In 2015 the Ministry of Education will continue to provide teacher training in particular Portuguese and Tetun language training because levels of fluency are still low in the two languages.
The General Director for Corporate Services at the Ministry of Education (ME) Antoninho Pires said two factors are crucial to ensure quality education in Timor-Leste and those are adequate human resources and the availability of teaching resources.
“The teachers must be qualified and schools must of good quality and have enough books, tables and chairs,” said Director Pires at ME, in Vilaverde, Dili.
He added it is important to continue providing teacher training to improve the quality of teaching in the country.
“In terms of quality I cannot say we are there yet. Maybe in the next five years we will see quality but we need to better prepare teachers.”
He said also a good grasp of Tetun and Portuguese languages is also part of improving the quality of education but many teachers still have difficulties with the two languages so they need to complete additional training prior to being able to teach.
In the meantime Member of Parliament MP Eladio Faculro from Commission F (health, education, culture, veterans, and gender equality) Eladio Faculto said the education sector in Timor-Leste is not run properly and that the curriculum is not clear.
He added that basic schools lack books and don’t; have libraries and teachers use Indonesian as the language of instruction so how are students to know Tetun and Portuguese.
“The problem is there is a lack of books. Also many of the books are in Indonesian. How are they supposed to learn? It is written in our Constitution that the official languages are Portuguese and Tetum.”
The Program Manager of the Timor-Leste Coalition for Education (TLCE) Matias dos Santos conceded that the ME has had many achievements so far in particular ensuring that most schools in the country have tables, chairs and have been rehabilitated.
“They have allocated funds for tables and chairs,” said Santos.
He added the ME is also preparing books to train teachers and has also started recruiting new teachers.
