An educational aid project run by the Northern Territory in Indonesia wants to expand into East Timor.
At present the project, financed by the Australian International Development Assistance Bureau, helps 21 schools and four vocational development centres in nine eastern provinces in Indonesia. AIDAB is providing $18.4 million and Indonesia an equivalent amount.
Nine long-term Australian advisers are with the project in Indonesia.
Ninety-six master teachers and five electronics technicians are being trained at the four vocation centres in Indonesia and 40 master teachers are doing six-month courses at the Northern Territory University.
The project aims at helping teaching, courses, administration and improving buildings and other facilities.
The Northern Territory Minister for Education, Shane Stone, who recently visited the schools, wants the project to take in East Timor. His report said about 3500 people from East Timor lived in the Northern Territory and have friends and relatives living in the province. The Northern Territory would be well-placed to offer support.
He said the Portuguese, during the colonial period before 1975, had done nothing to help the local people.
With Indonesia he would like to extend the project generally, including the provision of short-term advisers into Irian Jaya. He said the project was one of the unsung success stories of the relationship with Indonesia.