Paulina Quintao – The policy of equivalent education has been criticized as being unfair to dropout youths due to the learning environment, which is different to the formal system.
Executive Director of Movement of Women's Organization (MOFFE) Yasinta Lujina said all people, including dropout youths had the rights to access to education and choose the school that they wanted to attend.
She said pregnancy, sexual abuse and family economic situation were some of the factors in young women leaving school early.
"They should be in good environment and getting along with other friends, taking part in extra-curricular activities and studying various subjects, that is what we want," said Lujina at her office in Farol, Dili.
She said the program aimed to ensure that all people received the diploma, but did not necessarily provide a quality standard of education as no extra-curricular activities were offered.She said MoFFe and other women's organizations continued to urge the government to create a fair policy for all people, particularly teenage girls who wanted to go back to school after giving birth.
She said women's group would continue to advocate by using the 2015 recommendation from the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), which called on the government to create a policy to ensure dropout youth could continue their education.
She said there were many cases of abuse while teenage girls were still at school. If they fell pregnant they are often not allowed to return to school after giving birth, with schools sometimes refusing to provide them with a letter of transfer.
CEDAW first made the recommendation to the government in 2009 in order to provide a legal basis for all schools to accept dropout youths who married early or fell pregnant, but it was never established.
Research conducted in 2010 by the Secretariat of State for Promotion Equality (SEPI) and the National university of Timor-Lorosa'e (UNTL) showed that 72% of teenage girls left school after getting pregnant or experiencing abuse and other problems that affected their learning process.
According to 2013 data from the Timorese Women's Communication Forum (FOKUPERS), 49 victims of sexual abuse were referred to the organization. Of this number, 14 continued their schooling, while 35 failed to continue their studies due to pregnancy, lack of family support or schools refusing to allow them to return.
The National Director for Adult Education, Miguel Godinho Martins, said the equivalent education system was a new policy adopted by the government to give dropout youths over the age of 15 the opportunity to continue their schooling and receive a diploma.
He said the subjects were the same as those in the formal education system. Once students complete the requirements they receive a diploma and are then able to continue their studies in either public or private senior high schools, as permitted under the law.
He said equivalent education was currently only available for junior high school, but the government planned to extend the program to senior high school.