Australia Provides Further Support to Timor-Leste’s Mother Tongue Education Program

Australia Provides Further Support to Timor-Leste’s Mother Tongue Education Program

9 July 2014

On 9 July 2014, the Timor-Leste Ministry of Education, the Australian Government and the Timor-Leste National Comission for UNESCO jointly celebrated their partnership in support of the Mother Tongue Based Multilingual Education Program. During an event hosted at the Ministry of Education in Dili, the Vice-Minister of Pre-School and Basic Education, H.E. Dulce de Jesus Soares and the Australian Ambassador, H.E. Mr Peter Doyle, expressed their shared commitment to improving education outcomes in Timor-Leste. Read more: English and Tetun.

The Timor-Leste National Comission for UNESCO is piloting the use of mother-tongue in the early grades of schooling. The pilot supports six pre-schools and six basic schools across the three districts of Lautem, Manatuto and Oecusse.

The Australian Government is providing an additional USD 450,000 over the next two years to UNESCO National Commission to undertake the project. This brings Australia’s total contribution to this pilot project to more than USD 900,000 since 2013.

Ambassador Doyle said “Australia is committed to improving education outcomes in Timor-Leste. By supporting the Government of Timor-Leste’s priorities, the Australian Government is improving access to quality education, enabling Timorese children and youth to participate in the economic, social and political development of the nation.”

The pilot has raised community awareness of the importance of mother tongue education, trained teachers on mother tongue based curriculum and methodologies, and developed resources in local languages. This includes alphabets, readers and story books. The results of the pilot will assist the mother tongue based multilingual approach to be expanded to other districts.