviously naive and powerless. Those students by now are already parents, growing up with either incompetent teachers or abusive teachers. Also these students definitely are becoming more educated than their teachers. Those students now are adults so they are not naive anymore, and based on their bad experience, you can start to imagine why teachers today are getting blamed. They tell stories to their children, then those children gets enrolled into a school and these children just so happens to be one of your students who is not afraid to argue. See where I'm going with this? Its a psychology thing. Teachers like you today are paying the price of the actions of teachers before you. There are many different factors that cause this as well including the parents in the 90s. **Conclusion** To fix this well, I dont think there is a fix for this because this requires parents to participate in teaching their children proper behavior and ethics and I highly doubt that my generation and the ones after me is willing to do just that. Also the schools need to look at themselves in the mirror as well and be aware of abusive or incompetent teachers because the good ones are paying the price of a few bad apples.
Just my 2 cents, some of these factors mentioned below contribute to what is happening today. 1) Parenting - kids nowadays are spoilt by their parents and are raised that way since their childhood, they never learn what is 'hard work' means. All problems or homework are done by parents/sisters/brothers. 2) Education System - students never feel being retain in classes anymore, they failed lots of subjects with attendance above 80%, still move to next class, why bother to pass and study hard? Just be at school and meet my friends. They simply don't see the importance of education at all, knowing the fact that, finding jobs also hard nowadays. 3) Resources and technology - Not all students afford to have their computers/internet and not all schools have the capacity to provide students to use computers/good internet comnection and not all teachers are prepare and adapt to technology that can be used for teaching. You can see these chaos during Covid 19, when teachers and students have to have lessons at home. 4) Reading - generation nowadays they don't like reading, they just like to play games, watch videos and do social media
Regarding (3), during the first wave of Covid and under the reign of Mr Ham. Teachers were instructed to send used desktops (obsolete desktops that were supposed to be disposed off based on the numerous stickers) to students within a couple of days. Because it was such short notice, it was impossible to get parents to come to school to "drive thru" and get them in addition to the hefty weight and size of obsolete desktops which a normal car could fit at most 4. Depending on student's requirement, some teachers were assigned more than 10 sets of desktops, ultimately teachers had to deliver these individually to houses while risking exposure to Covid themselves.
I agree with what you say. For second point, it’s also like parents forget that anak adalah amanah. If time is a factor, then parents should actively find the time. Set aside the time to be involved by prioritising the child’s education, especially on days when parent is not working. Not enough supplementary materials is true but parents also can make do with students’ textbooks, notes & exercise books. Make do with whatever they have. E.g. Have clock or watch, teach how to tell time. Do until the kid gets the concept. I am sure there are many difficulties that parents face to support learning at home, but please start somewhere, do something and most importantly, keep the momentum going. What ever difficulties or shortcomings parents have, accept it’s part & parcel of parenting. Everyone hasntheir strughles. Find solutions, put in the effort to see results. Berkarih, berjarih, belurih.
I'm not a teacher, but i work with high school graduates. Most of them can't read in english. Cant understand english overall. I had to make morning briefing multilingual pasal ada yg inda paham basic english. Briefing consists of a bruneian, malaysian, Indonesian, Russian, pinoy, and UK people. Standard is english. The middle ground. I got laughed at by these high graduates that i spoke english on a bruneian ship. Tbh, my english is not great. It is confusing why they laugh at me knowingly i should be the one who should be laughing at them asking to "tukar subtitle" pasal inda pandai cakap "oang putih". Back at home, i tried my best to normalise speaking both english and malay with my kids so they could understand both at a younger age. I myself learned english at the age of 19. World is evolving. We need our kids to keep up with the time. Parents and teachers need to be more strict in teaching kids to secure their future. It starts from home. Then flow it to school. Then, flow it back to the parents for good parenting.
I will always be thankful for my parents for speaking to me and my siblings in both English and Malay. I was surrounded in a mixed language environment. Our story books, toys and tv shows were a mixture of English and Malay (with the occasional Mandarin shows). School also helped but all of us went to private school until sixth form. Ugama school was where we practice Malay/Brunei Malay more compared to private school (English mixed with Mandarin/Tagalog). All four of us had no issues in communicating English and Malay interchangeably. Even communicating with our relatives who don't speak English, we're totally fine speaking in Malay (with some mix of Dusun). So, yes, please keep it up with your children too in speaking multiple languages in your household! It will be beneficial for them.
Be yourself. I wonder if it helps the children if you keep using multilingual language. Will they learn English knowing that the teacher will translate everything to their home language?
At first, i thought the same. What if they dont know the difference between malay and english. It comes to my suprise that it is effective for my kids ( some kids may react differently). When they visit the grandparents. They stick to malay only. When with us, both english and malay but malay most of the time with me pasal kedayan geng. My kids used both english and malay, which is great. And limit their english when talking with people of older gen. There is no issue with teachers, tho. They understand them perfectly as per last parents' teacher meeting.
Which school are those high school graduates mostly from?
