The 28 November Technical and Vocational Secondary School of Information Technology (ESTV-IT) in Becora, Dili, is facing a shortage of specialist teachers.
School Director Tomás Pinto said the school still lacked teachers in specialist subjects such as graphic arts, electronics, electrical studies and information technology.
“We are still short of teachers in these specialist areas. We need more teachers with the right skills to prepare young people for work after they finish their studies,” he said.
He said the Ministry of Education (ME) had previously assigned teachers for general subjects, but there were still too few teachers for specialist subjects in these departments.
“We are still short of teachers, so we are asking the Ministry of Education to recruit teachers in specialist subjects for technical and vocational secondary schools that are short of staff in these areas,” Director Pinto said.
He said students at ESTV-IT were continuing their daily lessons as usual, but there was less activity in specialist subjects because of the teacher shortage.
“We currently have 36 teachers, including 12 who teach vocational subjects. That is not enough for our 335 students across the graphic arts, electronics, electrical studies and information technology departments,” he said.
He also called for ongoing training to help teachers improve their teaching skills.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Education’s National Director of Human Resources, João Amaral, said teacher placements had been based on the ministry’s staffing structure.
“We have assigned 700 teachers to 36 technical and vocational secondary schools across the country,” he said.
He said some schools still faced teacher shortages despite those placements. The ministry had set up a team to identify the schools that needed more teachers so it could reassign staff.
“We will first identify what each of these schools needs and then assign teachers,” National Director Amaral said.He said the ministry would address the shortage soon so students would not miss out, adding that practical training was just as important as theory in technical and vocational education.
