Event
Brunei Darussalam National Capacity Development Workshop – Planning for Education System Transformation
Background
Since the adoption of the SDG4-Education 2030 agenda, countries have made considerable efforts to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education for all and provide lifelong learning opportunities. While overall, progress continued to be made in access to, and participation in education in the Asia-Pacific region, many countries were off-track towards achieving the SDG4 targets in terms of learning and equity and inclusion even before COVID-19[1].
The impact of COVID-19 on education has reversed progress made in education in the last decade, exacerbating the pre-existing learning crisis and further deepening inequities in education, exposing important weaknesses and the overall fragility of current education systems. In Brunei Darussalam, with 15 weeks of school closure, students experienced an average learning loss of more than half a year. [2]
With only seven years left to achieve SDG 4, there is an urgent need to not only recover learning losses and accelerate action to achieve SDG 4 targets, but to rethink and transform education systems to address weaknesses, and become more equitable, inclusive, relevant and resilient to withstand future shocks. This need has been confirmed through the commitment of education ministers of the Asia Pacific Region in the Bangkok Statement 2022 of the Second Asia-Pacific Regional Education Minister’s Conference (APREMC-II), held in June 2022 in Bangkok and importantly through the Transforming Education Summit (TES), convened by the UN Secretary General held in New York in September 2022, and reflected in the National Commitments made by Member States at TES to transform their education systems.
Brunei acknowledged the urgent need for reimagining and transforming education in its National Statement of Commitments and has pledged to an array of actions focusing on priority areas such as safe and healthy learning environment, digital transformation, providing competencies to be ready for the future, lifelong learning and the teaching workforce.[3]
As a follow-up to TES and the national commitments made, countries are encouraged to develop a national workplan and roadmap to translate their national commitments into action. In this perspective, UNESCO Bangkok in collaboration with the ASEAN, SEAMEO, the HEAD Foundation and other relevant regional partners organized a technical capacity development workshop in May 2023 to support Member States in the South-East Asian region in reviewing their education plans and strategies in light of their commitments in the Transforming Education Summit and the Bangkok Statement 2022 through a systemic approach. Through the workshop, Brunei identified strategic priority areas for action and proposed activities with a view to developing their national action plan/roadmap for action going forward.
Building on these initial findings, this national workshop will be organized with the aim of designing the national action plan/roadmap for action for TES implementation as an integral part of ongoing reforms and education plans. To this end, reflections will be based on the new 5-year Strategic Plan, the Ministry of Education Digital Transformation Plan, the Competency-based curriculum reform and ensuing teacher training, other ongoing reforms and the planned ESP.
Looking across the main areas highlighted in the Brunei National Statement of Commitment, the priority areas identified during the TES follow-up workshop in May 2023, and ongoing reforms, key areas are: Teachers and the teaching profession, curriculum, pedagogical approaches and assessment and skills development, digital transformation and creating a digital ecosystem, flexible learning systems (lifelong learning), safe and enabling learning environments. Equity and inclusion as well as gender equality are key crosscutting themes.
To this end, the workshop will undertake a deeper dive into the different components as identified by Brunei Darussalam (see above) to revisit each of the selected areas and identify gaps and priority areas of actions and develop a national action plan/roadmap for action and corresponding implementation strategies with a timeframe and milestones while ensuring an alignment between them across different policy levers. This exercise will involve a broad range of national stakeholders from within the ministry of education and beyond. This approach will ensure that the final action plan effectively addresses the specific needs and opportunities within Brunei Darussalam’s education system.
Workshop Goal
The overall goal of the workshop is to support and facilitate representatives from the relevant departments of the Ministry of Education of Brunei Darussalam and other key education stakeholders to design a draft national action plan/road plan for action for TES implementation in alignment with the Strategic Plan, other ongoing reforms and the planned ESP.
Specifically, the workshop aims to:
Enhance the capacity of key official from the Ministry of Education of Brunei Darussalam and key national education stakeholders to identify the requirements for education system transformation and plan the implementation of the in Brunei Darussalam TES national statement of commitment in alignment with their national strategic plan, also drawing on global TES initiatives and the Bangkok Statement 2022;
- More specifically, identify gaps, bottlenecks and priority areas of action and further finetune activities identified to be integrated into the future Education Sector Plan and initiate the design of a national action plan/roadmap for action which may specify the scope and nature of transformation to be achieved with a timeline, milestones and actions, in alignment with the Strategic Plan, other ongoing reforms and the future ESP and other existing national socio-economic development plans, across development sectors and at all administrative levels.
Participants
Education planners and senior officials from the Ministry of Education (in particular from Policy Development, Planning, Teacher Training, Curriculum Development, ICT in Education, Equity and Inclusion, Special Education and Lifelong Learning) and other concerned Ministries and Departments (Social Affairs, Health, Culture, Youth and Sports);
Representatives from specialized institutions (curriculum development institute, teacher academies, national accreditation council, ICT institutions), universities, development partners, and additional national expertise across all thematic areas as required.
[1] See: SDG 4 Goal ProfileSDG 4 Profile.pdf (unescap.org) developed for the 9th Asia-Pacific Forum on Sustainable Development (APFSD)that took place at ESCAP, Bangkok, on 28 to 31 March 2022
[2] Learning Recovery Programme After The COVID-19 Pandemic https://www.moe.gov.bn/SitePages/SchoolNewsArticle.aspx?AID=29
[3] NATIONAL STATEMENT OF COMMITMENT BRUNEI DARUSSALAM https://transformingeducationsummit.sdg4education2030.org/system/files/2022-10/Brunei%20Darussalam_National%20Statement%20of%20Committment.pdf
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