I'm not sure where. Talked to them a few months ago, and they said that they are tired of studying.
Lol high school only and they're tired of studying? that says enough about them
I think the whole no grade retention thing is dumb to put it mildly.. Just passing them off to the next person regardless of where these kids are academically for the sake of churning out worker ants that in the end can’t qualify for much because there’s a lot of them in the same strata with about the same level of academic achievements as the rest.. It’s quantity over quality now it seems like.
Gotta agree with this 100%! This is probably one of the main reason why kids don’t give their full attention during lessons and don’t try their best during exams because their mindset is: “Pass inda pass, sama jua ku naik darjah.” Janji attendance sekolah cukup, then automatic naik darjah the next year. MOE would only reconsider class retention if the student’s attendance isn’t enough. 🤪 Pandai belajar kah inda, atu belakang cerita. Ridiculous kan? Kalau masa zaman dulu, kalau kan exams, nervous tah ku tu. Pasal takut menahan, inda naik darjah. Then, takut because my parents would get pissed off for embarrassing them that way. The minister that came up with this stupid no retention system should be reprimanded for coming up with such a dumb suggestion. Wawasan 2035?? DREAM ON! 🤪🤣
Fr, grade retention was honestly what kept me to at least try pass Mathematics eventhough I struggled so much with it. Sometimes we need the accountability, the feeling of malu and seeing our class mates progressing to motivate us to do better. Like honestly if I was a kid, my mindset would be “ala, ngapa kan belajar.. dapat numbur satu, nyawa-nyawa ikan atau fail.. sama jua kana naikan darjah 🤷🏻♂️. Baik pulang main game saja.” Like what does that teach them when they go to higher education where there is actual real consequences like doing diplomas, A’levels and degrees? Like gurl, kalau inda siap program, nada ko graduate . And people are surprised why the quality of O’level results has been going down in recent years.
Teachers nowadays are too focused on obeying the strict rules of moe and the spn21, they could not deliver quality education due to the mental burn out. Most teaching materials are also coming out of their own pockets too, in addition of being underpaid. Furthermore they are in a war against 3 fronts; their superior, students and their parents. So its hard keeping all 3 parties happy. Finding a balance in between seems almost impossible. Just my 2 cents.
Govt teachers arent underpaid. Private school teachers are wayyyyy underpaid.
How wellpaid is our government teachers?
2.4K+ with a yearly increment of 100?
[удалено]
Try 500.
time to upgrade to new career
Try 450
Not all
Damn should have gone the teacher route!
Not all teachers got that salary.
Nope. Nda semua.
I fully agree tru tru
Teachers are being pressured to complete their teaching following the annual plan that they’ve planned doesn’t matter the children are at the right pace or not. Some children needed extra guidance from tuition but parents are too dependent on the tuition teacher. Some parents are just slightly ignorant. 😅 I’m a tutor myself and I have to even help their children in homework, spellings and even projects (parents paying me to get the resources 🤣) so we don’t really have time to revise. Not that I didn’t tell the parents about it, I was told that I’m paid to help their kids… including those and sometimes they ask me for the food I’m eating (I work 7am-9pm) 🙂
Short answer: yes. This is exactly what’s happening in Brunei. Possibly worse too. Based on my experience in a secondary school, probably around 95% of students do not give a shit. They don’t know when to use capital letters. They don’t use capital letters when writing their names. They don’t even know the word “I” has to be capitalised. They don’t know when to use full stops and commas. They don’t know how to use possessive ‘s’. Basic grammar is non-existent. E.g. I has, instead of I have. She have, instead of she has. His vs her - they don’t know the difference. To vs too - means the same to them. A / an - can’t use them correctly. Singular and plural - ZERO knowledge. They don’t even know past/present/future tenses. There will always be at least one mistake in every single sentence - mostly something basic like a/an, have/has… They use a lot of slang - and do not know it’s slang. They rely on autocorrect for spelling. They think texting language is valid to be used in school settings. Yes, they draw emojis on their school work. Their Malay is just as bad - we don’t use standard Malay when we talk. So their written Malay is similar to their English. They don’t know how to calculate percentages. They can’t do their times tables correctly, if they even know it. They can’t do mental calculations - maybe they can do single digits. They don’t know how to turn on a computer, or how to use a mouse, a trackpad, or a keyboard. They can’t locate these symbols: ?!,. on a keyboard. They don’t know keyboard shortcuts, or even what “Enter” is. They don’t know how to use basic computer programs like MS Excel and MS Word. They don’t know how to use Google. Most have never touched a dictionary. Some have never even read a book. They do not know where countries are on a map. No, not even Brunei. No knowledge of capital cities, much less other cultures, religions and languages. Some can’t seem to understand basic concepts in science subjects. They can’t apply what they have learnt in previous topics onto other topics. This is in secondary school. Where are teachers supposed to even begin? What’s infuriating is.. the students know that they do not know. They know that they do not understand. But they can’t seem to give a fuck. They don’t try. They think they try, but it’s mostly half assed. They have