1. Illiteracy
2. Poverty
3. Poor school resources and buildings
4. Teacher shortage and large class sizes.
5. Teacher inadequacy
6. Poor teaching skills and teaching methodology
7. Language problems
8. No employment openings for graduates
9. Political situation
10. System inadequacy
11. Curriculum

Source: Kantor Statistik Timor Timur, 1994 page xiii.

1974 - 92% illiterate (8% literate)
1985 - 66% illiterate (34% literate)
1993 - 52% illiterate (48% literate)

The 48% literate population includes:

a) Indonesian immigrants
b) semi-literate people who enrolled in school, but dropped out, or completed primary school without graduating

This 48% figure therefore obscures the actual literacy capabilities of those referred to as literate. Consequently, estimates are made such as: Two thirds of the population is illiterate. 60% of over 15 years old have never been to school (AusAID notes re East Timor), and sixty percent (60%) of rural women in East Timor are illiterate. There are many complaints that primary school graduates cannot read or write (Saldanha p 75).

NB

Most Timorese in the Civil Service do not have the educational qualifications to rise above the lowest two rungs of the ladder (Golongan I and II).

East Timor illiteracy rate is higher than in all Indonesian provinces. Literacy rates in Indonesia in 1991were by the Indonesian government to be:

Urban areas 90.5% (estimated)
Rural areas 77.4% (estimated)

Source: Indonesian Handbook 1991, Indonesian Department of Information.

Poverty is the main cause for student:

1. non attendance
2. intermittent attendance
3. dropouts

Other reasons for poor attendance are also associated with poverty:

a) the children are working in the fields
b) sickness ( which is widespread, and hard to overcome without money for medicine)
c) family disruption, which means children have to keep the household going (fetch

water, look after younger siblings).

Parents must pay:

School uniform (3 different kinds)

School uniform is compulsory. This means that new uniform must be bought as the child gets older. Ideally the child has 2 uniforms; if not the uniform must be washed daily, which entails the purchase of soap, and lessens the uniform's life and the chances of handing it on the uniform to a younger sibling. In addition parents are obliged to buy Scout uniform and sports uniform.

School textbooks, writing books, pens

School books consist of one writing book and one textbook per school subject. At secondary school there are between 12 and 16 subjects. The curriculum changes every 5 years, so there is a limit how many of the textbooks can be handed down to younger siblings. The costs of the textbooks, which come from Jakarta, are considerably more expensive than in Jakarta, because of freight charges.

1. School fees (small but compulsory)
2. Exam fees
3. Transport to school (bus)

a) East Timorese parents generally cannot afford to buy textbooks. The children go to school with a pencil and one, maybe two, thin writing books, into which they copy what the teacher writes on the blackboard. One writing book for all subjects. If children have no pencil or writing book, then they have no record of what was said in class. There are no library books to fall back on , either in the school or the town where they live. Worse still, they have no textbook, for any subject area. Typically the only textbook is owned by the teacher, who teaches from it, then copies from it on to the blackboard, then finally uses it as the basis for the semester exam, which determines whether the child goes up to the next class, or repeats the year. The textbook is therefore the one and only class resource. The fact that the children do not possess this resource has a number of serious consequences.

The children get no regular practice in reading, which has disastrous effects on the general cognitive development of the children. This is very conspicuous when literate Timorese adolescents and adults are seen struggling to read basic materials.

The teaching-learning process is extremely inefficient. Most of the lesson time is spent in writing on or copying from the blackboard. This is an excruciatingly slow process. It is possible to imagine this, if one thinks how slowly primary school children normally write.

Children who do not own writing books into which they copy the textbook, can only borrow another child's writing book, and copy that. This, understandably, usually does not happen.

b) East Timorese parents generally cannot afford to give their children breakfast, so they go to school on an empty stomach, resulting in lethargy and poor performance in the classroom.

