Instituto São João de Brito (ISJB) in Timor-Leste has moved to its own campus next to Colégio de Santo Inácio de Loiola (CSIL). On January 8, its Rector, Fr Side Pereira SJ, led the transfer of the furniture, books and computers from its temporary premises in CSIL classrooms to a completed part of the ISJB buildings. The students of both institutions pitched in to help with the move, which took almost two days. Some students even worked overtime to finish the set up of the classrooms, the library and the administration office. Most of the offices and classrooms are still empty but thanks to some generous donors, ISJB will be able to buy the needed furniture.
This is ISJB’s third year of operation. The teacher training institute opened in 2016 in temporary premises in Casa Gonzaga Jesuit Candidacy. In 2017, it moved to Kasait, occupying a CSIL classroom block. For the first two years, the intake was modest but this year, with construction of its own campus almost finished, ISJB was able to take more students and has two separate first year classes for the 2018 intake.
The ISJB campus has 12 classrooms. Five are being used for classes, one for student activities, and one as office for the staff, security, maintenance and Information Technology personnel. One classroom will be turned into a small chapel/prayer room, for which demand has arisen with the number of religious studying in ISJB. Another classroom will be turned into a computer room.
“We did not expect that offering three bachelor courses in education in teaching English, Portuguese and Religious Education would demand more classrooms at once,” said Fr Pereira. During its first year of operation, ISJB offered only one course in teaching English and Religion. Now with two more concentrations, more classrooms will be needed to cater to students enrolled in each course.
“The third year students belong to only one major course. This makes it easier for administration in terms of the distribution of the subjects, but the situation of our second year students is already challenging because the group is divided into three major courses, demanding three classrooms for each of their specific courses, while the first year students are all doing the same introductory courses,” Fr Pereira expanded.
The two full school years of ISJB reveal, not unexpectedly, that the majority of the students had weak basic education. Thus, this year ISJB requires all its students to do a bridging course in Mathematics, English and Portuguese before beginning formal classes.
“Most of the students in the second and third year said that if they had had this programme before, they would not have struggled as much with the present academic demands,” said Fr Pereira. Already, seven students in the first year have decided to withdraw because they saw from the bridging course the difficulty they will have in keeping up.
Nonetheless, ISJB continues to grow. From a modest intake of 23 students when it started three years ago, ISJB now has 96 students – 14 in third year, 27 in second year and 55 in first year. Seventy of the 96 students are new and four Religious of Jesus and Mary sisters are doing part time studies. There are 16 full-time (six lay staff and two Jesuits) and part-time faculty members, with a few more staff still to be recruited.
With the inauguration and blessing of the ISJB campus scheduled on May 3, Fr Pereira is thankful for all the graces they have received despite the many challenges. “This year is indeed a blessing for Insituto de Brito,” he said, adding that he is grateful for the generosity of donors who have made possible ISJB’s mission of forming qualified and committed teachers in Timor-Leste.