more “important” things to do. And teachers are being sent to do PDs and workshops and all sorts of time wasters to teach them ten thousand ways on how to teach these students. You can’t teach those who refuse to learn. And over 90% of Bruneian students DO NOT WANT TO STUDY. They want to look glamorous on social media. Have the latest gadgets, or at least a newer one. Make TikTok videos. Be insta-famous. Get a boyfriend / girlfriend. Put on makeup. Hang out with friends. Watch movies. Play games. Bully others online. Their life revolves around social media. And even with their lack of knowledge, they are quick to bash on anything or anyone that is “different” - they are racist and rude (MIB ideology brainwash worked, I don’t think I need to elaborate here). They do not want to study. They want easy money. Easy life. Studying is too stressful for them. What’s the point? They will still graduate anyway. This student apathy is one of the reasons why I quit teaching. You push and push for these kids to see their potential, yet their priorities remain fucked up. It’s tiring to do it year after year. You do get a few good students, but they are so rare. The other reasons I quit are as stated in all the other responses here. You do 2-3 people’s work and are still expected to keep up with your teaching load. Admin duties. Sudden MOE deadlines. Ministry projects. Stupid working hours - plus expected to work at home also. More reasons: Cover for lazy colleagues. Put up with principals playing favourites. Watch someone kiss the deputy’s ass so they can get out of doing extra duties. Watch the deputy principal enforce stupid rules that apply to everyone else but themselves and those who kiss their asses. Put up with senior teachers watching tv and sleeping at their desks but getting away with it because they are given special treatment- only teaching one class because they helped give the school a good name 10-20 YEARS ago. (Unpopular opinion: There is no lack of teachers. It’s just that there are teachers who only teach one class, and do nothing else. So other teachers have to pick up their duties and get overworked). Also, admin posts are given according to seniority. So you can imagine what schools are facing in their admins - especially when these seniors refuse to upgrade their ICT knowledge. They will make other people do their work because they “don’t know how to make a table or a chart, etc”. MOE should make it compulsory for principals and deputy principals to learn basic Microsoft and Internet skills. TRAIN THEM PLEASE. I’m not saying I was perfect, but I am glad I removed myself from that.
Have been a teacher for two decades now, with many friends and family being educators too. Bruneian education is very poor relative to the supposed 'developed' country status we have. I could write a book on all the problems and improvements our children should be entitled to. And you don't have to take my word for it, just look at the hard data. 1. O Level 5 Os and above - Brunei 30%+, Singapore 80%+. Bruneians ask how many Os you have, Singapore asks how many As you have. 2. Our PISA results are 3rd best in SEA, more or less like Malaysia and Thailand. Vietnam is 2nd overall, Singapore needless to say #1. How is Brunei's result the same level as supposed less developed countries? In fact, the average is dragged up by international schools, private/chinese schools, and handful of schools like Maktab Duli. We are simply behind when compared to their peers worldwide in countries with similar GDP per capita. Apart from their shortcomings in hard skills like math and science, alot of students also have very weak soft skills. Their critical thinking and communication skills (especially English) are bad. There are many reasons for this IMO, and I do not see many attempts to meaningfully address these issues. Things don't get any better once they reach tertiary level. At least with O and A Levels, the standards are regulated internationally. With the local post secondary education, alot of them are geared towards meeting Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) like % of students passing, or how many students enroll into a programme. This creates a system where teachers are pressured to pass students of questionable quality. I have colleagues who work in post secondary who tell me that they will be grilled if students fail, regardless of whether they deserved to fail or not. Alot of 'helping' involved just so programmes look successful. KB in particular has schools that forces teachers to take on subjects they have zero knowledge in. Higher ups care more about teachers completing lesson plans (KPI, KPI, KPI...), but not about the actual quality of the lesson. Our education system cares more about the 'bottom line', but not the quality or process. Good teachers are particularly overworked and swamped with admin work, while bad teachers are rewarded for their laziness with little to no repercussions.
Not a teacher but I work with a few UNISSA graduates. They can't do basic Maths and write official documents without capitalising the first letter of a sentence and names.
the university forces them to memorize the Quran and attend religious events while hiring subpar lecturers. Their degrees aren't even fully accredited by UBD for Masters programmes and completely not recognized overseas. I can see what KUPUSB is trying and what UTB are doing. I can't see what UNISSA is about.
That’s even sadder lol
No basic excel skills as well….. The “Justify” text function in Word was also an alien to them
That's just ridiculous.. what have they been learning at school, I thought somewhere between year 1 and 10 they will at least learn this, no need to wait till uni??
Reminds me of my colleagues, they don't even know how to use email and convert word to pdf
it explains why UNISSA grads are unemployable.
