Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddien College


The Sultan Omar 'Ali Saifuddien College, natively known as, is a government boys' secondary school in Bandar Seri Begawan, the capital of Brunei. It is the first English secondary school in the country. The school is also one of only three boys' secondary schools nationwide, with the other two being Muda Hashim Secondary School and Ma'had Islam Brunei. The school provides five years of secondary education leading up to GCE 'O' Level and IGCSE qualification.

Namesake

The school is named in honour of Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddien III. Brunei saw substantial changes under the 17-year rule of the late Sultan. The Melayu Islam Beraja concept, which serves as the nation's guiding ideology, was also developed by him. He also initiated social and economic reform to ready his people for the restoration of the state's sovereign powers, which had been initiated by his predecessor and sparked by the Brunei nationalist movement around the end of World War II.

History

In Brunei, there was only access to primary education prior to World War II. The government of Brunei established the Education Department in 1951. To encourage English education among Bruneians, the Brunei Town 'Government English School was founded in Brunei Town on 15 October 1951. Two qualified instructors, one from Malaya and one from the United Kingdom, worked at the school. Their choices—likely made in conjunction with the State Education Officer—have had a long-lasting effect on Brunei's educational system, as seen by the numerous practices that were implemented at the time and are still in use today.
At the time of the establishment, the school functioned as a preparatory school. It was also the first government school in the country which provided education in the English language. Since Brunei did not have an official English education system, the school did not initially have any students. As a result, English courses were introduced at Primary 4 at four chosen primary schools. The age at which English-medium education started in Brunei was set by the more gifted students who got extra tuition from the State Education Officer prior to starting school.
The school eventually renamed to Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddien College' in 1955. It later became the first school to provide secondary education in the country. It was gradually implemented, beginning in 1953 with the introduction of Form 1. By 1957, the school had all five years of the secondary education and for the first time the Cambridge Overseas School Certificate examination, a precursor to GCE 'O' Level, was conducted at the school in that year for its Form 5 students. Because the British utilised Sultan Muhammad Jamalul Alam Malay School as a military base during the 1962 Brunei revolt, the school was temporarily moved to SOAS College.
SOAS College in collaboration with Army Cadet Team, created the SOAS College Military Cadet.

Notable people

Notable staff

Notable alumni