Answer for Written Question PT037

QUESTION

Yang Berhormat Awang Haji Salleh Bostaman bin Haji Zainal Abidin

YANG BERHORMAT AWANG HAJI SALLEH BOSTAMAN BIN HAJI ZAINAL ABIDIN requested the Yang Berhormat Menteri Pendidikan to state the extent to which the ministry is considering the use of additional, more holistic indicators, apart from those currently used, such as the comparison of PISA 2018–2022 data on reading, writing and arithmetic, to assess progress in educational attainment.

ANSWER

Yang Berhormat Menteri Pendidikan

The vision of the Ministry of Education, namely “Quality Education, Progressive Nation”, and its mission, “To Provide Quality and Holistic Education for Purposeful Student Lives”, through the Ministry of Education Strategic Plan 2023–2027, are aligned with Wawasan Brunei 2035, particularly “Educated, Highly Skilled and Successful People”.

In this regard, the Ministry of Education has identified three (3) key measures under the Core Education section: Primary Level Achievement; Secondary Level Achievement; and Admission to the Post-Secondary level.

These measure not only academic achievement but also emotional, social, physical, creative and spiritual aspects. The Ministry will continually examine the use of more holistic indicators to assess student excellence, which can provide a comprehensive picture of student performance.

Among the indicators that can highlight students’ holistic development are:

i. Participation in national-level innovation competitions such as BICTA and APICTA, an Asia-Pacific-level ICT award that recognises technological innovation;

ii. Students’ success in obtaining government scholarships to Singapore, which are awarded for the purposes of academic and student leadership development;

iii. Students’ success in participating in international sporting championships such as the ASEAN School Games (ASG);

iv. Students’ involvement in enrichment programmes such as Program Sahsiah Pelajar (PSP); and

v. Students’ awareness of sustainable living, among others.

The Ministry will also assess and examine the need to use non-cognitive measures such as student well-being (student well-being), students’ growth mindset (student growth mindset) and attitude (attitude), as well as financial awareness (financial literacy), to portray students’ well-being and resilience comprehensively.

For information, the measurement of these dimensions has begun with the development of their measurement tools. However, these need to be strengthened and validated as key measures that can represent the holistic dimensions more systematically and cohesively.