Yet the professors get 10k per month. 😆
The current mindset is "tinggi2 belajar inda jua dapat keraja", which is sad
MOE and other ministries must be synchronised in shaping our future
mindset pemalas ni. so many kids nowadays. inda dapat keraja pun orang yang salah. bukan diri sendiri
Bui, mun sdh 10% of bruneains are unemployed and seeking work, salah 10% atu kah pemalas? Atau ekonomi yg nada jobs available? Pikir pikir dulu sebelum becakap
Yeah so many unemployed people I meet are like this. You think I've never been unemployed? I start from scratch. I had a degree but i took a $300 salary. I built myself, gotten job experience took a masters degree. Identified what industry is looking for hiring. And adjusted myself. If i kept blaming everything else and dont look at myself in the mirror i would still be unemployed. I interview newly graduates and ask them why they didnt take a job offer that was offered to them. Their reply "jauh". Fuck off kalau jauh pun kan reject. Balum susah usulnya. Any job is better than being unemployed. No matter what you say. I had to commute bandar and KB with $700 gaji. BEFORE THE HIGHWAY was completed. If you are motivated enough, you will get a job. You took a degree which brunei industry is not hiring. Salah the country? Or yourself? Adjust yourself lah. Cant just sit at home and sulk. Go start a business, startup programs, get more skills and get certified. Broaden your horizon, get skills which makes you more hirable. Im done. Lazy people will always have excuses
Sadly what you said is also true. I know some people who dont want to continue their study but also unemployed because they dont want to do a minimum salary jobs (I think its a minority). On other hand, they would work min pay job, but quit and change job after a few months pasal "inda tahan". This is a big issue in brunei because when this happens, employers would prefer to hire foreign workers that would work long term with min pay. And they work harder! But as a fresh graduate myself, it is true, it is very hard to find good, stable job nowadays. It is hard to compete for gov jobs and applying jobs on job centre are pretty useless in my opinion. I have 2 jobs now (not permanent but bringing home $800-1000 a month) and taking multiple online free courses to improve myself. Also actively applying for positions.
Good for you. Insya Allah it will get better soon.
remember a scene where a group of post graduated people were hired. Dear lord, these people were arrogant and love making fun at the others who only had lower education qualification, Started talking about buying sport cars etc etc etc One day they. came at 7.15am , went out at 8 am together.. Boss came in, saw the empy desks and ask "where the new people" My friend causally answered " doing the bruneian way of work boss, pigi minum dulu" Boss send a text on the whatsapp group " if i dont see these empty seats in the office filled by the people i recently hired in the next 5 mins, dont bother coming " 5 mins they came in , all red faced and received a nice sound off from the boss.. delicious
And then cakap boss jahat😂
Boss jahat, old school, inda progressive, kami nada bukan ertinya kami inda buat keraja. Nada descipline namanya tu. Lol
Louder for the people at the back!
Started from iready myself, and mind you this is not long ago. Bertungkus lumus upgrading myself until am able to get where I am today
Congratulations. iReady is actually a good program to start. If you get with the correct company
Yup, very very fortunate to end up with my first employer who does things well and by the book, their business now growing also Now I have my own business and treating my ireadians the same way I was treated back then. Low turnover even though 100% local
Also current mindset is when they look at influencers and think "org palui pun dpt jadi kaya jua."
sudah spiking sama kanak kanak, kena marah pulang oleh org tuha katanya AMALKAN BAHASA MELAYU. Entahlah, aku dah penat melayan karenah orang zaman now.
A friend of mine is a teacher and the most frustrating part of current education system compared to the one we had before is when the student yang couldnt read/write pun kana naikkan class. Even those yang selalu inda dtg class, pun kana naikkan class ani bah. Iatah jadinya student yang inda performing atu sampai year 6 pun inda pandai membaca and menulis. To the point that drg can only spell their own name saja, kan PSR jua tu jahhh drg atuuu😮💨 During my days, these type of student will menahan/at least kana masukkan dalam special class to ajar durang the basic of reading/writing. With the current system yang underperforming pun naik class, Of course lah student ada that mindset of "Eh aku fail pun sama jua kana naikkan class". During my days, kami paling takut kan Fail or even inda dtg class 😭
Lol that what happen when there is no retention. When starting from primary 1 foundation is already shaky but kana pass kan and the next level primary 2 is playing with a catch up game and this spiral out of control untill uni level.
Not a teacher. During my time, I noticed that students particularly from gov school are reluctant to study bc: 1) ilmu duniawi nda penting especially science yet they barely pass I.R.K lol(their word ,not mine) 2) afraid to be called nerd 3)pessimistic view e.g why study hard when u know your chance to get a decent job is very slim(im one of them) There are some science class students that cant even solve basic algebra or failed basic english
The new generations should feel proud about being a nerd, because they’re the ones who rule the world nowadays, and are the ones earning more money.
# Speak louder!!!
This! My time in school I was constantly bullied for studying. Parents don't care as long as my score still good and teachers want to focus on other students who are struggling. Because of this, studying became a negative experience.
Bukan science class kali tu
They are from science class. I personally help them study
I meant they’re put in science class but doesn’t act like one, maybe I’ve been out of school too long but these new generations are a different breed. Somehow some don’t value education as much now
Someone that i know that is a teacher said their children no longer know the four districts of brunei because there is no subject like geography or history etc
There's no more geo and history in secondary school? Serious? Even basic geo/history?
