| Danial Norjidi |
THE Chair of the Council for Education in the Commonwealth has praised Brunei Darussalam for its high education attainment and literacy, as well as its drive to excel.
Sonny Leong CBE is the Chair of the Council for Education in the Commonwealth and Chief Executive of the Civil Service College.
The Council for Education in the Commonwealth is a parliament-based non-government organisation (NGO) founded over 50 years ago, at the time of the first Commonwealth Education Ministers’ Conference.
It carries the purpose of creating an informed public opinion on salient issues concerning education and training in the Commonwealth, as well as to identify appropriate ways in which Britain and the European Union can best contribute to their development.
He recently made his first visit to the Sultanate, during which he spoke in an interview with the Bulletin, facilitated by the British High Commission in Brunei Darussalam.
Sharing his thoughts on Brunei, he said, “My first impression is I love the country. It’s a very clean country, very green. The people are warm and very friendly.
“In the last few days I have been here, I’ve learnt the fantastic drive to excel in everything, where there is productivity in the public sector, excellence in the school sector and at the same time ensuring that graduates are given the opportunity to exploit the potential within either the private or public sector themselves.
“So I’m really deeply, deeply impressed,” he said.
He shared that from his visit he was briefed on the Brunei Vision 2035 and as well as the efforts in upskilling and increasing capacity within the public sector to deliver services to the citizens effectively and efficiently.
He was impressed with how ambitious Brunei is, of wanting to be in the global league of measurement, which he said is something to be praised and acknowledged.
![Sonny Leong CBE, the Chair of the Council for Education in the Commonwealth. - DANIAL NORJIDI]()
Sonny Leong CBE, the Chair of the Council for Education in the Commonwealth. – DANIAL NORJIDI
“Like anything else, you constantly have to evolve. You can’t just create one policy and that’s it. Any developing country has to embrace new technology, has to look at how the world has changed and respond accordingly and Brunei is always at that forefront.”
On the topic of civil service, he shared, “Delivering public services effectively and efficiently is every government’s top priority, whether it’s in Brunei, in the United Kingdom, Australia or so on.
“In this present climate globally, whereby money is tight because of financial situations globally, everyone has to find a way of delivering their services effectively and looking at what is value for money.”
He also spoke on the importance of looking at how a country’s citizens can actually expect governments to deliver services effectively and efficiently, “because these days where technology citizens can actually access information readily, the government has to play its part as well in how to deliver that information accurately and timely.
“That’s a challenge not just to the Brunei Government but to governments around the world,” he said.
He highlighted that it is important for countries to learn from each other’s mistakes.
“Some countries are more advanced than others, so why reinvent the wheel when you can say, ‘Let’s not waste money doing that, because they’ve done that. Let’s try and find a way forward.’”
Speaking on the development of education in the Commonwealth, he said, “I’ve been very privileged in my career to visit many countries within the Commonwealth. There are 52 members within the Commonwealth and 31 of the members are small nations with less than two million people.
“But at the same time they need to have an education policy that’s fit for purpose post-independence and to keep up with the pace of technology that is driving education,” he continued.
“Some countries develop their policies faster than others in terms of embracing new technology, but at the same time there are international standards.”
As an example, he shared, “Within the Commonwealth we all share common values in terms of common language – English. The school curriculum and structure is very similar – you’ve got pre-primary, primary, secondary, ‘O’ Levels, ‘A’ Levels and universities. Right across the Commonwealth it’s very similar.
“Within the Commonwealth itself you can look at all the various stages of education and say, ‘Ok, let’s try to achieve this at the primary, secondary or tertiary level.’ “Then you’ve got the international standards. Take for example the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG4), which basically says ‘Let’s have quality teachers’ and it’s important. In schools you need to have good teachers, and the quality of teachers varies quite widely between the 52 member states.
“Some spend more in training their teachers, some spend less. Some teachers are graduates, some are not. At the same time you need quality teachers.
“What I’ve seen positively in Brunei is where the Government has brought in these international coaches and mentors and embedded them in schools to ensure the local teachers meet international quality standards, and that’s fantastic; that’s brilliant.”
Asked for his opinion on where Brunei stands compared to other Commonwealth states in terms of education, he said, “Very well. The education attainment in Brunei is very high, literacy is very high, and there is this urge to learn within Brunei students. The teacher’s profession is very much a respected profession here.”
Today is Commonwealth Day, and the theme this year is ‘A peace-building Commonwealth.’
“The question now is can education deliver a peace-building Commonwealth? My take is, yes, it can,” said Leong, highlighting that, as much as it is important for schools and children to study the usual STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subjects, it is important to have other disciplines in place like “good citizenship”, teaching respect and acceptance.
He noted that 2018 is quite a busy year for the Commonwealth.
“We’ve got the Commonwealth Education Ministers’ Conference in February, and it’s going to be in Fiji, followed later in spring/summer where the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting will be held in the UK itself.”
He added that the Commonwealth is “a fantastic organisation”, highlighting that, with 52 countries, each member state has an equal say, irrespective of size.
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