ABSTRACT

The initial teacher recruitment undertaken by the CNRT district education committee volunteers and the Church during the emergency period was successful in returning a degree of normalcy to the lives of East Timorese children, but brought in too many volunteer primary teachers. A recruitment test based on knowledge of curriculum and pedagogy was used to reduce teacher numbers.

Corruption was alleged in a public outcry over the district selection and allocation of primary teachers to schools based on the recruitment test. However, an investigation by the Inspector-General found problems were caused more by clerical errors than by a wilful disregard of procedures. A large number of errors arose from data transfer, spelling of Portuguese names, omissions and duplication of names. Only in Baucau was the CNRT district education team sacked and recruitment redone under a new district committee.

Faced with a difficult situation, the novice East Timorese education administrators demonstrated that they were capable of running a ministry, devising and executing a recruitment process for the initial allocation of 3,000 primary teachers and 1,740 secondary teachers, a total equal to half the civil service in the country.