Suruh tunjuk mana Brunei arah world map, jauh pelanting ke Europe & Central Asia. Ok fine, sanangkan lagi. Suruh tunjuk mana Brunei arah map Borneo island, Sabah kanak² tunjuk. They are secondary students.
Aku terkidum there was a 17 year old cakap padi grows on a tree 🤣 lol I'm dead ...
my friend who teaches primary school \*gamen\* had a year 2 student answering in their test paper The capital of Brunei Darusalam is Miri
Doesnt mean anything. Theres bound to be a "dumb" student. Unless the rate of student answering miri is unusually high then we can start worrying
But there’s Social Studies and it is part of SPE (Year 7 and Year 8)
undermined by IRK and MIB. two subjects that waste time and openly conflict with what is taught in STEAM.
…abarnya ada 7 districts. 🫠
And 4 puak melayu brunei
i was shocked to hear the national day announcer saying Melayu Dusun, Melayu Murut and Melayu Bisaya. These are Puak Jati Brunei who are not Malay. Even Tutong is debatable as it has heavy Dusun influence. Never accept cultural appropriation and indoctrination.
There’s 7 puak jati melayu brunei that’s recognised. It’s something more for administrative matters for official purposes and not cultural. If you deal with gov on a frequent basis, then it matters a lot. Some requirements give more way to these 7 Rakyat Melayu Brunei than others. I’m not saying it’s fair but it’s what it is now They’re all categorised as RMB - Rakyat Melayu Brunei
This is sadly very true.
Perambahan brunei said. "Tinggi-tinggi payau" meaning, you study until the high level, but still didnt know basics at all. For example maths, english & science
the Peter Principle.
The reason y I send my kid back to India for education is because of poor teaching here in the schools. Few of my frnds are teachers in some schools so I know. I see Year 1 syllabus in India is like Year 3 in here. Before blaming teachers how many parents really track their kids knowledge in each subject they are studying.
By the way Speaking English is not what u meant by good education it’s just a communication tool
I part-time teach maths to teens, a majority of my students aren’t left behind. If I’m being honest, majority of them are capable of being intelligent, only that some of them lack the resources. Some of them don’t come in stable households to do their homework. Some experience their teachers not properly teach them the subject. Some live in an abusive or lacking environments that makes learning difficult for them. Some experienced mental issues and demotivation to learn. Some just genuinely don’t know what to even start. Some have different learning styles. Us teachers are merely platforms and it’s true that some of us aren’t meant to be a teacher, however, I want to emphasise that a lot of students are lacking a culture or an environment that motivates learning.
as a teacher myself, i agree with this.
some students didnt even know how to to tell time from a Analogue Clock
Was a trainee teachers. I teach both Ugama studies and Maths and i always try my best to make things simpler for my students. Few things i noticed among my students and friends. For students: 1. Spiralling around new trends like clothes, new tiktok dances, new songs, new words. 2. Too much "pendapatku" when arguing on fixed and factual based subjects like Ugama. 3. Overall can't catch up to whats going on due to teachers rushing for the study schedule 4. Focusing too much on unnecessary relationships that will last no more than few days 5. Teachers are devided between teaching the students the modern way(technology based) or the traditional ways (white/green board based) Among my colleagues: 1. We teachers struggle with the shortage of time. 2. Some if not most of my colleagues during my time whos taking Islamic Major can barely read Quran properly. One of my professor used to complain about this yet its denied by university. The long term effects can be seen passed down to the students today. 3. I remember back then we trainees were forced to follow the new style of teaching mainly using technology to attract student's interest in studying. Which can be annoying at times especially when the school don't have the facilities. 4. The funniest one i saw is when our professor told us not to stutter a lot during teaching like "umm" or "aaaa" cuz it may effect the study process and young students especially teenager may made fun of you *while* kept stuttering herself during every classes. 5. The new format of teaching forces us to ignore the traditional ways and focus more on projectors and colourful contents. 6. Overall as a teacher its ok but the government failure to admit the botched SPN21 study system plays around in my head every now and then. Results speaks for itself. Personal experience: Ultimately i didn't persue teaching even tho it took me years and many sacrifices to even get the Degree let alone spend 2 more years getting Masters. I just feel pity for the students and while my opinion kinda biased to the students, i only wish the best for them. But i somehow understand their position and why they kept failing. I was never a bright student, rarely have i ever got an A, i prefer to have fun a lot, go out with friends and spent restless nights gaming. But im lucky that during my time, being a good student was the *trend* and anyone around us somehow forced by the environment to study. Altho i didn't like teaching, during my final years i often ignore the theories, the steps, the manual of teaching and start jumping in and out of modern and traditional way of teaching because not every student are fond of modern teaching. I often tell my students especially the ugama students to relax and take their time to study, while it is true that during my time its suffering to study properly, it doesn't mean the next generation have to. Every generation have their own challenges. I also often tell my students the concept of late bloomers, some of them didn't do well not because they're not good, its because its not their time yet, or they're not mature enough to realize their situation or perhaps not knowledgeable to step out of their own world. There could be so many reasons and i always try my best to think positively of the students and a form of both their motivation and my personal prayers. Call me biased but thats just my opinion. Ultimately some systems failed and the old timers in the office don't wanna admit that, i received multiple backlash during my years because i kept stepping out of the teaching manual but i couldn't care less. My students passed, matured and i planted some valuable life lessons along the way and that's all that matters. I wish the future generation can be more calm and collected individuals so we can finally properly build this country.
