The first contract for the supply of 15 secondary school teachers began in December 1984. There was an exponential increase to 200 teachers within just the first two years of operation, driven by the high demand for English-speaking teachers, as all subjects were taught in English, as mandated by the Ministry of Education.

CfBT designed its own advanced course for experienced practitioners, validated by Cambridge as the Diploma in Teaching English as a Foreign Language at Primary/Secondary level (DTEFL P/S). More than 150 teachers successfully completed the programme over the next ten years.

In 1992, more than 200 CfBT teachers gained approval to establish Cambridge Certificate for teachers earlier in English Language Teaching.

In the early 1990s until early 2000s, CfBT organised Wordplay and Short Story Competition for schoolchildren.

CfBT produced several practice books, textbooks, workbooks and teachers’ books, published by Macmillan for Curriculum Department at the Ministry of Education. These books were used across government schools as learning resources.

During this decade, CfBT had also developed a range of multimedia courses and ran ICT training programmes. As a result, CfBT won a BICTA (Brunei ICT Awards) in 2005, presented by HRH Crown Prince Pg Muda Hj Al-Muhtadee Billah.

In 2006, the Gateway to English website was launched by the Deputy Minister of Education. Developed by CfBT for Macmillan and the Ministry.

The Queen Elizabeth II CfBT Education Scholarship was established in 1998. In the early 2000s, this was offered as a prestigious Chevening Award to a Bruneian annually, to pursue their qualification. Recently we interviewed one of the recipients of the scholarship, who is now considered a leader and expert in her field, contributing back to Brunei.

Other than the ELTP, in 2001, CfBT established training centres that provide several courses and programmes for early learners, primary, secondary, and adult learners. These centres are still operating today in one of our offices in Kiarong, focusing on English, Malay, and exam preparation.

CfBT Borneo Outdoors was also established to offer corporate programmes in Brunei and Malaysia, aimed at developing teamwork and leadership skills. It organised adventure trips for local and overseas schools as well as ‘gap’ programmes as part of the Coral Reef project.

CfBT also produced the Brunei Shipwreck Education Pack for ELF Petroleum Asia, containing a student’s reader, workbook, video and posters about the 500-year-old junk discovered in Brunei Bay.

In 2005, CfBT also established the CfBT Examination Centre, which became an approved centre for IELTS and other international exams.

Recently, Brunei has been recognised as the most improved country in the world in terms of mathematics, science, and literacy through the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). PISA involves 81 countries and aims to create a snapshot of competencies in reading, mathematics, and science among 15-year-olds in those countries.

The improvement in reading literacy in Brunei between 2018 and 2022 was the best in the world. Despite the pandemic between in 2020, Brunei has moved up from 55th to 37th in the global league table 2018-2022 which is the biggest leap of any country worldwide.

Several initiatives emerged in 2024 to celebrate the longstanding partnership and further support Brunei’s Wawasan 2035 through community services and literacy programs.

Wawasan Brunei 2035 represents the nation’s aspirations to ensure its people are educated, highly skilled, and accomplished, enjoy a high quality of life, and contribute to a dynamic and sustainable economy by 2035.

These initiatives include literacy programs such as the Caught Reading competition and a creative writing competition, as well as corporate social responsibility activities like donation drives and fundraising for underprivileged children and many others. Other efforts include showcasing stories of prominent Bruneians who have been directly or indirectly impacted by CfBT and maintaining active participation in Brunei’s national celebrations.