Most of the students are Malay Muslims, but there are also quite a large number of Chinese students who may be Bruneian citizens or Permanent Residents. In more rural areas other indigenous groups may be represented.

In terms of ability and motivation etc, there is quite a wide range, from highly motivated students with almost native-speaker English language competence to the disaffected and unmotivated students with very little English.

As in any country, discipline problems do exist, although they tend to be born of frustration and manifest themselves more in lethargy than in confrontation. Systems to deal with such problems are in place in most schools although the will to use them depends very much on the school concerned.

Not all schools are air-conditioned. The newer schools are all air-conditioned but the older ones will have ceiling fans. However, about 90% of schools will have air-conditioned staff rooms.

Secondary schools may have up to 10-11 foreign teachers and have over 2000 students sometimes where the school day is split into two shifts to accommodate all the students.  Most are around 1500 however. Primary schools usually have around 300-400 students and there is typically only 1 foreign teacher, although some have as few as 100, or as many as 1000.  It should be noted that teachers could be posted by the ministry to any school, on either morning or afternoon shift. Obviously however we do try to fit in with people’s family circumstances.