“If a student speaks Tetum, they get a $1 fine.” Photo: Timor Post, July 13 edition The board of the Fatumeta Basic School, in Dili, has decided to start enforcing a rule against students speaking any language but Portuguese, including Tetum, while on school grounds. According to the newspaper Timor Post, the director of the school, Fernanda Belo, argues that students should only speak Portuguese. Those “who do not speak the language,” she says, are better off “remaining silent.” According to the newspaper, students caught speaking any language other than Portuguese are “fined.” Written in Tetum, the Timor Post quotes Belo as saying: Ami ko’alia ona ho inan-aman katak alunus sira tama iha resintu eskola ne’e labele ko’alia tetun, hotu-hotu ko’alia lian português, sé maka ko’alia tetun sei multa dollar 1 The school director emphasizes that the “parents agreed to the rule” and justifies imposing the fine in order to help students to speak more Portuguese. After gaining independence from Indonesia in 2002, Timor-Leste adopted Portuguese and Tetum as the country's official languages. A decade later, however, studies indicated that only 15 percent of the population spoke Portuguese: Apesar de fazer parte da CPLP, Timor-Leste é um dos países com menor penetração da Língua portuguesa. Por todo o território falam-se cerca de 20 línguas e dialetos para além do Indonésio. Apenas 15% da população fala Português. Despite being part of the CPLP, Timor-Leste is one of the countries with lower penetration of the Portuguese language. Throughout the country, about 20 different languages and dialects are spoken, in addition to Indonesian. Only 15 percent of the population speaks Portuguese. The Fatumeta Basic School's rules, however, appear to violate the country's laws on teaching. The President of the Alola Foundation and the goodwill ambassador for Educational Affairs, Kirsty Sword Gusmao, told Global Voices that the school's policy of fining Tetum speakers is being reviewed: Ha'u sei refere asuntu ida ne'e ba Sra Vice-Ministra Ensinu Báziku tanba regra/sansaun hanesan ne'e la han malu ho Dekreto Lei kona-ba Kurrikulu Foun Ensinu Baziku nian. I will refer this matter to Mrs. Deputy Minister for Basic Education because this rule/sanction does not correspond with the Law for Basic Education Curriculum [of Timor-Leste]. Kirsty Sword Gusmão. Photo in public domain. Gusmão explained: Sra Diretora Eskola Fatumeta ne'e mak tenke simu multa tanba viola Dekretu Lei 4/2015 Kurrikulu Ensinu Báziku ne'ebé determina: a) prosesu hanorin lian tenke hahú ho oralidade no depois mak hakat ba lee no hakerek (art. 11-1) b) progresaun husi Tetun ba Portugés (hahú hanorin literásia Tetun) (art. 11-2) c) karga oráriu literasia Tetun no Portugés iha siklu 1 la hanesan (Tetun mak barak liu) no iha siklu 2 hanesan d) objetivu final aprendizajen komponente literásia atu iha báze mak’as lian ofisiál rua (art 11-2) (la iha objetivu atu hanorin lian inan/nasionál seluk) e) uza lian instrusaun sei lalenok progresaun (hahú lian instrusaun ne’ebé uza mak Tetun no depois mak hahú móis hanorin komponente kurrikular seluk ho lian Portugés (art. 14-2 no 3) Viva lian-Tetun! The Fatumeta School Director is the one that should be fined for violating Law-Decree 4/2015 of the Basic Education Curriculum, which requires (a) the learning process has to start orally, and then reading followed by writing; (b) the progression from Tetum to Portuguese (begins with the teaching of Tetum literacy) (article 11-2); (c) the hours of Tetum and Portuguese literacy in the first cycle is not equal (Tetum will be higher) and in the second cycle it will become equal; and (d) in order to end the learning of the literacy component, it will need to first establish the basis of the two official languages (article 11-2) (no need to teach other maternal or national languages). Long live the Tetum language! Global Voices also spoke to João Paulo Esperança, a Portuguese linguist who has lived in Dili for many years. Esperança says the situation at the school needs to be confirmed, and then a response may or may not be necessary: Penso que primeiro há que confirmar qual é a situação real nesta escola, mas eu, pessoalmente, não concordo com políticas escolares que proíbam os alunos de falarem a língua que quiserem no recinto escolar, fora da aula. E pode haver também famílias sem possibilidades económicas de pagar estas multas. Mas creio que não é com má intenção que alguns diretores e professores tentam implementar medidas destas.