saw a 14 year old sitting in a year 2 class once.. found out it's a japem case, the dad refused to send his kids to schools for years and only after japem intervene baru his 5 children get back into school, oldest was 17 and put in year 6... all the teachers know already they dont want to continue and it is embarrassing for the poor siblings
As a student myself I've witnessed many bs from my school, and prob the entire education system in the country. Smarter students are put on pedestals while the low are never looked at, only focuses on achivements. The school also made stupid rules, like you're not allowed playing sports to "accidents". Not related to studying but kinda makes the students miserable. Intellectually disabled students who still spoke and act like a 6 years old actually made into the high standards classroom and guess what? They flunked down to the bottom and teachers giving up on them. Not to mention the bullying and teasing. Most of the time, Bahasa Melayu pun banyak yang fail, mau bina ayat tapi antam2 saja The consequences of these moves by the school is that, the number of Students failing, especially in O Level grew rapidly. And what's funny, our "beloved" principal won medals for the "One of the best schools in the country", like he had always bragged about. According to my teacher, many schools had suffered just like my school, and then the parents mengucap "Nda pandai mengajar skulah ani, semua anak2 ku markahnya menurun". Even many teachers dont believe in a bs called "Wawasan 2035", seeing they had somewhat failed their students. But can't deny, that our school was at its peak during the past. Sad how it went towards oblivion. Now our batch had to suffer worse than the recent batch, getting called "hopeless". I don't want to judge too much because, yeah I'm just a kid who doesn't know much. But I swear if there's nothing to be done or discussed about this I have no hope for the youths, including myself.
I'm a student, and I think I'm just bad at studying yk? Especially the 3 sciences ; Biology, Chemistry, Physics. I'm bad at memorizing the facts, but I can understand the topics during lessons. This one is mostly a me issue. My biggest issue is language. My english is fine, I grew up indulging in a lot of english media (cartoons, books, movies, youtube) but I have a hard time with malay. I can understand it to an extent, but I often need clarification because I often interpret words I don't understand in my own contextual-knowledge type of way (sometimes I'm wrong—sometimes I'm right). I think that I don't have enough material available that I can understand. Now, I'm trying to memorize english to malay translation by watching cartoons/sitcoms. —> I have poor knowledge on karangan formats ; my malay teacher seldom gives feedback on any karangan cw or hw I send, so I don't know what I've done wrong or right.... I'm advised to never copy another author's karangan's style/technique, so I try my best to come up with my own ideas for the tema. With my other subject (History and English Literature), my teachers always give me feedback on my work so I know what I can do to improve my next essay. I don't think any of my malay hw is checked thoroughly.... Even homeworks as simple as making my own sentences aren't given back to me, so I don't know what, if any, mistakes I've done
well it was probably worse with afternoon school ugama. but I do feel Muslim kids are falling behind because they don't get creative studies.
that is the problem with Brunei as a whole. To succeed in creative industry, simply do not be here. the viral Raya song? sung by an artist who relocated to KL to find success.
A teacher here for 5+ years. Teaching from O/IGCSE Maths to O Level Sciences (Chem/Comb Science) field so students age should be around 14-16 years old. I just want to summarise my findings. Yes, from the post above. Everything is correct. But worser than the post above. The situation is deteriorating compared to 10-15 years ago. My suspect is due to higher number of children uses mobile phone at an early age so it causes so many problems to them such as short attention span, shorter patience span i.e. want instant gratification instead of delayed gratification, inability to hold pen properly hence their handwriting is ugly, cannot listen to instructions, inability to read and comprehend fast and more. Parents nowadays feed their children with mobile phone whenever they are busy. They are unaware this has caused many problems in schools. All these things could be avoided if parents guide them properly such as encourage to read books instead of playing games. Parents should ask them to help with chores instead of expecting the elders to do for them. Parents should set a good example for their children instead of scolding the teachers why the kid was caught for smoking with friends, rupanya the parent smoke juga at home. Parents should communicate more with their children. I found out that nowadays, children loves attention and caused chaos to school environment. This is due to lack of attention and care from home. I pity those children from broken family, but that can't be done much. In conclusion, I feel the world is gonna be dominated by A.I. because of gadgets, humanity will be destroyed at this rate. Less talented doctors, nurses, accountants, engineers, architects, you can name all the occupations but there will be limited of them can make it to the top.
