Timor-Leste

AME EDUCATION

SECTOR PROFILE

Education Structure

Timor-Leste

Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics, World Bank EdStats

Education System Structure and Enrollments 2006

Education Structure

Source: UNESCO UIS, World Bank EdStats

Timor-Leste

• Almost 30% of children enrolled in primary education are over-age for their grade of attendance.

 

% Net Enrollments

% Gross Enrollments

Classification Level/Grade Ages 2006 2005

Pre-primary Pre-school 4-5 N/A 10%

Pre-university

Primary, grades 1-6 6-11 63% 91%*

Lower Secondary, grades 7-9 12-14

35.0% 68%

Upper Secondary, grades 10-12 15-17

23.0% 37%

TVET Secondary, grades 10-12 15-17

N/A 4%

Tertiary Post secondary study 18-22 N/A 10%**

* Primary gross enrollment data from 2007. * *Tertiary data from 2002..

Population Structure

Timor-Leste

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

• 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.

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

Education Policy

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

Timor-Leste

•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.

•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

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

Timor-Leste

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

• The majority of teachers (66%) have upper secondary or post-secondary technical-vocational education.• The majority of teacher training is offered by small private universities and NGOs and is of sometimes dubious quality.

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.

Timor-Leste

Source: World Bank EdStats

Total 69.3%Male 69.4%Female 69.2%

Education Quality: Testing

Source: World Bank (2004) Education Since Independence

Timor-Leste

• 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.

Education Equity: Gender/ Geographic Disparities

Timor-Leste

• Almost 85% of out-of-school children are from rural areas which also contain the largest proportion of children in the country.

Dili/Baucau

Other Urban

RuralCenter

RuralEast

RuralWest

% of school age population 12.5 9.9 39.8 18.8 18.9% of out-of-school children 8.0 7.4 45.9 20.6 18.1

Source: T-L Living Standard Survey 2001

Education Equity: Income Disparities

Source: T-L Living Standard Survey 2001

Timor-Leste

• 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.

Education Equity: Academic Disparities

Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics

Timor-Leste

• Timor-Leste does not focus extensively on technical and vocational training programs at the secondary level.

  2004 2005

General academic programs 95.5% 96.3%

Technical/vocational programs 4.5% 3.7%

Total Students 73005 74822

Education Efficiency: Expenditure

Source: World Bank Education at a Glance

Timor-Leste

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

Education Efficiency: Expenditure

• The education budget in Timor-Leste is almost equally divided among levels.

Source: World Bank EdStats

Timor-Leste

Education Efficiency: Repetition

Source: World Bank 2008

Timor-Leste

• Repetition is a serious problem despite the high rates of funding the country allocates to education.

Education Efficiency: Repetition

Source: World Bank 2008

Timor-Leste

• Between 20-25% of primary students repeat grades.

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)

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.

Timor-Leste