School inspectors in Timor-Leste's semi-autonomous region of Oé-Cusse will begin digitizing school data, after the UNDP handed over six mobile tablets to the Regional Secretary of Education and Social Solidarity (SRESS) on January 5, 2021.

The handover initiated a three-day training program for six school inspectors – two female and four male – and two IT technicians, focused on ICT capacity building and file sharing systems, beginning on January 6, 2021.

The UNDP project “Leveraging ICT to Improve Education and Skills in Timor-Leste” delivered the training at Salun Gabineti SRESS Santa Rosa, in Pante Makassar, Oé-Cusse. Training and procurement within the project is funded by the India-UN Development Partnership Fund.

The training will enable school inspectors to digitize data on Oé-Cusse schools for the Education Office. The training focused on open-source file-sharing systems, form building applications, and database creation and management. As part of the training, UNDP employees will accompany trainees in performing practice inspections.

The use of technology will enable more efficient collection, sharing, and analysis of electronically stored data. The procured tablets will support school inspectors to discover solutions to improve the quality of education in Oé-Cusse.

The “Leveraging ICT to Improve Education and Skills in Timor-Leste” project, has been running since 2019 and has made significant progress in developing innovative information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure as well as learning and teaching materials in Oé-Cusse.

Regional Secretary of Education and Social Solidarity Abelina da Costa thanked the UNDP for their ongoing support and said the school inspection team was to be expanded with the recruitment of four more school inspectors. She also announced plans for the establishment of a teacher training centre in Oé-Cusse.