1. Numbers of students who have completed Senior High School in Indonesia – 5%
2. Number of students who have completed university in Indonesia – 1%

In June 1998 the Indonesian government warned that, because of the economic crisis, 8 million students of compulsory school age may drop out in the 1998-1999 academic year, compared with 2.8 million in a normal year. It also reported that 25% of the students who completed the 1997-1998 school year did not register for the 1998-999 school year.

Realising that the problem was caused by parental inablity to pay for schooling, the government obtained from the World Bank funding which allowed it to:

1. Give out some free books
2. Make some upgrading grants to schools
3. Waive the requirement to buy school uniform at school
4. Waive some school fees
5. Grant a limited number of scholarships

~ Primary school – Rp 120,000 for 4% children
~ Junior High School – Rp 240,000 for 16% children

Talk by Rui Gomes (ex Indonesian Regional Planning Board) in Oporto July 1997:
From an EastTimorese population of 747,000 in 1990:

1. 12% never attended school
2. 62% didn’t complete primary school
3. 12% completed primary school
4. 4% completed junior high school (compulsorysince 1994)
5. 1.5% completed senir high school
6. 0.?% completed tertiary education

Low school attendance

Of the 172,572 people aged between 5 and 14 years old in 1992, only 132,574 (76.8) were studying at primary, junior and senior high schools. The remainder - 23.2% - were not at school. Source: Kantor Statistik Timor Timur 1992.

Table 1:School attendance of children aged 7-12 years in Maubisse sub-district (kecamatan) October 1988.

Source: Office of Kecamatan Maubisse.

School classrooms in Timor have the bare minimum - benches, tables and a blackboard. Usually there is no power.

Often two children share one chair or many children crowd on to one bench.

There are almost no teaching or learning resources of any kind, eg teaching aids, resource books, charts, pictures, libraries, photocopiers. Children almst solely upon the teacher. The teacher equally relies upon the textbook (which he/she must buy, and therefore sometimes do not have).

There is no learning environment in the schools. The atmosphere resembles a barrack-room.

Table 2: Number of government schools, students and teachers in 1993

Source: Pemerintah Daerah Propinsi Daerah Tingkat I Timor Timur: Rencana Pembangunan Lima Tahun Keenam 1994/95 - 1998/99

Source: Jakarta Post, quoting the East Timor Director of Education (Sept 1992)

Table 4: Pupil/Teacher Ratio

These figures do not represent class sizes.

Shortage of East Timor teachers

1. SMA 97% outside teachers
2. SMP 86% outside teachers
3. SD 5-10% (?) outside teachers

4. TK Most are outside teachers (for outside students?)

Only one Timorese secondary teacher. Timorese have trained as teachers, but do not take up positions. (Source: Jakarta Post, September 1992 quoting the Director of ET education).

The shortage of East Timor teachers constitutes a huge problem if East Timor becomes independent.

Teachers received a destabilising questionnaire in late 1999 asking if they wanted to leave.

SMU/SMP will probably recommence in September. Teachers will not return till after referendum. SD may start on time in mid July. Catholic teachers from Belu and Flores will probably return. Muslim teachers will probably not return.

Class sizes in Timor are commonly: 60 (primary), 40 (secondary).

Teachers/lecturers not turning up; absenteeism

Low professional conduct of teachers (eg much absenteeism; children left unattended). This also applies to the Politeknik and Untim too according to senior staff. Lecturers are "lazy".

Teachers and lecturers do not turn up to teach because no sanctions are applied. The system demands that such staff should not get promotion, but this sanction is never applied. This is the fault of the Indonesian government, and culture.

The Principal of SMP Atauro lives in Dili, and comes to his school about 4 days per month. He is disinterested in the innovatory NGO reading programme in his school.

Teacher disinterest in teaching - unprofessionalism

It seems that many teachers are not interested in their profession, but enter it for the sake of money and security. They show little interest in upgrading their skills.

