Timor-Leste, or East Timor, is a young country located on the eastern half of Timor island in the eastern Indonesian Archipelago that declared independence in 2002. Though not an ASEAN member state, it holds the status of an observer and has expressed interest in joining the organisation. Timor-Leste’s cultural heritage is rooted in four centuries of Portuguese colonial rule, which separated it from Dutch controlled parts of the archipelago. Timor-Leste’s 1.28 million citizens are overwhelmingly Catholic, making it the only Catholic-majority Southeast Asian nation other than the Philippines. While many languages are spoken in Timor-Leste, the official languages are Tetum and Portuguese. Timor-Leste’s economy, which is mostly dependent on the country’s oil reserves and coffee exports, remains one of the least developed in the region. Over the past two decades, the country has been heavily reliant on international organisations for economic and political assistance. Although the Timorese government circulates its own coins, the US dollar is used as the default currency, replacing the Indonesian rupiah following the end of Indonesian occupation in 1999. East Timor’s independence, with the help of the United Nations Transitional Administration of East Timor (UNTAET), also saw the introduction of a modern higher education system.
Under Portuguese rule, Timor-Leste had no functioning university system, and a small number of Timorese students travelled to Portugal for education. Under Indonesian occupation, the Universitas Timor Timur (UNTIM) was founded in 1986 as the primary HEI in Timor- Leste, and it had four faculties: the Faculty of Agriculture, Faculty of Social Policy, Faculty of Education, and Faculty of Economics and Management.1 During this period, large numbers of Indonesian teachers were brought in to staff the university.2 By late 1998 and early 1999, it had approximately 4,000 students. In September of 1999, all educational institutions in Timor-Leste were closed due to student protests against Indonesian occupation. Along with many other schools in the country, many of UNTIM’s facilities were destroyed, and in the aftermath its students were deployed to help reorganise primary and secondary schools, leaving higher education in a state of dysfunction.
In 2000, to replace UNTIM, the National University of East Timor (UNTL) was established as independent Timor-Leste’s first university. UNTL remains Timor-Leste’s largest and most comprehensive university, and while located in the capital city, Dili, it also has branch campuses.3 By 2007/2008, there were 14 HEIs registered with the Ministry of Education (MOE)’s Directorate of Higher Education, and a total of 17,000 students enrolled nationwide.4 Regarding TVET education, the MOE collaborates with other relevant ministries to manage curricula and programmes. According to the 2015 census of Timor-Leste’s education system, there were a total of 38,395 students in tertiary institutions, 66.7% of which were in the capital city of Dili.5
National Strategic Plan
In 2011, the MOE released their National Strategic Plan (2011–2030) for Timor-Leste’s entire education system. This strategic plan is the primary guideline that the government currently uses in overhauling its education system. Considering that Timor-Leste has still yet to meet many needs in its basic and secondary education sectors, developing higher education is not a high priority matter. Regarding higher education, however, the strategic plan called for the establishment of a National Agency for Academic Accreditation and Evaluation (NCAAA),6 which is to be responsible for determining standards and quality assurance on behalf of the MOE (which later changed its name to the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport (MEJD). The plan also proposes the construction of additional polytechnics, two specialising in tourism and hospitality in Lospalos and Hera and one in engineering in Suai, which will be located within existing secondary and technical schools to afford local students an opportunity to study at a more advanced level.7
As the country suffers from lack of a consolidated database between educational institutions, another long-term goal of the strategic plan has been the creation and development of the Education Management Information System (EMIS), which was first proposed in 2003 but made a stronger priority in the 2011 Strategic Plan. Prior to the existence of the EMIS, data was either recorded on paper or simple excel spreadsheets, making the collection of data labour-intensive and inefficient.8 Constructing the EMIS has gone hand in hand with the upgrading of the technological infrastructure within the MOE and special training for all civil servants and administrators to make them digitally literate by the end of the strategic plan’s first cycle in 2015.9 One of the most powerful features of the EMIS is its integration with other government ministries and its ability to track students and staffs’ information using different metrics. As approximately 20% of Timorese youth were not in school, employed or undergoing any training in 2015,10 the EMIS is a crucial platform to monitor the progress of students as they advance through the education system. Since 2015, the MOE has published statistical yearbooks with the help of the EMIS. However, its largest flaw, which was highlighted in a comprehensive UNICEF survey, is that it does not collect data from HEIs or TVET institutions. As the EMIS system is not used in HEIs, it is far more challenging to collect data on student enrolment and other indicators in HEIs on an annual basis.
In 2020, the Timor-Leste Parliament passed their budget for 2021, granting a total of approximately USD78.4 million to the MOE, which is a 5% increase from 2019. Of the total budget, USD26.4 million was allotted to higher education, which includes a fund of USD4.8 million to finance the construction of the New Polytechnic School in Baucau and prioritise the construction of the Polytechnic Institute of Aileu and Betano, and the New University City in Aileu. The construction of HEIs and TVET institutions outside Dili will admit and support students in rural areas, as approximately 26% of tertiary students in 2017 had to move to Dili to attend a HEI.11 As part of the government’s effort to modernise IT infrastructure, USD41 million will be spent on the installation of submarine fibre optic cable to the northern coast of Australia.12
Regarding internationalisation, UNTL maintains close ties with other universities throughout the Portuguese-speaking world: many Timorese researchers from UNTL are hosted at the University for International Integration of the Afro-Brazilian Lusophony in Brazil — a university which maintains a student body consisting of international students from Portuguese-speaking countries and forms curricula based on common interests and Portuguese-language education. UNTL also connects their students with an array of scholarship and funding opportunities with foreign governments and organisations, including the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), and the governments of Australia, Japan and Portugal.13 The university’s Faculty of Medicine also conducts a joint programme with the Cuban Medical Brigade to provide medical and nursing training.14
COVID-19 Impact
Following the global outbreak of COVID-19, the Timor-Leste government ordered schools across the country to close, resulting in approximately 400,000 school children being out of school. School shutdowns and the repatriation of foreign staff and workers as a result of the pandemic have also crippled Timor-Leste’s English training programmes. In July of 2020, the MOE signed an MOU with the US Embassy to strengthen ties in teacher training, English-language training, school rehabilitation and improvement of school meals.15 The Timor-Leste government made additional requests for external assistance from Australia, New Zealand and Cuba to manage the crisis in its education system arising from the pandemic. In addition, the government provided each Timorese household with USD100 for living expenses and an extra USD15 for electricity costs. The closure of schools has also resulted in the start of distance learning on all levels of education, some of which was conducted via radio and TV.16
ZANE KHEIR
Zane Kheir recently graduated with a PhD in Comparative Asian Studies at the National University of Singapore.
APRIL 2021 | ISSUE 10
State of the Region: The Commemorative 10th Issue
