DILI, 11 august 2020 (TATOLI)- Timor-Leste has published a record showing that 25 thousand citizens with disabilities are not approached to early childhood education.
Minister of Education, Armindo Maia said that the Government’s Ministry of Education along with the Timor-Leste disability association are cooperating to support inclusive education to all people living with disabilities in the future.
The Government has encountered many challenges such as human resources and facilities to implement the program for inclusive education to the people with disabilities.
“Our effort is to find a way of supporting people with disabilities to access the education necessary to their conditions,” he said.
“We should have a specialist for translating sign language, currently Timor-Leste only has three translators, thus we need to invest to open up training to increase the numbers,” he said.
He added ME will cooperate with the AJTL to strengthen the politic for the education inclusive program.
At the same time, the Executive Director of ADTL, Cesário da Silva, said during a meeting with the Minister of Education, his organization will aim to strengthen the work with other relevant departments.
For example, the hearing impaired needs a sign language translator and visually impaired need a specialist for their reading so they do not lose their right to access education.
According to him, 35 people living with disabilities will soon participate in the high school equivalence exam.
“We have three people with disabilities who have finished their basic schools in Kupang and are set to see another 32 complete their schooling here, ADTL along with the Ministry of Education has organized the basic exam for them to be taken at ADTL,” he said.
At the basic education standard, ADTL has prepared level three to five and are currently working on the sixth step which is the high school level.
“The exam will be based on the calendar from the Ministry of Education and the teachers will also come from the Ministry of Education,” he said.
ADTL will prepare the space for the exam, while the equipment and other school materials including the professors will come from the Ministry of Education,” he said
“the basic subjects prepared by the Ministry of Education are Maths, English, Portuguese and History,” Mr. Cesarion said.
Jornalista : Tomé Amado
Editór : Agapito dos Santos/Nick Kettle
Translation: Nelia Borges
