MINISTRY OF EDUCATION CULTURE YOUTH AND SPORTS   Presentation to the workshop on Capacity Building on Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation in Bangkok

CURRENT SITUATION OF EDUCATION IN TIMOR LESTE Background EMERGENCY IN SEPTEMBER 1999 90% of schools destroyed 80% of secondary school teachers and 20 % of primary school teachers left Timor-Leste School furniture, textbooks destroyed EMERGENCY RESPONSE More than 530 schools / 3,000 classrooms restored to basic operational level More than 6,000 teachers recruited at all levels Substantial furniture and textbooks purchased and distributed National University opened with enrolment of more than 6,000 students

…Continued Enrolment and number of schools Around 240,000 enrolment at all levels Net enrolment ratio is about 75 % No. of schools operating 57 kindergartens 749 primary schools 115 junior high schools 36 senior high schools 10 technical vocational high schools 1 national university

C. Main Problems and Constraints High illiteracy rate More than 50% of adults are illiterate Low basic education coverage 25% of school-age children are not in school High drop-out rate (10% per year) Many children in rural areas lack access to nearby school Many schools in urban areas are overcrowded with teacher-student ratio above 1:60

…Continued Low quality of education Most teachers particularly in secondary schools are under qualified Teaching skills are low Curriculum and teaching materials are still undeveloped Poor health/ nutrition condition of children hampers learning Illiterate parents and lack of reading materials at home hampers learning Large number of young people are barely literate, unskilled and unemployed Due to lack of schooling/high drop-out rate Poor curriculum and teaching Lack of employable skills

D. Government’s response–National Development Plan–Education Sector Vision: By 2020, the people of Timor Leste: Well educated Healthy Productive Democratic Self-reliant Nationalistic Goals: Improve educational status of the people Contribute to the improvement of economic, social and cultural well-being of the people Promote gender equality and empower women

… Continued Guiding principles: Respect for Human Rights Respect for cultural/religious diversity Non – discrimination Quality and relevance Sustainable management of human and natural resources Equity and accessibility Creativity and innovation

…Continued Key Programs and Projects: Expanding educational access and improving internal efficiency Projects: School drop-out prevention School location planning Multi-Grade teaching School-based health/nutrition Community-Based pre-school program

…Continued Improving the quality of education Projects: Curriculum development Textbooks and materials development Development of language of instruction (Portuguese-Tetum) Teacher and headmaster training Improvement of national examination Fundamental School Quality Project (TFET2) 100 schools project (UNICEF assisted)

…Continued Building Internal Management Capacity of the Ministry of Education: Capacity building for policy formulation, planning and project management Training of educational managers Warehouse and logistic management

Priority assistance requirements CONCLUSION Priority assistance requirements 1. Build more primary and secondary schools to achieve universal basic education 2. Improve quality of education through teacher development and curriculum/textbooks development 3. Strengthen the Ministry’s capacity to plan and manage education