Remarks by Vice Minister of Education of Timor-Leste Mr. Abel da Costa Ximenes
On behalf of Timor-Leste, I would like to extend warm regards from the Minister of Education to Your Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn. I would like to emphasize my discussion, with the focus on three questions that were addressed to me.
These questions are: 1. How would you manage/ provide opportunity and equity for children from disadvantaged communities in the country? 2. How is the Princess’s initiative applied in the country context? 3. What should be the future direction of the Princess Project?
1. How would you manage/ provide opportunity and equity for children from disadvantaged communities in the country?
Historically, Timor-Leste gained its Independence after a long struggle. The Restoration of Independence was on May 20, 2002 and legally Timor-Leste has its own Constitution to guarantee the sovereignty of state and the right to education of its citizen in the following article of Constitution as quoted:
“Article 59 (Education and culture) 1. The State shall recognize and guarantee that every citizen has the right to education and culture, and it is incumbent upon it to promote the establishment of a public system of universal and compulsory basic education that is free of charge in accordance with its ability and in conformity with the law.
2. Everyone has the right to equal opportunities for education and vocational training. 3. The State shall recognize and supervise private and co-operative education.
4. The State should ensure the access of every citizen, in accordance to their abilities, to the highest levels of education, scientific research and artistic creativity. 5. Everyone has the right to cultural enjoyment and creativity and the duty to preserve, protect and value cultural heritage.…………….”
In paragraph 1 and 2 and 4 respectively emphasized on key statements such as “universal and compulsory education” , “equal opportunities”, and “ensure the access of citizen” that are a reflection of our state will to guarantee equity and the opportunity of every children to education.
In our National Strategic Development Plan (SDP) 2011-2030 highlights the vision that “the true wealth of any nation is in the strength of its people”. “Our VISION is that all Timorese children should attend school and receive a quality education that gives them the knowledge and skills to lead healthy, productive lives and to actively contribute to our nation’s development…”
How do we put into practice? The Ministry of Education has an Inclusive Education Department that is in charge of looking after and making sure that all children have equal opportunity and access to education, including disadvantaged children, children with disabilities and children of the poorest that live in very remote areas. This Department traditionally was dealing exclusively with physically challenged students.
However, the Ministry has identified there are many vulnerable children that are excluded from attending primary school for four key areas: 1) poverty; 2) language; 3) psychological needs; and 4) physical disabilities.
The first key barrier to equity is poverty . Although preschool and basic education is free in Timor-Leste, there are many hidden costs. Children are needed to watch siblings while their parents work in the fields, or they need to work in the fields themselves, thus not being able to attend school.
The Ministry is working to identify children at-risk, as well as those who currently are not in school due to economic constraints. These children will then be provided with what they need – school supplies, clothing, soap, and in some cases, vouchers for parents so that their children may go to school instead of work.
The second component of this intervention is language . The Ministry commenced a project to promote the use of mother tongue in early grade learning in 3 language groups, to enable a smooth transition for mastering the official languages of Timor-Leste.
The third factor to be addressed is the issue of psychological support . There are many children that have trouble concentrating in school, or have left school, because of issues that could be helped by psychological support. Domestic violence, child abuse (by families and teachers), bullying, and teenage pregnancy are all issues that can keep children from coming to school, and that could be dealt with by professional services.
Psychologists would be deployed to train teachers and interested community members on how to deal with students with these sorts of problems, and parent- teacher community support groups will be initiated.
The last component of this intervention is physical challenges . While the Ministry cannot alleviate their children disabilities, the government can train teachers to be aware of how to deal with their different needs – vision and hearing problems, mobility challenges, etc.
In the future, Timor-Leste plans to expand facilities for those with special education needs that cannot be taken care of in regular schools – blindness, complete deafness, etc.
A Main progress of the last 12 years after our independence is in the ACCESS to EDUCATION. • At Basic Education, enrolment rate went from 67%, in 2006, to 91%, in 2011. • Number of primary schools and secondary schools doubled. • Number of pre-secondary schools increased by 40%.
The Ministry of Education has its own Infrastructure Facility Unit to assess and construct schools in remote areas, while distribution of teachers to the remote areas is.
2. How is the Princess’s initiative applied in the country context?
The visit of the Princess of Thailand, HRH Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn was realized in January 2014. HRH Princess delivered a formal speech in Timor-Leste, in our Parliament House entitled “Zero Hunger Challenges” which was very encouraging.
Moreover, in HRH Princess speech, it was emphasized that the importance of the school feeding program and nutrition for the children in the early age that still require various vitamins and proteins for their growth. The speech at the Parliament contributed significantly to the awareness of food security and the necessity to take precocious measures to strategically design a proper strategy for the national food security with particular attention to children.
Moreover, HRH Princess raised national awareness for strengthening agriculture sector is a key drive to avoiding hunger (zero hunger challenge). A country like Thailand that has positioned herself as one of the five biggest number rice producing countries should be an example for Timor- Leste, as Thailand is still preoccupying with the food security of its citizens for the sake of sustainability.
The initiative of HRH Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn to initiate a school garden in basic education schools located in Hera and Acanuno, Timor-Leste, and the invitation to the delegation from Timor- Leste to visit Thailand, was a really essential learning curve to integrate and cultivate the values of work ethics, perseverance, hygiene, environmental awareness, cultural conservation, business culture and self-reliance, in promoting school agriculture.
Timor-Leste has been given a great opportunity to initiate a school agriculture project in which children can use their extracurricular activities to cultivate various products of agriculture by using existing school land space for that purpose.
The team who visited Thailand on February 25 to March 4, 2014 noted the important points as following: • The integration of the School Feeding Program, Nutrition Program and School Garden Projects, with agriculture and hydroponic system reduce the cost of vegetables for the School Feeding Program;
• The integration of agricultural activities such as land preparation, rotation of duties to regularly monitoring and taking care of school garden, poultry raising, use of school cooperatives with business oriented practices enable children to understand simple business concepts during their study;
• The importance of cleaning the vegetables, washing hands, serving school meal with uniform and gloves, establishing a simple clinic for measuring the weight and height of children and allowing first aid handling by students while providing basic understanding of health and hygiene;
• The integration of different line Ministries, such as agriculture, health, commerce and industry and cooperative etc. • The importance of educating children at the early stage to understand agriculture and increase environmental awareness; • The importance of guiding and giving orientation to the children to be able to create their own job without necessarily depending on the public sector;
• The importance of encouraging participation of parent teacher association and the neighboring community to extending the example, while giving the opportunity to other schools to replicate the model of school agriculture; • The integration of traditional herbal track list into national system with 74 items listed, alternative maternal treatment post partum delivery, laboratory for herbal test and quality assurance system;
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