Brunei set to embrace Unesco's ICT plan

A NATIONAL standard will be developed to ensure that teachers are equipped with the skills and knowledge necessary to capitalise on the continuously evolving information communication technology (ICT) available in the classroom.

As one of the 47 initiatives of the government's e-Hijrah project, the ICT competency standards for teachers will be based on guidelines formulated by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco), invited foreign consultants told The Brunei Times yesterday.

As the guidelines hinge on teaching methodology or pedagogy, instead of trying to keep up with technological advancements, the standards will be designed to be "future-proof", the managing director of Imagine Education Ltd said.

"As technology changes, we will still have the reference point (within) the competency standards. (So) whatever the technology, (the standards ensure) the decisions the teacher makes will always be the right ones," Adrian Blight said.

Imagine Education was involved in the formulation of Unesco's ICT Competency Standards for Teachers, which was released in 2008. Blight said that the 13-page document turned the focus "from technology back to professional development" for teachers.

"We looked at which areas of professional development we want money to be spent on," he said, adding that the document considered how resources for teachers should be aligned to a certain framework.

He added that Brunei has the opportunity to become one of the first nations to embrace Unesco's framework for ICT competency standards at a system-wide level, thus the potential for the Sultanate to become a case study in this field for other countries.

The national standards would become part of teachers' continuous professional development, Blight said.

Work on the competency standards "hasn't started as yet but has been identified as a specific project" under the e-Hijrah initiative, said Murray Brown, a senior consultant from globalSOF consortium, a New Zealand-based education strategic planning provider.

Brown said that the Ministry of Education was revising competency standards for teachers, which currently do not reference ICT. He added that the new competency standards were hoped to become a professional qualification for the teachers, especially since it will be aligned to the new educational system, SPN21, and the Brunei Vision 2035.

The globalSOF consultant added that coming up with Brunei's own standards for ICT competency could be done in five to six months of consultations with stakeholders, but its full implementation and integration into the system could take "several years".

Both consultants agreed that incentives, introduced either through human resource policies, teacher awards or other means, were needed to encourage the teachers to upgrade their competencies since such skill building required teachers to give up their time and energy.

Blight said that a core group of teachers were already or were willing to improve their competencies, while another section of teachers will "never do it". But it was the majority, middle group of teachers that need the encouragement or rewards to take up the challenge.

"For example, in Egypt, a pay increase (is made to) those who undergo a technology course."

Murray said that the e-Hijrah team can "pinpoint hours (which) teachers can work around" at the planned e-Hijrah Media and In-Service Centre, while new teachers can do the training during their pre-service course at Universiti Brunei Darussalam.

"It can become a key part of the training programme for new teachers, evolving into a Brunei-centric model," Murray said.

Blight added that the competency standards will allow teachers to improve themselves on the individual level, following "baseline testing" to assess teachers' individual competencies.

With their training based on Unesco's guidelines, teachers can benchmark their competencies against teachers in other countries, Murray said. The Brunei Times