23 religious officers, teachers pass ICT test

SOME 23 officers and supervising ICT teachers from religious and Arabic schools under the Department of Islamic Studies of the Ministry of Religious Affairs received their certificates yesterday after passing the "Internet and Computing Core Certification" (IC3) test.

The certificate presentation took place at the Mutiara 1 Hall of the Radisson Hotel in Bandar Seri Begawan.

Present as the guest of honour and presenting the certificates to the participants of the IC3 test was the Deputy Permanent Secretary from MoRA, Hj Harun Hj Juned.

In a speech delivered during the ceremony, Hjh Rusita Hj Yahya, acting director of Islamic studies, congratulated the officers and supervising teachers on their success and said that the department of Islamic studies would continue to provide religious and arabic schools appropriately with computers following set procedures.

She said the Department of Islamic Studies is deciding to conduct trainings to further improve teachers skills in the field of ICT.

Also during the event, a briefing and demonstration on the Promethean Interactive White Board by representatives from Promethean Ltd and ITIS Wescot Technology Sdn Bhd was conducted by Tam Kwok Wai, government relations and strategic development Southeast Asia and Ridwan Othman, Regional Project Manager Southeast Asia from Promethean Ltd.

In an interview with The Brunei Times, Ridwan said that the presentation was to introduce the interactive board to the teachers and officers under MoRA and demonstrate to them how they can exploit the use of the board.

Ridwan mentioned that about four years ago as many as 244 school in Brunei under the Ministry of Education (MoE) had bought the Promethean Interactive White Board (IWB). Last year two sixth form centres had begun using 13 boards.

He further mentioned that research on teachers' perception on the white board, and whether there was an increase in performance, had been done by the MoE at schools. The results from the research turned out positive, Ridwan said.The Brunei Times