AME EDUCATION

SECTOR PROFILE
Timor-Leste

Timor-Leste
Education Structure

Education System Structure

and Enrollments 2006

Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics, World Bank EdStats

Timor-Leste
Education Structure
Almost 30% of children enrolled in primary education are over-age
for their grade of attendance.
% Net
% Gross
Enrollments Enrollments

Classification

Level/Grade

Pre-primary Pre-school

Ages

2006

2005

4-5

N/A

10%

63%

91%*

35.0%

68%

23.0%

37%

N/A

4%

N/A

10%**

Primary, grades 1-6

6-11
Lower Secondary, grades
7-9
12-14
Preuniversity Upper Secondary, grades
10-12
15-17
TVET Secondary, grades
10-12
15-17
Tertiary

Post secondary study

18-22

* Primary gross enrollment data from 2007. * *Tertiary data from 2002..
Source: UNESCO UIS, World Bank EdStats

Pre-school education is not compulsory, but

is available for children four to five years of age.
At present there are 57 preschools enrolling
4,700 children with 139 teachers. Only eight of
the schools are public and most are in urban
areas. With less than 10 percent of children aged
4-5 year attending pre-school at this stage, there
is considerable scope for expansion as demand
increases.

The primary education system. Children at age six or seven can

enroll in six years of primary education. After the strong growth in enrolments
in 2000 and 2001, the numbers in primary school have now stabilized at about
185,000, with large numbers of overage children in the system. The average
school size is about 248 students with an average of six teachers per school.
Within these overall totals, there are districts with higher and lower growth
than the national average, resulting from very significant population
movement highlighted by the 2004 census and from poor rural areas where
there was low enrollment pre independence. Some districts, such as
Dili, have larger school sizes, which give greater flexibility and the
opportunity for single teacher classes and some specialization. Teacher
numbers have grown strongly, but are also now stabilizing. The primary
teacher population of more than 4,000 is the single largest category in the
government workforce. Students returned to school in great numbers before
all teachers could be recruited, which explains the lag and consequent
mismatch in student and teacher growth rates. The average pupil-teacher
ratio (PTR) is 44:1, having declined from 47:1 in 2001. The average is
slightly lower in Catholic schools.

Junior secondary schools.Post-primary education

in Timor-Leste is divided into three years of presecondary education and three years of secondary. The
policy of the Government is to move towards a system
of nine years of basic education for all children. One
Escola Basica has already been established by the
Government to provide both primary and junior
secondary education. Additional schools will gradually
be added or converted to provide these nine years of
basic education.

Senior secondary schools.There are far fewer

senior secondary schools - 55 in 2003, 17 of which were
Catholic. Nearly half of all the schools and students are
found in Dili. The TLSS confirmed the association
between poverty and length of education, and Dili appears
to have a substantial proportion of the households who
desire and can afford senior secondary ducation for their
children. The average senior secondary school is larger
than the average junior secondary school, with about 380
students and 20 teachers per school.

Timor-Leste
Population Structure
74% of the population of Timor-Leste is under 25 years old.
With country fertility rate of 3% yearly, the youthful proportion of
the population will continue to pressure the education system for
another decade or more.

Source: T-L Living Standard Survey 2001, CIA Factbook, UNESCO 2008

Timor-Leste
Education Policy
Relevant Policies:
1. National Development Plan 2002
2. Strategic Plan for Universal Primary Completion by 2015, 2005
3. Education and Training: Priorities and Proposed Sector Investment
Program 2005
4. EFA Fast Track Initiative Award, $8.2 million, 2006-2008
www.educationfasttrack.org
Policies are available at:
http://planipolis.iiep.unesco.org/format_liste1_en.php?Chp2=Tajikistan

Timor-Leste
Education Access: Pre-university
All levels of education are increasing enrollments.
Secondary level is increasing at a faster rate, 18.7%, than primary
level at 11.3%.

Source: UNESCO UIS, World Bank EdStats

Timor-Leste
Education Access: Tertiary
Tertiary enrollment information for Timor-Leste is very limited.
The single public university, the National University of East
Timor, re-opened in 2000 and continues to receive heavy donor
support.
There are five faculties at the university: agriculture, political
science, economics, education and teacher training, and
engineering. All new students follow a course including human
rights, ethics, philosophy of science, and Timorese history.
A single data entry for tertiary education is available: 6,349
individuals were enrolled at the public university in 2002.
18 private institutions offer tertiary education of varying degrees
of quality due to a lack of regulatory mechanisms in place.
Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics, Google.com

Timor-Leste
Education Access: Gender
Girls and boys enrollments appear to be dropping at nearly an
equal rate.
Gender parity at this level is .96.

Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics. World Bank EdStats

Timor-Leste
Education Access: Gender
Females and males have made similar enrollment gains at lower
secondary since 2000 (16.7% and 17.3% respectively).
Females at upper secondary do not enroll in large numbers.

Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics

Timor-Leste
Education Quality: Teachers
The majority of teachers (66%) have upper secondary or postsecondary technical-vocational education.
The majority of teacher training is offered by small private
universities and NGOs and is of sometimes dubious quality.

Source: T-L Primary School Achievement Study 2003, UNESCO (2008)

Timor-Leste
Education Quality: Completion

Primary completion information is reported for one

year: 2007.
Less than 50% of primary children complete grade 6.
Girls and boys complete primary education in equal
numbers.

Source: World Bank EdStats

Timor-Leste
Education Quality: Testing
Timor-Leste

has not participated in TIMSS.

In 2003, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Youth and

Sports conducted a Primary School Achievement
Survey for math with 3rd and 4th graders.
Third graders answered 28% and 4th graders
answered 37% of questions correctly suggesting that
children are not learning grade-appropriate knowledge
in math.

Source: World Bank (2004) Education Since Independence

Timor-Leste
Education Equity: Gender/ Geographic Disparities

Almost 85% of out-of-school children are from rural

areas which also contain the largest proportion of
children in the country.

Dili/
Other Rural
Baucau Urban Center
% of school age
population
% of out-of-school
children

Source: T-L Living Standard Survey 2001

Rural
East

Rural
West

12.5

9.9

39.8

18.8

18.9

8.0

7.4

45.9

20.6

18.1

Timor-Leste
Education Equity: Income Disparities
The largest proportion of out-of-school children are the poorest and
youngest.
32% of the poorest and 26% of the richest out-of-school children,
aged 7-12, say they have no interest to be in school.

Source: T-L Living Standard Survey 2001

Timor-Leste
Education Equity: Academic Disparities

Timor-Leste does not focus extensively on technical

and vocational training programs at the secondary
level.

General academic programs

Technical/vocational programs
Total Students

Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics

2004

2005

95.5%

96.3%

4.5%

3.7%

73005

74822

Timor-Leste
Education Efficiency: Expenditure
Timor-Leste is the biggest spender in the region on education as
a percentage of GDP and public money.

Source: World Bank Education at a Glance

Timor-Leste
Education Efficiency: Expenditure
The education budget in Timor-Leste is almost equally divided among levels.

Source: World Bank EdStats

Timor-Leste
Education Efficiency: Repetition
Repetition is a serious problem despite the high rates of funding the
country allocates to education.

Source: World Bank 2008

Timor-Leste
Education Efficiency: Repetition
Between 20-25% of primary students repeat grades.

Source: World Bank 2008

Timor-Leste
Education Efficiency: Private Tutoring

No information about private tutoring is available.

Volunteer teachers in the system however, remain an
issue at all levels. Volunteers are paid by parents and
school-raised funds and are often of poor academic
quality.

One in three teachers at the senior secondary level is

a volunteer as the government has difficulty recruiting

qualified candidates for secondary education posts.

Source: World Bank (2004)

Challenges Facing Timor-Lestes Education System

With one out of every two adults unable to read and
nearly two-thirds of children suffering from stunting, the
early and most crucial years of a childs development in
Timor-Leste are not suited towards preparing a child to
learn and thrive in society. Only one out of 10 children
have the chance to go to preschool; the first time most
children step into a classroom is at the age of six or
seven. Upon entering school, chances are the language
of instruction is different from the language they speak
at home, further complicating the learning process.

Challenges Facing Timor-Lestes Education System

For those who stay in school, the outcomes are not
promising. Teachers are not adequately trained and face
challenging circumstances ranging from poor facilities
and materials to overcrowded classes. More than 70
percent of children cannot read a single word in
Portuguese or Tetum at the end of first grade; 40 percent
cannot read a single word after two full years of school.
Repetition rates are high in the first three grades of
school, comprising more than half of the children
enrolled. And only 37 percent of children will continue on
to secondary school.

Timor-Leste
Education: Conclusion
Successes:
Access: Increasing enrollments at all pre-university levels.
Quality:
Equity: Gender parity at primary.
Efficiency: High level of education funding and well-divided between levels.

Challenges:
Access: Declining primary enrollments and low completion rates. Low
tertiary capacity.
Quality: Poor teacher academic qualifications. High rates of repetition and
drop-out all levels.
Equity: Low primary access rate for low income and rural groups. Low
female access rate at upper secondary.
Efficiency: A system of volunteer teachers all levels especially upper
secondary.