Implementation of the “Integrated Education System” in Brunei Darussalam: Issues and Challenges

Abstract: The issue of a dual system of education has been largely discussed among Muslim scholars and intellectuals all over the world. Efforts have been made by scholars through the proposal of different ideas and approaches towards achieving an ideal Islamic curriculum. This paper aims to share the experience of Brunei Darussalam in implementing a design model of an Islamic curriculum. The idea of designing an Islamic curriculum model was formally discussed among educationists in 1998, although the issue of dualism of education in Brunei was raised much earlier, in the 1970s. Towards achieving this, on January 3, 2004, the Ministry of Education in Brunei Darussalam implemented the ‘Integrated Education System’ in all primary schools in Brunei Darussalam. This system was implemented for only two years (2004,2005). A fieldwork research study using a survey questionnaire was conducted in 2008 among 114 general primary school teachers to explore the issues and challenges encountered in implementing the system. The findings have demonstrated that although the issue of dualism in education is currently a significant topic of discussion within Muslim societies, teachers and educationist lag far behind in realizing this issue, ostensibly because they have not been exposed to the matter. There are also other issues and challenges in implementing this system, which will be discussed later in this paper.