According to Section 115 of the Education Order of December 2003, the Schools Inspectorate under MOE shall: (a) be responsible, in collaboration with such authority as the Minister may appoint, for ensuring that an adequate standard of teaching is developed and maintained in educational institutions; (b) inspect educational institutions or cause educational institutions to be inspected by an Inspector at such intervals as he shall consider appropriate; and (c) undertake such other duties in relation to the inspection of educational institution as the Minister may direct or as may be prescribed.
As part of the organizational structure of the MOE there are the National Education Council, the National Accreditation Council, and the Technical and Vocational Education Council. The National Education Council is chaired by the Minister of Education and provides a high-level forum for the discussion of the policy and planning issues as they relate to all levels of the education system.
The National Accreditation Council is chaired by the Minister of Education and is the sole national body responsible for evaluating and assessing qualifications recognized by the government. The Technical and Vocational Education Council is chaired by the Deputy Minister of Education and validates programmes, establishes standards of performance, and awards certificates in the technical and vocational education and training system. The Council maintains close contact and liaison with both public and private sector agencies whose work and programmes may have relevance to technical and vocational education and training needs. Examinations are regulated and administered by the Brunei Board of Examinations.
Religious schools under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Religious Affairs and the schools under the Ministry of Education have been fully merged in 2002. The merger of religious schools under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Religious Affairs and the schools under the Ministry of Education was carried out under the concept of
‘one roof’ following His Majesty’s call for unity in education. Under the direction of the Education Council which was set up in 1999, the merger was implemented in phases beginning with the placement of three sections from the Department of Islamic
Studies, Ministry of Religious Affairs, namely the Inspectorate Section, the Examinations Section and the Curriculum Section under the existing School Inspectorate, Examinations and Curriculum Development Departments in the Ministry of Education respectively, effective 1 March 2000. This was followed by the transfer of other sections. The merger was fully implemented in January 2002 with the transfer of the Department of Islamic Studies and all the religious schools under its jurisdiction to the Ministry of Education. As a continuous effort towards establishing an integrated system of education, the Ministry of Education began efforts to integrate the curriculum by streamlining the contents of three curricula, that is, the religious school curriculum, one religious subject taught in the primary and secondary school curriculum and Al-Quran and Islamic religious knowledge taught in several schools as a pilot project, into one curricular component of Islamic education within the integrated education system.