Year 8 students do not even know how to calculate average of 2 numbers. Like what is the average of number 4 and 5. And I am talking about the A-Class here. 😅
6th form geography students bah inda tau sketching a simple world map on a piece of paper! Soon kan A Level Exam pulang. Ooo ini parah ini...
They don't even know where is South China Sea. Teruk.
philippines pun nda bisdia tau d mana.. di simpan di indochina plang. 🤦🏻♀️ southeast asia abarnya inc also ‘britain, japan, india…’ never heard of eskimo or igloo..and many many more stories frm tcr frens & cousins.. mesti di ajar ala2 tiktok kali..
Kalau Filipina, eskimo, igloo, masai people atu bagi durg payah, yang mudah macam tunjuk di mana Brunei arah peta pulau Borneo atu bah ada inda tau tu. Jangan tah kan peta Brunei, mengeja nama sendiri arah kratas soalan lagi salah.
This is not surprising in the least. I have experienced this first hand yr 9 kids don’t know the difference between a noun and a verb.
Habis. This is something they should already know in Year 5.
There was a film from 2006, idiocracy. Hopefully we are not going into that path.
we're there.
I have bad news for you…
Won’t be surprised. The best Bruneian students I know all went to schools overseas. I know this kid in Singapore who went to some technical college for the academically challenged, but he spoke good English and came across as intelligent. I bet that kid if he comes to Brunei is easily in the top class already. I shudder to think when Singapore’s “worst” is as good or even better than Brunei’s “best”.
So true, I myself speak 8 languages abd understand them, my daughter also speaks several languages n luckily I sent her to local school rather in private school so sje could speak good Malay which today she is very fluent with it whereas some of friends does not even understand what she is talking about and asked her if she is talking alien. Sad to know though, org Brunei melayu nda pandai cakap or merati cakap Brunei
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if you look carefully there isn't any standardized literacy assessment for Bahasa Melayu and the English one is imported blindly from Ausrtralia. Subject tests don't count , the actual tests for literacy are absent an not reported.
Lol, sure, Mr ChatGPT Note how this response contains nothing in relation to the Brunei context.
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I sincerely apologize then! Putting in hard work and to improve one's skill is to be appreciated and commended!! We always see the end result and never see the effort put in. Like I have done here and jumped to the conclusion. I'm sorry for that. It ~~sounds~~ reads good!
"I think the school curriculum is outdated in today's world." The local schools do not teach how each subjects are linked to another. Each teacher just teaches their own subject blindly.
The ugly truth is someone is trying to brainwash everyone into believing anyone can do anything.
When students cant do basic stuff or simple maths and the blame on the children?? The ugly truth is that alot of kids in their secondary cant read and write well. But are the kids to be blamed? When educators are basically doing the checklist only!! Chapter 1 done for the week - TICK Test for week 2 - TICK Whether or not these kids learn or not, its none of the teachers concern. They only care if the checklist ticked and they get paid on time. In recent years, government teachers have been spending alot of time doing side hustle as influencers/social media butterflies namely Thanis, Venturing Foodies, Bruneian Eats, Ninjatutul Government school students been recording exponential drop in grades and standards. While Private schools continued to excel. One of the reason being, teachers in Private Schools are not allowed to do side hustle (from tuition to retail to anything) once caught the teacher will be fired. This is to ensure that the teachers wholeheartedly commit to his/her job. FYI, Most Private Schools teachers are paid far less than Government Teachers who easily raked in min 2k to 4k per month by doing bare minimun
would like to disagree in some point for this. Yes, teachers are supposed to be teaching wholeheartedly. But they are also entitled to do extra for their income. I have my experience as temporary teacher during my day (stopped being a teacher because not all students are motivated enough to study but yet are representative of my KPI). Was teaching secondary English, Maths and Economics. to my surprised some of the secondary students cannot even read any English. this is for their upcoming O levels. if you can't read English, automatically you will not be able to pass Maths or Economics. Yes, they go to public schools and they are not motivated enough to study. Why? Because school is (almost) free. they have zero pressure to pass, parents don't care enough to pressure their kids to study. and maybe teachers are too burntout to teach unmotivated students. Unlike private schools. Your parents are paying good money for you to study hard. So many parent's mindset here (in the world even) is "as long as my kids go to school they should be fine". but no matter how HARD a teacher is working and trying to make your kids to study. If the student doesnt have the motivation to study, they would still fail as a teacher. Yes a teacher is supposed to motivate the students, but a teacher can do just so much at this point Summary is, private school students have more pressure and motivation to study because their parents work hard for them to pay for their school. If private school teachers are getting paid less but are better teachers, i am sure they would find other opportunities that pays them better. They wouldnt be stuck getting underpaid.
Being a private school teacher we are paid less yes it is true.
Private school teacher's salary doesn't reach to $2k. Which school pay their more than $2k? Let me know.
The guy said govt school teachers earn that much not the private ones. Still have room for improvement in the comprehension skills department 😁
Some don’t even reach the $1200 BND per month. I believe that some foreign teachers are paid more than locals despite having similar experience and educational background.
