East Timor wants the education system to be in Portuguese only

The East Timorese ministries of Education and Higher Education want to make it mandatory that instruction in the country’s education system be only in Portuguese and that other languages be “auxiliary” and supportive.

“The two ministries are proposing changes to the basic law on education, and the proposal is that the language of instruction is only Portuguese. Tetum and other national languages will serve as auxiliary languages and pedagogical support when necessary,” said the Minister of Education, Youth, and Sports, Armindo Maia.

“This is one of the major problems we have been facing” in the national education system, he said.

Armindo Maia was speaking at the Portuguese Cultural Centre, at the Portuguese Embassy in Dili, on the sidelines of a welcoming ceremony for a group of teachers who will be seconded to the 13 Centres for Learning and School Training (CAFE) in Timor-Leste, a Luso-Timorese project for the requalification of Timorese teaching in the Portuguese language.

Armindo Maia explained that the proposal, which changes the basic law of education, still has to go through the Council of Ministers and then the National Parliament, showing hope that this discussion can occur before the elections, scheduled for May 21.

“With this change, we hope that teachers can start making an effort to teach in Portuguese,” he said, referring to one of the country’s two official languages, along with Tetum.

Armindo Maia was responding to questions from journalists about data that 80% of the Timorese educational community does not use Portuguese at school, explaining that this is one of the sector’s biggest challenges.

In this context, he recalled the efforts that have been made to strengthen the Portuguese teaching skills of Timorese teachers, including through the Luso-Timorese PRO-Portuguese project.

“Last year, the PRO-Portuguese project trained more than 4,000 Timorese teachers in intensive Portuguese language training. We expect an equal number this year. We are going to bet on it,” he said.

Questioned on the same subject, the Portuguese ambassador in Dili, Manuela Bairos, said that when it comes to using Portuguese in East Timor, one should “see the glass half full”, noting the progress made in the last decade.

“We can read the numbers as we see fit. There may be 80% of people who feel more comfortable speaking languages other than Portuguese, but what I have seen in my travels around the country is that there are many people to whom I address in Portuguese, who react in Portuguese, with better or worse fluency,” he said.

“From the moment people feel confident in Portuguese, that number will go down. The CAFE project is working towards making people comfortable with Portuguese. It’s a complex and lengthy process, but I was here eight years ago, and I felt a great change in the proficiency of Portuguese on the part of the Timorese in these eight years,” he said.

Armindo Maia reiterated in today’s ceremony the Government’s will to extend the CAFE school network to the new Ataúro municipality “already next year”, with plans to open a second school in Dili.

The “most ambitious” plan would see the program’s implementation, currently in the capitals of the municipalities and the WAEMR, to administrative posts in the country.

Maia explained to Lusa that the success of CAFE is evident in the results, expressing hope that the initiative can contribute to improvements throughout the system.

With information from Lusa

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