Building a quality early childhood education workforce in Timor-Leste: Challenges and opportunities
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Abstract
An extensive body of research indicates that quality early childhood education (ECE) has far-reaching benefits for children, families, and societies. In response, countries have increased investments in the early years as an effective strategy for eliminating poverty, addressing inequality, and boosting shared prosperity. Over the past 15 years, the Government of Timor-Leste (GoTL) has committed to the expansion of ECE to ensure all children have access to nurturing care and quality early learning before starting primary school. When Timor-Leste attained independence in 2002, ECE was virtually nonexistent. The 2008 Basic Education Law established noncompulsory preschool education for children aged three to six as part of the basic education system, as well as making it the state’s responsibility to create a public service network of preschool education, including private preschools. Since this time, ECE has been promoted to help reduce early grade repetition and dropout, improve learning outcomes, and develop the young nation’s human capital.
Education system policy reforms, plans, and financial investments have resulted in rapid growth of Timor-Leste’s ECE subsector. The Strategic Development Plan (SDP) 2011–2030 included among key government priorities the expansion and quality improvement of ECE, especially for the most vulnerable and marginalized children. Timor-Leste has made impressive progress in increasing its preschool gross enrollment rate (GER) from 12 percent in 2013 to 25 percent in 2019, although significant disparities persist by geographic location (World Bank 2022). The Education Sector Plan (ESP) 2020–2024 set ambitious goals for scaling up ECE to achieve Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Target 4.2: “By 2030, ensure that all girls and boys have access to quality early childhood development, care and preprimary education so that they are ready for primary education” (UN 2015, 21). Achieving the current GoTL’s target of at least 60 percent of children aged three to five years old participating in ECE by 2028 (Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste 2023) calls for greater investment in ECE policies and programs that prioritize both equitable access and the quality of services.
The GoTL recognizes the essential role that qualified ECE teachers play in nation building and shaping a prosperous future. A shortage of qualified and well-trained teachers, however, hinders the nation’s goals to expand access to and quality provision of ECE services. The National Education Strategic Plan (NESP) 2011–2030 specified the need to ensure qualified ECE teachers are employed in all preschool classrooms. By law, ECE teachers are required to hold a Bacharelato degree—a three-year, postsecondary degree—in any field to join the Teacher Career Regime (TCR), in which teachers have opportunities for professional development and career progression linked to the state salary scale. Like other low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), Timor-Leste has historically contracted teachers without a specialized academic qualification or teacher training, and has relied on a volunteer workforce to support the rapid expansion of ECE. As a result, Timor-Leste faces a severe lack of qualified teachers to meet current and future demand. A key government priority is the recruitment, preparation, mentoring, and retention of ECE teachers who can skillfully nurture young children’s healthy development while building a strong academic foundation for primary school education.
