Dr. Antonio Guterres, M.Pd

Assinatura Novo Protocolo de CAFE entre dois países nomeadamente MEJD da Republica Democrática de Timor Leste e Secretária de Estado da Educação da Republica de Portuguesa
14 de Março de 2023
Salao Conferencia do MEJD

Manila, O9 de Febreiro de 2023
Sua. Excia Vise Ministru MEJD, Dr. Antonio Guterres, M.Pd akompania husi Enkaregado Negosiu Embaixada Timor Leste iha Manila, Philippines, HE. Caetano de Sousa Guterres no Direitor Jeral Ensinu Edukasaun MEJD, Sr. Luis Fernandes, halao vizita official ba Trinity College Philippine. Iha vizita refere Sua. Excia Vise Ministru MEJD enkontru ho fundador/Presidente husi Trinity College, Dr. Gisela Luna ho estrutura Trinity, Objetivu husi Vizita refere mak, (1). Follow up fila fali rezultadu Vizita Trinity College ba Timor Leste /MEJD iha tinan 2019, (2). Observa direta kondisaun Eskola Sekundariu Jeral Trinity no Dormitoriu estudante iha Trinity College no (3) Observa direta kondisaun no dezemvolvimentu Eskola Turizmu no Hospitality iha Trinity College.
Rezultadu husi enkontru refere, parte Trinity College liu husi Presidente Fundasaun Trinity College, Dr Gisela Luna iha komitmentu boot tebes no Pronto apoiu no oferese bolsu estudu ba estudante timor oan nebe hakarak kontinua sira nia estudu iha Trinity College husi nivel Sekundariu no Trinity University of Asia, nunee iha tempu badak parte Trinity College ho MEJD sei diskute hamutuk sobre kontinuasaun ba MoU. Trinity College hari'i iha tinan 1907 no ofisialmente estabelese hahu nia misaun komesa iha tinan 1963 husi Episkopal Protestan. Atual Trinity College kompostu husi Ensinu Baziku, Ensinu Sekundariu no Trinity University of Asia ho total estudante 6000 ital. Durante enkontru iha biban hanesan Sua. Excia Vise Ministru MEJD hasoru malu mos estudante timor oan nebe Agora dadaun halao hela estudu iha Trinity University of Asia hamutuk 30 ital iha area Medicina, Farmasia, Respiratoriu, Radiolojia, Turizmu no Hospitality.

52nd The Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO) Council Conference
8-10 February 2023
Manila, Philippines

Theme: Investing on Foundational Learning to prioritise Literacy, Numeracy, Socio-emotional skills and Health Care for Early Childhood Education Transformation

Roundtable discussion 2: Reflections, Insights and Experiences by Vice Minister of Education Youth and Sports of Timor-Leste. Dr. Antonio Guterres, M.Pd

Her. Excellency , Vice President of the Republic of the Philippines and Secretary of the Departement of Education Philippine, Ms. Sara Z. Duterte
Your excellencies, Ministers from all the member states ( Laos, Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia, Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Philippine)
The Government of the Philippines in particular, who has kindly provided a very warm welcome to all the delegation from all the member states,
My special appreciation also to the SEAMEO Secretariat who has done a wonderful job to prepare this annual event of SDEM meeting and all the distinguished guests and participants of this very important meeting.

Mindful of time, I will only briefly provide a short insight into Timor-Leste’s efforts to promote and provide basic foundational literacy and numeracy and socio-emotional development for children in early childhood.

As we all know, the Covid-19 pandemic has had enormous negative impacts on our education system and we all need significant additional resources to address the ongoing challenges we are facing today. This includes addressing recovery of learning loss. The impact on socio-economic state of children in Timor-Leste conducted by the United Nations finds that almost half of children did not continue their education during period of school closures, Preliminary results from our own study into learning loss study showed similar results. Our study was notable in that it focused not only on literacy and numeracy but also socio-emotional learning for the early grades. Children as young as 4 were impacted in areas such as ability to concentrate, ability to work together and fear of the pandemic was prevalent. As a result, we produced materials for teachers to help them to help these young children.

Early school drop-outs did not appear to increase but our long-time effort to promote early childhood education is moving slowly. The Gross Enrollment Rate for pre-primary school is still very low, at 27 percent (EMIS, 2020), a slow increase of 2 percent since 2018. In addition, our literacy rate remains low at 68,2 percent.

Therefore, in August 2022 a consultative process convened at both regional and national level that Timor-Leste produced our National Commitment for transforming education which was approved by the President of the Republic on August 6th, 2022 and was presented to the UN in September of the same year, emphasizing our commitment “to put in place effective strategies to recover from pandemic related learning loss and prioritize learning for ALL children”. This includes our commitment “to promote and provide foundational literacy and numeracy skills with the focus on the most marginalized students including children with disabilities and children from minority language groups”. It is an effort ensure no one is left behind in the area of accessing quality education as stipulated by the SGD 4.

