Timor-Leste
Mr. Francisco De Carvalho
“Educate children to success in life.”
School Address : EBF1, 2 Beedan Laclo, Manatuto, Timor-Leste
Mr. Francisco de Carvelho is a teacher and head of school who views teaching as a powerful platform for fostering student growth and positive community change. He has over 30 years of experience ranging from classroom to community engagement, aimed at ensuring that parents are active members of their educational community and providing students with the support they need in order to learn.
He uses a multigrade child-centred teaching approach to ensure access to quality primary education by focusing on the improvement of literacy outcomes, best practices, and awareness-raising community childhood development. He views teaching as a powerful platform for fostering student growth and positive community change. He utilizes local resources to enhance the teaching and learning process. Moreover, he engages with parents as well as internal and external agencies, including development agencies and other international NGOs.
He also mobilizes resources to support school operations. He creates an inclusive environment that encourages parental and community participation, resulting in increased attendance at school events. Through this approach, despite persistent resource limitations, his school continues to increase in student enrolment and participation.
Since his school teaches two languages, neither of which is the language of the students, Teacher Francisco de Carvelho continuously encourages fellow teachers to apply the local language to introduce learning (if needed), as it fosters a sense of identity and belonging, boosting children’s self-esteem and confidence. He also supervises teachers and administrative staff within his school.
Bachelor of Education
2005 – School Coordinator and Head Teacher 1999 – Teacher, Beedan Primary School
– Participated in national workshops, including in curriculum and child-centered pedagogy.
– Training of Trainer and follow up training for trainers of the Escola Nova program
– Norwegian Refugee Council: school-based trainings
– One Hundred Child Friendly Schools’ training, UNICEF Timor-Leste – Eskola Nova Training Pedagogy, UNICEF Timor-Leste
– Teaching and Pedagogy Strategy Training, Government of Norway
– Classroom Management training, Ministry of Education, Timor-Leste
Focus on student success : His mentorship culminated in the successful graduation of his first student, who graduated from university with a degree in Engineering Geology. This achievement is underscored by the continued operation and growth of the school since 2003, despite persistent resource limitations, resulting in increased student enrollment and participation.
Community engagement : He always try to maximize limited resources to create meaningful opportunities for community and parental involvement, leading to enhanced communication between families and educators, by creating an inclusive environment that encourages parental participation, even with limited resources, resulting in increased attendance at school events.
Focus on Mother Tongue : He continuously encourage his fellow teachers to apply local language to introduce learning (if needed) as it fosters a sense of identity and belonging, boosting children’s self-esteem and confidence in learning. His school has rather complicated language situation, as we teach two languages, neither of which is the language of the students. All of the teachers have a different local language than the students. However, they’re way through these linguistic barriers until they become supports to help students learn as effectively as possible.
Multigrade Pedagogy, Early Grade Literacy, School Management, and Community Engagement