Timor Leste CEDAW Specific Report on Education and Health Sectors

number who start school but who do not reach grade 6. This apparent drop off may bedue to the high numbers who repeat grades, as students who repeat are more likely todrop out of school. The situation regarding drop-outs is a critical one. The vast majorityof dropouts happen in grade 1 and grade 2: the number of children enrolling in grade 3 isalready almost one half of the original intake figures. Then the number of children whoenroll in Secondary Education (grade 10) is approximately 16% of the number ofchildren entering grade 1 (10,481 out of 63,690). Girls drop-outs follow a similar path,showing slightly better retention rates at the beginning of the basic education cycle andhigher abandon during secondary education. 76-out81. The following factors have been identified, as contributors to drop-out: (i) difficulties interms of access to school, since many children live far from any schools, (ii) the fact thatmany parents do not appreciate the importance of having their children educated,sometimes due to the low education level of the families themselves; (iii) financialeducation (uniforms, other materials, etc); (iv) inadequacy of school buildings (especiallylack of water, bathrooms); (vi) violence in schools. 7782. Foremost among the causes of these issues attributed to the parents and the children is thelack of awareness and priority given to education. Extensive studies show that highparental involvement is positively related to achievement, correlated with better schools,children continuing their education beyond primary school and overall improved studentbehaviour. To address this, MoE set- fTeaching Quality and the Importance of Education for Students, Teachers and theCommunity in G television education projects, radio and advisoryservices. From primary to secondary school, the MoE has developed ParentsAssociations through its partners at the regional and district level in order to raiseawareness of the importance of school with students as well as their parents. Thisprogramme arranges also to raise awareness of the importance of school for both sonsand daughters, to give them equal opportunities for their future life. 78Teenage pregnancy83. Another important factor for girls drop-out of school is teenage pregnancy. The MoEand SEPI with the support of MoH, MSS, UNTL, UNFPA and Care International arecurrently finalising a Research on Teenage Pregnancy, which studied early pregnanciesof students and their subsequent drop-out, and the views of students, parents,communities and teachers in order to generate policy recommendations for their re-entryto complete their schooling. However, on a global scale, the proportion of girls in <strong>Timor</strong>-76 --1977 -78 MoE-<strong>Leste</strong>20 | <strong>CEDAW</strong> <strong>Specific</strong> <strong>Report</strong> on Education and Health Sectors <strong>Timor</strong>-<strong>Leste</strong>