It is important that we act on the commitments we made.
Our Strategic Development Plan 2030 places early childhood education as one of the essential strategies by recognizing preschool education for children aged 3-5 as a key priority. Our national commitment for education transformation places promoting and provide foundational and numeracy skills as one of the key education strategies thrives towards creating a more equitable, sustainable peaceful and prosperous society when human development is at the heart of all our focus. We take actions and we made rapid response to the needs.

It is no doubt that early preparation of children has far-reaching effects on success in school and in life, disagreement remains on what are the best ways achieving that success. There is no one solution that fits all, but it is important to take into account different contexts and situations and characteristics of the country and society.

It is therefore, Timor-Leste has introduced Eskola Iha Uma program (EiU), literally translated is home schooling, “a pilot project which consists in the establishment of mobile brigades with the aim of providing support to pupils in their respective place of residence”, tailored for children who did not have an opportunity access to preschool. It is an attempt to honor our commitment to ensure all children have access to education and provide learning opportunities and improving basic foundational and numeracy skills for young Timorese. The initial pilot of this program is due to end in March 2023 but anecdotal evidence shows positive results for children and communities.

Although Eskola iha Uma is based on face-to-face interactions the Covid-19 pandemic, has brought opportunities for innovation for the use of digital technologies. The Eskola Ba Uma program (EbU), (the English literal translation is School Goes Home, Eskola ba Uma is a multimedia channel program originally designed to provide learning content for school children during school closure period. It has since gone beyond that. The program has continued to be made available and has provided complementary learning resources to students who have fallen behind. The Ministry of Education Youth and Sports has produced over 300 learning educational episodes of videos for students across all level of education including preschool children which the content emphasized has been put on foundational literacy and numeracy skills.

We also continue to emphasize the importance of a life-long education approach where we continue to provide foundational literacy and numeracy skills targeting adults. This project is implemented across all the municipalities using community centers providing literacy classes for adults. A Re-entry policy was introduced aimed to help female students who were pregnant to overcome the real cultural, societal and logistical obstacles of completing compulsory secondary education. The inclusive education policy, covering the entire educational system, has a specific focus on students and individuals who are subject to exclusion or who have a greater challenge to access education on an equal condition, especially those with special educational needs, those who live in poverty and in remote areas, those belonging to various ethnolinguistic groups, pregnant girls and young mothers and working children.

We reaffirm that, as enshrined in our Constitution, education is a fundamental human right and a pre-requisite for an equitable, sustainable, resilient, peaceful and prosperous society. We are committed to continue promote and provide basic foundational literacy and numeracy skills for all Timorese.

For us to thrive, it is important that we work together and we have the platform to do so, finding right strategies that work for our regional context as the same we are doing with SEA-PLM, an approach that is tailored for ASEAN context. We have to find ways that is working for us, that can help us striving for success. Maraming Salamat/Thank you.

Uatucarbau, 10 Janeiro 2023 (Sapientia) -Vise Ministru Edukasaun, Juventude no Desportu, Dr.Antonio Guterres,M.Pd, Inaugura Sentru Komunitariu Aprendizajem Haburas (SKAH),
liu husi kooperasaun entre MESSC, MEJD ho Komisaun Nacional UNESCO ba Timor Leste ho objetivu atu fasilita komunidade no joven sira iha area mak hanesan: Abilidade da Vida, ijame Ekuivalensia, Alfabetizasaun, Formasaun Lian Korea, Lian Ingles no Komputador. Iha diskursu Excia Vise Ministru MEJD, hato'o agradese wain ba KNUTL tamba bele finaliza ona projetu refere tuir tempu determinadu nunee husu ba Autoridaridade Posto administravu uatocarbau no povo uatocarbau atu kuidadu no utiliza edifisiu refere ho didiak ba longo prazu.

Enkuantu partisipa iha serimonia inaugurasaun refere, Administrador Postu, komandante PNTL Squadra, Rev Amo Parokia, no lider komunitariu husi Suku (6) iha Postu Administrativu Uatucarbau inklui komunidade.

𝐅𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐳 𝐀𝐧𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬á𝐫𝐢𝐨 𝐒.𝐄. 𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐞 𝐝𝐚 𝐑𝐞𝐩ú𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐚, 𝐃𝐫. 𝐉𝐨𝐬é 𝐑𝐚𝐦𝐨𝐬 𝐇𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐚 𝟐𝟔 𝐝𝐞 𝐃𝐞𝐳𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐫𝐨 𝐝𝐞 𝟏𝟗𝟒𝟗 - 𝟐𝟔 𝐝𝐞 𝐃𝐞𝐳𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐫𝐨 𝐝𝐞 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟐 , 𝟕𝟑 𝐚𝐧𝐨s, Saude diak nafatin e longa vida, hodi servi ba povo no nasaun Timor Leste.🇹🇱