The Timorese Education Minister assured today that she intends to continue the 'Pro-Portuguese' project, which ends in December, because it is the "cornerstone in strengthening and promoting the Portuguese language in Timor-Leste".
"About the continuation of this project, during our visit to Portugal we spoke about this and from the Ministry of Education we guarantee that this project must continue", said Dulce Soares, who was part of the delegation led by the Timorese Prime Minister, Xanana Gusmão, who This month he made an official visit to Portugal.
The Timorese minister signed today, at the Ministry of Education in Dili, with the Portuguese ambassador to Timor-Leste, Manuela Bairos, the second addendum to the project, to complete the second phase of its implementation, by December.
The 'Pro-Portuguese' cooperation project, started in 2019 and co-financed between Portugal and Timor-Leste, reached more than four thousand teachers throughout the Timorese territory, from pre-school to secondary education and aimed to teach the language Portuguese and pedagogy.
"The project, which has been a cornerstone in the promotion and reinforcement of the Portuguese language in Timor-Leste, not only strengthens linguistic ties, but also encourages the exchange of knowledge, the reinforcement of communicative skills, the autonomy and linguistic proficiency of our teachers", highlighted the minister.
The Portuguese ambassador stated that she has been traveling the country "on behalf of the project" and that "there is nothing better to understand the pulse of that project than visiting locally the people who benefit from it".
"In the most distant areas of the municipal capitals, this is the group of people through which teaching and learning in Portuguese will be carried out in Timor-Leste. If we want to cover the entire territory of Timor-Leste, this project is the project suitable to do so", said Manuela Bairos.
The ambassador also asked the minister to continue the project and for the more than 50 Timorese trainers to go, in groups, to Portugal for a period of two months to undergo intensive training.
"This is very important. It is information for the Ministry of Education. I think it is a very serious idea and we will see next year. We will see the proposals", said minister Dulce Soares.
