Before choosing that slogan for the latest Education UK Exhibition here in Brunei, and the dramatic logo which went with it, we discussed what it meant. Some of us thought it sounded too incendiary. Then some bright spark recalled that the I-Centre had pioneered use of the word “ignite” for their excellent “Business Plan” competition.
We needn’t have worried. When I visited the exhibition – at the Empire Grand Hall and at Maktab Duli – ignition was clearly the name of the game.
Conversations were catching fire all round me, between would-be students and British universities and colleges, parents, returned graduates, experts from the Ministry of Education, the media and members of the general public there to enjoy the show.
The sparkling atmosphere comes across well in this piece by The Brunei Times:
A warm glow was with me from the “BUBA Awards” which I’d helped present the night before.
The British Universities Brunei Association dished out prizes for essays on “The Knowledge Economy” – an excellent way to kindle passion for research in Brunei’s student body. What I found most heart-warming, however, was the common cause we’d identified between BUBA and their partners in the Department of Schools; and the leaders of individual Sixth Form colleges in Brunei. The Sultanate is blessed with remarkable teachers.