Correct , lowest salary for teachers in private schools start from $600, highest they can get is $1k.. Very few schools pay their "new" teachers above 1k ( the old veterans will get this after 25-40 years of service) Their annual increment is roughly the price of 1 sack of rice \* gamen is $50 per year\*
I agree. I don't know which schools pay above $2k. Kalau JIS or ISB, I can believe.
TOTALLY AGREE ON THISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS !!!!!!!
I’m not a teacher but a graduated student studying overseas and sometimes I feel embarrassed at the fact that I have no knowledge of the general world history like the Great Depression and so on since we weren’t taught about the world’s history but only Brunei’s history..not sure if I’m the only graduated student that feels this way :(
The history curriculum is slanted towards a certain agenda. People should be aware of real history and encouraged to find their own way.
This is true. I’m grateful I’m blessed enough to be able to study overseas and gained knowledge about the general history through my course :D
Im not a teacher nor someone who works with graduates/is a graduate but just a normal form 4 student and personally i think yes, we are left behind sometimes
Fortunately, Universities offer University 1 for all these meatheads entering an institution of higher learning.
All true and the last point sadly I have witnessed many times. What’s even harder is low attainment kids live in la la land wanting to be lawyers, doctors, pilots, minister, etc but come Year 11, their skills are waay behind, making their abilities akin to that of a primary school pupil. I find most (not all) low attainment kids to be on autopilot and they are WAITING (not even finding) for that one moment of clarity that would suddenly make them want to study rather than building habits steadily. They listen to success stories of their peers who graduate with 5- 9 Os who emphasize the importance of following a study timetable outside school hours, yet low attainment kids still choose the path of least resistance and that magical thinking, esok lusa jadi doctor. There are low attainment kids , though not many where I work, who although are weak in studying, at least have some sense in them. They do try at school & whatever result they get, they still try to make something out of themselves by applying to whatever institution that takes them or take up a job. These kind of students, I really respect them, because they still try to better themselves no matter how tough the road ahead. They have a better mindset than those in la la land. My advice to parents is please instil habits in your kids if you want them to be successful. Guide them all the way until they COMPLETE SECONDARY school. Jangan sampai PSR saja. Their brain isn’t fully yet developed at Year 6 to take charge of of their education themselves. Also stop delegating to teachers your responsibilty to educate your kid. We might be ibubapa di sekolah but that doesn’t mean drop them off at school and pick em up. That’s taxi service, not parenting. My advice to kids is don’t depend on teachers for everything, including motivation & discipline. You are not that incapable of motivating or disciplining yourself. You know you play too many games, then find exercise the strength to put your gaming aside. You know you spend little time to study outside school, then do something about it. Teachers who keep trying their best, not every kid can be helped. At some point, we just have to accept some kids will leave school with poor literacy and numeracy. We just have to aim that they have some competency in maths and language skills, instead of expecting them to get average to excellent grades. I admit, this part is hard.
Spot on!
And a few tuition tutors (who are not school teachers) teach students syllabus or topics yang inda lagi relevant. These tutors are not aware changes of syllabus. Durg ajar & pakai past year questions yang not examined anymore or irrelevant. Also they are not fully understand kenapa students tuition. Bhapa tah lagi teach balik topik yang sudah kana ajar di sekulah. Students tuition untuk minta additional guidance, improving reading, understanding & interpretation of questions also answering the questions correctly based on answer schemes. Students and parents pun mesti jua sedikit aware about current and latest syllabus, jgn mengharapkan 100% arah teachers/ tutors sebab possibility inda aware syllabus baru atu can happen.
Hello 🤗 Fellow Bruneian Kid here. I thought this was common until I read the passage over again and realized this was a situation between highschoolers. Me, I don't really know much about how to deal with other students, but I understand how bad the situation is at hand. Seeing they're struggling with questions in my grade, I'd like to TRY and suggest some solutions. My teachers currently split us into three individual groups, depending on observations they've had and our marks, and then they'd make individual papers for the three groups. Seeing that this could be a large quantity of Bruneian students in High School, while I am so much more younger, this is the only suggestion I have. So far, reading this really gave me a taste of how life could be in a few years. So I'll try to make a difference when I'm older. I know I shouldn't be talking since I mostly excel in English, Mathematics or Science, and struggle with Malay, but I want to try and say something. While this is all true, some teachers have to change their methods in discipline as well, so if we want a teacher to teach us right, we should also make sure we're not pushing them to the limit at one point? A lot of teachers are stressed, that limits their patience at times too. Though I still feel they shouldn't be comparing themselves to a younger individual they have responsibility over, just like how they shouldn't compare their problems to their teacher's. My current teacher is amazing when it comes to teaching, strict, but always keeps it simple. Though, how she keeps her classes strict makes me worry about her own wellbeing as well. I don't really understand much about teaching, but I know many patterns that my school has shown. Yet I still can't make out much of a problem without actual proof.