Laptop diplomacy seals East Timor English language link

East Timor and the Northern Territory have agreed to work towards establishing a network of English language learning centres.

Maubara School

East Timor and the Northern Territory will work towards ­establishing English-language centres to help Timorese workers develop skills to fill labour shortages in northern Australia and earn cash to send home.

Northern Territory Education Minister Peter Chandler yesterday toured Maubara School and Senai NT English Language Centre outside Dili, both supported by the Territory government. Beneath carefully crafted drawings and a noticeboard of symbols of national pride, East Timorese children sang and gossiped with their Australian guests.

When the first Territory delegation visited Maubara School in May this year, principal Jose De Deus thought they had come to shut the school down. Since then, Australian support has supplied his school with a satellite internet connection, laptops and access to the NT Schools network, through which pupils can learn English.

The Territory government will provide about $330,000 a year for three years to support Senai, while the Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education will provide about $85,000 a year.

Student Melena Mirelas, 10, said she and her friends wanted to learn English. “It’s important for our future; it’s important for me to be an intelligent girl,” she said.

She and several of her friends said they wanted to be doctors.

Mr De Deus said computers and internet access helped the school do paperwork and develop students’ and teachers’ skills.

Many of the Timorese children, whose first language is a native dialect rather than the Timorese standard Portuguese, walk up to 8km to school.

Mr Chandler said the Territory had to look at ways to replicate that enthusiasm in its own indigenous children. “It’s frustrating but devastating at the same time that you’ve got these kids that are walking 8 to 10km every day to go to school because they value eduction,” he said. “How can we get that through to remote Australian students? How can we get that through to students, parents and to the community?”

Vocational Training and Employment Secretary of State Ilidio Ximenes da Costa said the Senai centre was an important step towards allowing more Timorese to take seasonal jobs in Australia.

“We need to build skills, experience and English proficiency right across the country,” he said. “We want our young people to go to Australia where they can earn money, learn skills and bring those skills home.”