Timor-Leste: building a post-conflict education system

Abstract

Timor-Leste, South East Asia's newest nation, achieved its independence in 2002, after five hundred years of colonial occupation, and a brief period of direct United Nations rule. Its population of only one million people remain among the poorest in the region, though this is set to change in coming years as a result of revenue flowing into the state budget from its newly-won off-shore oil reserves. The first independence government which was led by FRETILIN, the party which had launched the liberation struggle in 1974, was committed to a rapid expansion of education and health services, and significant progress has been made, particularly in primary schooling and adult literacy. A major political crisis in 2006-07 revealed the ongoing differences between elements of the old Resistance, the Catholic Church and the international donors, and, while stability has returned to the country, the legacies of colonialism and war are expected to have a major impact on the emerging education system in the foreseeable future.