In this report, we present findings from the baseline assessment of the HATUTAN II (Hahán ne’ebé Atu fó Tulun ho Nutrisaun no Edukasaun or Food to Support Nutrition and Education) program. This program is a five year (2022 – 2027), US$26.5 million initiative that will work in partnership with the Government of Timor-Leste and development stakeholders to address two strategic objectives: improved literacy of school-aged children and increased use of health, nutrition, and dietary practices. The program will operate in 378 schools and communities within four of Timor-Leste’s most deprived municipalities, Ainaro, Ermera, Manatuto, and Oe-cusse, to support an estimated 171,232 target beneficiaries including school-aged children, teacher, school administrators, and community members. Key activities will include support for the government-run School Feeding Program (SFP) and trainings targeting teachers, school administrators, and community members.

The baseline assessment finds that grade 2 students’ literacy abilities are very weak and many students remain unable to read words. The average overall score on the literacy assessment was only 10.9% for intervention students, and only 18.2% of intervention students demonstrated the ability to read and understand the meaning of a grade-level passage. Scores were highest—though still low in absolute terms—for letter recognition, at 21.8% for intervention students. Furthermore, many grade 2 students have no literacy abilities, with 21.8% of intervention students scoring 0% overall on the literacy assessment.

We find moderate use of engaging teaching practices in most intervention municipalities, with relatively more frequent use of these practices in Ermera and less frequent use in Oe-cusse. However, across all municipalities, substantial potential remains to continue improving the use of engaging teaching practices, as well as reducing the use of traditional, unengaging teaching practices including copying from the board and repeating after the teacher. Furthermore, corporal punishment was still observed to be used by some teachers in intervention schools and is likely underreported in our data due to social desirability bias.