Timorese students are angry with teachers if they do not pass exams, or get low exam marks. It is not uncommon for students to hit a teacher, threaten a teacher with a knife, or throw rocks at the teacher’s house, in the case of failure in exams. This seems to arise because:

teachers are unprofessional, and are commonly absent from class

teachers favour certain students, and disfavour others, rigging the marks according to their own wishes. There is no neutrality, nor any guaranteed correlation between hard work and good marks.

The students resent this arbitrariness, and assume their failure is because of teacher unprofessionalism, and mark-rigging.

2. In general there is a high level of ill discipline in government schools. Baucau is a case in point.

Teachers teach for exams – annual, semester and internal exams. So they have to ensure that the students get the right answer. There is much rote learning.This ensures the students develop skills in memorisation and exam-performance, but rarely develop an interest in learning.

Teachers teach through chalk and talk.

Teachers scared to be innovative, for fear that students will get out of control (with classes of 50)

Teachers teach Indonesian (a foreign language) through reading and grammar.

Teachers do not read stories to young children.

If a child is a speaker of a language other than Tetum, then the child must learn both Tetum and Indonesian in order to function effectively at school.

There are few employment openings in East Timor for graduates. For example, the Politeknik comments:

(1) Insufficient technical jobs in ET for graduates

(2) Provincial government and private contractors close the door to East Timorese graduates

Educational standards have been reduced by the political situation

Closure of most schools 1975-1978

Activism by University and Polytechnic students have reduced the number and quality of graduates (University Rector’s comment).

10. System inadequacy

Centralised exam system prevents an interest in teaching or learning.

Low examination requirements (easy to pass). Problem according to Fr Transfiguração (Headmaster in Baucau) is that all students are allowed to pass. Students become complacent and lazy. Possibly teachers are scared to fail them. "Unlike Portuguese times".

Marks are too low in ET, according to the educational authorities in Dili, so East Timorese Principals are asked to increase them.

Indonesia sets high educational pass marks, but allows students to pass even though they do not attain these marks.

Government teachers in ET get 2x those in other provinces. Therefore East Timor is inclined to attract poor quality teachers from other provinces.

26% of teachers are unqualified for their positions.

(Source: Jakarta Post, September 1992, quoting the Director of ET Education).

Indonesian government builds schools far from towns, but does not supply transport, nor bus subsidies. Students have to waste time walking or waste money going by bus.

1. Pante Makassar SMEA, SMU
2. Soe SMU 2
3. Hera SMU 4
4. Aileu SMU

Insufficient teacher housing in regions outside Dili. Teachers forced to billet with families.

(Source: Jakarta Post, September 1992 quoting the Director of ET Education).

There is a centralised Javanese-oriented curriculum and exams, for all 40 million Indonesian students. The curriculum of Indonesian schools is focussed on nation-building, and the Javanese struggle for freedom. Curriculum not relevant to East Timorese. For instance, school subjects in Senior High Schools are:

Core subjects

1. Religion (in groups: Islam, Protestant, Catholic, Hindu or Buddhism)

2. Education in Pancasila Morals

3. History of the National Struggle (ie. against the Dutch in early 20th century)

4. Indonesian Language and Literature

5. Indonesian and World history

6. Geography

7. Social stream (IPS)

8. Economics/Accountancy

9. Sociology and Anthropology

10. Government

11. English

12. German

13. Physics and Biology stream (IPA)

14. Mathematics

15. Biology

16. Physics

17. Chemistry

18. English

Apart from a recent optional extra in some provinces for "local content", the curriculum makes no allowance for Timorese history, geography, arts or oral literature. The curriculum is alien to Timorese students, as it is to other non-Javanese.

Tetum

In Indonesian schools the Indonesian language must be used as the language of instruction, though in the first three years of school the local language may be used as a means of easing students into an understanding of Indonesian.

Tetum therefore cannot be used as the language of instruction.

In 1995 Bishop Belo declared that Catholic schools could teach Tetum for up to 6 hours a week. This means teaching Tetum, not teaching other subjects in Tetum. The problem is that Tetum is an oral language, and therefore there are few written Tetum resources other than those produced by the MMIETS, for reading and practice.