Before the implementation of the Bilingual Education policy, Brunei adopted dual- language education, whereby students either went for an English- or Malay-medium education. In the bilingual education policy, both Standard Malay and English are taught and employed as media of instruction. In January 1985, the Sistem Pendidikan
Dwibahasa or Bilingual System of Education was fully implemented. The 1985 policy
document makes a clear statement about the relative positions of Standard Malay and English in the hierarchy of languages in Brunei. However, the actual allocation of time to the two languages in the classroom, especially in the secondary classroom, clearly legitimises English as the major language of instruction (Martin & Abdullah, 2002)
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The bilingual education policy was based on the understanding that effective use of English is essential if students are to succeed in study at tertiary level overseas and if the country is to have a voice in international business, economic and political arenas. The stated aim (Brunei Ministry of Education, 1992, p. 4) is that "this bilingual policy should ensure that pupils attain a high degree of proficiency in both English and Malay."
Under the bilingual policy, prior to the implementation of the new SPN21, primary schools students used Malay as the medium of instruction for the first three years and study English as a subject. However, under the new SPN21, as of January 2008,
Mathematics is now taught in English as well as English language from primary one. With the full implementation of SPN21 in 2009, a new science curriculum for the lower secondary and primary schools was introduced and therefore Science is also taught in English from Primary One onwards. This major shift of teaching Mathematics (from 2008) and Science (from 2009) through English was seen as necessary in order to provide exposure as early as possible to young students. It is my perception that this new education system can be seen as a step to bridge the gap of ‘unequal access’ (Braighlinn 1992 cited in Martin 2008). Moreover it is presumably intended to minimise the problem of understanding and acquiring high cognitive subjects such as
Mathematics and Science, and as a solution to the problem of ‘abrupt transition’ from Malay to English (Jones, 1996) in the previous education system at the primary level. The use of English at the lower level eases transition difficulties, an issue that was previously pointed out in other research and reports (such as Jones, 1996; Baetens Beardsmore, 1996; and Ahmad, 1992), as students proceed from Primary Four onwards. Therefore with the new SPN21 education system, young children are exposed to the target language (English in particular) as early as lower primary for two reasons: first to minimise the difficulty in having to switch language (Malay to English) when they reach upper primary, and secondly to help those less privileged children in getting exposure to English.
We will now look at the issues surrounding the implementation of the bilingual policy education in Brunei. This hopefully allows some insights into why reading in English,
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particularly in upper secondary education may be a problem for many students in Brunei.
2.3.1. Bilingual Education System – its efficacy, drawback and actual practice and its position in the New National Education System (SPN21)
In the period since the implementation of the Bilingual Education Policy, there has been considerable debate about its efficacy. A number of drawbacks of the system were identified particularly at the operational level which include factors such as a
demanding syllabus, insufficient numbers of bilingual teachers, the abrupt transition from Malay to English (Ahmad 1992; Jones , 1996) as well as teacher proficiency, teacher training, teaching strategies, and use of available teaching materials (Baetens
Beardsmore, 1996). Braighlinn (1992:21) cited in Martin (2008), even suggested that the system provided ‘an illusion of equality’ as well as ‘unequal access’ for the majority of non-middle class youth whom he argues received virtually no education because the medium of instruction (English) cannot be understood, when compared to the former situation in which there were separate streams of education (dual-language education). The issues highlighted above inevitably do happen in the system and certain measures have been taken into consideration by the government. With the implementation of the SPN21 in 2009, changes in writing new curricula for various subjects including
Mathematics, Science, History, Geography, ICT subjects started in 2007. An outline of the implementation stages of this new national education system is outlined in Appendix vi for information. The teaching of certain subjects (Mathematics and Science) in English as early as Primary One is beginning to overcome the ‘abrupt transition’ issue to upper primary, or at least that is what is hoped for. A research into the implementation of this new education system should be carried out in the near future to evaluate if it does help minimize this. In this new education system, the government, through the Ministry of Education still sees the importance of English, both as a subject and as a medium of instruction, besides Malay.
It has been mooted that one solution to the unequal access to knowledge in Brunei schools is that, contrary to the situation in Malaysia, the cognitively demanding subjects such as mathematics and science should be taught in the students stronger language,
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for example Malay, and cognitively less demanding subjects be taught in English (Baetens Beardsmore, 1996). The new SPN21 education system, however, does not take into account this issue of teaching cognitively demanding subjects through Malay. Instead these subjects are taught through English in early lower primary classes, at the age of 5 or 6 years old.
The complexity in specifying the first or home language of Bruneian children may contribute to the difficulty in teaching Malay, which is often taken for granted as the stronger language (and probably mistakenly seen as the first language) of students in Brunei. This will be looked at in the next section when looking at the profile of Bruneian students.