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After more than 400 years of Portuguese colonization and a 24-year period of Indonesian occupation, Timor-Leste became a fully independent state on May 20, 2012. Independence followed a period of extreme violence caused by the Indonesians, who destroyed homes, livelihoods and infrastructure and devastated schools before leaving the country. Since 2012, the country has resorted to international aid to reconstruct the country and rebuild its education system. Following the restructuring of the basic education, the country has recently implemented a new general secondary education curriculum, through international cooperation with Portuguese institutions. This article presents the new curriculum developed and puts forward some of the challenges regarding its implementation. Based on interviews conducted with several policy makers, findings suggest challenges related with the use of Portuguese language, the scientific and pedagogical training of teachers and the pedagogical and administrative management capacity in most secondary schools.

Aims Soil water repellency (SWR) in Mediterranean sub-humid environments is poorly studied in soils derived from basic bedrock. This study addressed this gap by comparing SWR in soil samples collected before/ after a prescribed burning in a Mediterranean shrubland overlaying limestone. Methods Sampling was performed on two adjacent slopes (NE/SW) underneath Quercus coccifera, Pistacia lentiscus, Arbutus unedo shrubs, and on bare inter-patches, at two depths (0-2 and 2-5 cm). Samples were sieved at <0.25, 0.25-1, 1-2 and <2 mm and SWR was assessed through the Water Drop Penetration Time (WDPT) in each fraction. Samples were analysed for pH, AS, CaCO 3 and SOM.Results SWR was present before fire, mainly in the <0.25 and 0.25-1 mm fractions at 0-2 cm, which could be explained by SOM (amount and chemical composition). Persistence varied between the two slopes (NE > SW) and the four patches (Arbutus unedo > Pistacia lentiscus ≈ Quercus coccifera > Bare). The low-severity fire slightly increased SWR but did not affect the above-mentioned prefire differences. Conclusions The wax and resins from different shrub species have implications for SWR persistence on the finer soil fractions. Prescribed fire increased the severity of SWR at surface but also its frequency at the subsurface layer.

Objective: To compare Brazilian and international criteria for assessing the nutritional status of schoolchildren.Methods: This was a cross-sectional study that enrolled 160 schoolchildren from a public school in the city of Rio de Janeiro, 91 boys and 69 girls, aged 7 to 9 full years. Body mass index (BMI) for sex and age was used to diagnose underweight, healthy weight and overweight, according to Cole et al., Conde & Monteiro and the World Health Organization (WHO) criteria. Student's t test, the chi-square test, the Kendall concordance test and the chi-square testfor tendencies were used to analyze the data; graphs were plotted demonstrating BMI by age, according to the nutritional diagnosis at each set of criteria.Results: Mean BMI did not differ by sex (t = 0.2845, p = 0.7789). According to the first two sets of criteria, none of the children were underweight, whereas, according to the WHO criteria, one of the boys was underweight. The Kendall test did not demonstrate any significant difference between the three sets of criteria (coefficient of concordance for boys was W < 0.0004 and for girls it was W < 0.0008, with p = 1.00). There was a greater proportion of assessments that did not agree among the boys, at 15.13%, while for the girls this figure was 13.04%. A significant tendency was observed for the difference between the criteria to increase with age among the boys (chi-square for tendencies = 6.552, p = 0.0105), which was evident on the graph and was independent of nutritional status. Conclusions:The criteria used here converged on the same result, without discrepancies between them or advantages for either. Nevertheless, among the boys there was a significant tendency for the diagnoses to differentiate and BMI to increase with age, which is a warning to take care when choosing among criteria.J Pediatr (Rio J). 2008;84(6):550-555: Nutritional assessment, nutritional status, diagnostic methods, body mass index, children.

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