Introduction
Perhaps, this question provokes plenty of interests, it has become a hot topic not only for the Timorese citizens, yet also for the ASEAN citizens. Timor-Leste is perhaps the smallest member of ASEAN, still with no decisive power, with a massive milestone to achieve. The country has fought long years in order to be accepted into the prestigious South East Asian association of countries, which its success in itself is an enormous achievement. The writer, with this post, would like to “uneducatedly” assess the sectors that the country needs in order to assert its position in Association of South East Asian Nations.
The nation is officially known as
República Democrâtica de Timor-Leste, after being designated as Timor-Português
and Timor-Timur, before being independent. The country was officially
established on 20th May 2002, after having undergone a transitional
era, being under UNTAET (United Nations Transitional Administration of East
Timor) since 1999. The first president of the republic was Dr. José Alexandre Kay
Rala Xanana Gusmão, and the first prime-minister was Dr. Mari Alkatiri. The
current leadership of the country is taken by Dr. José Ramos-Horta as the
president of the republic and Xanana Gusmão, this time, as the prime-minister. The
country is situated between Australia and Indonesia, bordering the first by
sea, and the latter by both sea and land. Timor-Leste consists of two major islands,
Ataúro and Jaco, and contains 13 municipalities and one special administrative
region., with the 13 being Aileu, Ainaro, Ataúro, Baucau, Bobonaro, Covalima,
Dili, Ermera, Lautém, Liquiça, Manatuto, Manufahi and Viqueque, while the autonomous
region being Região Administrativa Especial Oe-cusse Ambeno (Special
Administrative Region Oe-cusse Ambeno), and Dili being the capital of the
nation.
The Education Sector and the problem with languages
The sector of Education is, in
the author’s opinion, the most crucial sector for the development of any
country. In terms of República Democrâtica de Timor-Leste, investments have
been made since its establishment, in order to accelerate the developmental
process of the country. However, the society still deems it as being
insufficient. The government still is required to develop a more intuitive
curriculum that is able to embrace the participation of the country in ASEAN.
The issue that the educational sector faces at the moment is related to the linguistic
limitation of the educative programs in schools. The utilization of Portuguese
as the language for the manuals, though being a clever strategy to enforce Portuguese
learning in primary and secondary levels of education, sets an issue with the
understanding of the subject. The bilingualism applied in the curriculum does
not permit an easier understanding of the taught materials. Students are able
to effectively learn only in classroom and not outside with the given manuals,
since the classroom explanations are mostly carried out in Tetum, while the
manuals are written in Portuguese, the struggle for most students, especially
in primary school is the lack of proficiency in Portuguese, which can be based
by the fact that the language is rarely utilized in the daily life activities.
This issue can, perhaps, be explained by the fact that the current and the previous
generation come from the non-portuguese speaking regime. In order to explain
this situation, the writer poses the idea of separating the linguistic eras of Timor
into three parts, these being, the Portuguese-Tetum era, which starts from the 16th
Century until 1975, and then the Indonesian-Tetum era, which starts from 1975
to 1999, and then the reformation era, which starts from 1999 until the present
day. These eras of language indicate the most common language used for daily
communication. Moreover, the proposed eras indicate that the generation that
partakes in each of them have different linguistic proficiencies dependent on
the language of the era, hence the last and the current generation have issues
with the usage of Portuguese, since the last generation was cut completely from
speaking Portuguese, and the current being the predecessor of the previous,
they were inherited with the difficulty of acquiring the language naturally, making
the current generation one that is of reconnection to Portuguese. There
should be solution to be found for this learning issue, since it holds back the
pedagogical processes of formal education, and the writer does not neglect its plateau
of difficulty, the point is that there is a handicap in the current educational
system.
With the above-mentioned issue,
it is rather unwise to add English, the common language of ASEAN, as a learning
language. However, the safest suggestion seems to invest in non-formal language
educations. Perhaps, the steps to be taken by the government is to provide
investments towards English courses, in order to uphold the quality of English
learning process.
Employment opportunities
The biggest concern in the
population of the country at the moment is the lack of employment opportunities
that can guarantee a functional and sustainable life. With the minimum wage of
115$USD, and the inflation in terms of the prices of basic necessities, it is undebatable
that no one is able to survive a month such conditions, especially a household
with children. With the current situation, the most desirable solution sought
by the population is to migrate and work abroad, and the most chosen destination
is the United Kingdom. There are youths migrating abroad weekly in hopes of
finding better income that not only sustains the livelihood of their families,
but also one that guarantees a better future for their kins. Perhaps, the
country needs to weigh its decisions in terms of job provision to its people.
The country has allocated a lot of efforts into this sector with the establishment
of SEPFOPE (Secretário do Estado para a Formação Profissional e Emprego) or the
Secretary of the Estate for Professional Training and Employment. However,
there is not enough opportunities for those who are not able to leave their
families in order to work abroad. The country should focus also on the development
of entrepreneurship and business ownership, also, with the emerging content
creators who have monetized contents over the internet, the country should find
strategies that allow the monetization processes to be requested within and not
from neighboring countries, since for these content creators to gain an income
from their passion, they are required to use abroad monetization sources, this hardens
the chances of having people who do not need to acquire a degree to work and
make a living, and reduces the quantity and quality of local content creators.
The youth population are not only ones with physical prowess to work, they are
also creative individuals with ideas of creative business that does not require
the marketing of industrial products, they can, by themselves, be the product,
through content creation which is not only locally consumed, but universally.
Conclusion
These are two examples of the
sectors that can be improved upon for the country to be able to uphold a strong
position in ASEAN and in its developmental process. The writer, through this
post, solely suggest through observation and opinion, hence does not view the
mentioned points are total truth or facts, but considers them still as an
opinion to be shared. The point of this blog post is not to diminish the hard
work that the leaders of the country has put in, it is rather to weigh-in thoughts
and ideas that can be developed in order to improve the country with the hopes
of a better living conditions for its population. The writer is very happy with
the work that the government has done, especially in the Healthcare sector,
since the country has provided it free of charge. In conclusion, IT’S TIME TO
WORK, TIMOR, WAKE UP!
Comments
Post a Comment