evidoria

← Back to browse

Good practice Imported

INFORDEPE & UNICEF Teach Timorese Teachers to Use ChatGPT for Portuguese Instruction

Timor-Leste · Ainaro · See the Timor-Leste profile

Evidence: Descriptive / self-reported Top 70% 40/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

Timor-Leste's INFORDEPE and UNICEF trained teachers in Ainaro, Ermera and Liquiça in digital literacy from 2024 (US$1.1m, 600-teacher target). By August 2024, 172 had ICT training and learned to use ChatGPT and Google to help students with hard Portuguese vocabulary.

600
Target teachers for training
172
Teachers who completed ICT training (by August 2024)
154
Teachers reached via practical workshops (by August 2024)
30
Schools targeted
US$1.1 million
UNICEF funding commitment
US$198,430
ICT equipment value delivered
INFORDEPE & UNICEF Teach Timorese Teachers to Use ChatGPT for Portuguese Instruction

Details

Maturity
Pilot
Promoter
INFORDEPE and Timor-Leste Ministry of Education, with UNICEF Timor-Leste
Period
2024–present
Keywords
teacher training, ICT/AI literacy, language education, public-private partnership

Context

In February 2024, Timor-Leste's INFORDEPE, the Ministry of Education and UNICEF announced a digital-literacy training programme backed by a US$1.1 million UNICEF commitment, targeting 600 teachers across 30 schools in Ainaro, Ermera and Liquiçá.

Objectives

The one-week trainings, beginning March 2024, aimed to build general ICT skills and show teachers how to use ChatGPT and the AMO Translator app so students could look up and understand unfamiliar Portuguese vocabulary.

Activities

By August 2024, UNICEF-run practical workshops had reached 154 of an eventual 172 teachers who completed general ICT training covering email, Google Chrome and Google Search, alongside specific instruction in ChatGPT-assisted vocabulary lookup.

Results

UNICEF, with funding from VINCI Energies via the French National Committee for UNICEF, also handed over US$198,430 of ICT equipment, including 300 tablets, 32 laptops, 31 smart TVs, 30 generators and 32 projectors, to the same 30 schools.

Conclusions

The published figures are reach and input metrics rather than measured learning outcomes: no study has yet assessed whether ChatGPT-assisted vocabulary look-up improved Portuguese proficiency, and the programme had trained little more than a quarter of its 600-teacher target as of the latest reporting.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Low (< €50k)
Time to results
Short (< 1 year)
Staffing & skills
INFORDEPE trainers, UNICEF Timor-Leste workshop facilitators, Ministry of Education (Timor-Leste)

Conditions for success

  • one-week concentrated trainings delivered at municipal level
  • ICT equipment (tablets, laptops, smart TVs, projectors, generators) paired with training
  • funding partnership between UNICEF and VINCI Energies via the French National Committee for UNICEF

Common failure modes

  • reached only about a quarter of the 600-teacher target as of latest reporting
  • no study yet assesses whether ChatGPT-assisted vocabulary look-up improved Portuguese proficiency

Where it fits

Governance type
national teacher-training institute + UN agency + ministry
Scale
3 municipalities, 30 schools
Income level
low-income

Commonly funded by

Philanthropic / foundation funding National / regional programmes

Indicative funding routes for practices of this type — always check each programme's current calls and eligibility rules.

Do you run this practice? Claim it — verified implementers get a public contact pathway and can propose corrections.

Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

Attachments

Similar practices you may find useful