Timor-Leste Ten Years on: Reconstructing Curriculum for the Future?

In 2002, Timor-Leste (East Timor), emerged out of centuries of Portuguese colonial rule, two decades of brutal occupation by Indonesia, and nearly three years of UN governance to become one of the world's newest nation-states. Soon after achieving independence, the still nascent state, alongside development partners, prioritised a radical reform of the education sector. A critical component within this was to transform the primary curriculum to ensure that the content and pedagogy of what was taught in Timorese classrooms worked to support, rather than hinder, efforts at social and civic reconstruction.