When was formal education introduced

The Basotho people use Sesotho and English for communication and for official purposes. It is not uncommon to conduct meetings and workshops in English even where only locals participate in such events. However, there are other minority languages found mostly in the extreme south and north of the country; these are respectively, Xhoza and Zulu. These languages remain insignificant and there is no policy on minority languages. The Lesotho population is estimated at over 2 million.

The Sechaba Consultancy Report Gay and Hall, 7 indicated that projections estimated there were "roughly 2. The high growth rate may well have an impact on land usage with arable land being allocated for residential sites.

Furthermore, underemployment and unemployment problems, as well as fewer opportunities for education, are likely to increase as the population grows. A large number of its population work in neighbouring South Africa. In fact, according to the report by Sechaba Consultants Gay and Hall, , the number of Basotho men employed in mining in the Republic of South Africa was , Also, according to this report, the Lesotho government is the largest domestic employer.

Government employs roughly 10, teachers, and 15, persons in the civil service, whereas the manufacturing sector reached a total of 14, in The educational philosophy that governed the schools and colleges was denominational. In other words, it was of more importance that teachers in such schools and colleges knew about the church ministry than about teaching and learning in the schools and colleges Task Force 2. Thus, the central purpose of these schools was to develop Christian character.

Teachers were evangelists first and pedagogues second, and their character counted more than their knowledge in the performance of their work.

A department of education was established in and was responsible for the formation of a uniform syllabus and a system of school inspection. Standard examinations for both primary and post-primary schools were introduced. This situation brought "new elements into the mission-based education system; the use of standardised qualifications and credentials. The credentials became the key for obtaining employment in the colonial civil service and the teaching force" Task Force 2.

During the colonial period, education training for Basotho was largely directed towards employment in government administration and in the churches as teachers and catechists. There were few employment opportunities in trade and business and even less in commercial agriculture. The requirements for government and church employment were basic numeracy and knowledge of English. The schools and examinations strongly emphasised these two areas and neglected the development of technical and commercial skills.

English, Mathematics and the Science subjects are still classified as subjects that cannot be failed. The challenge for the missionaries was to establish denominational teacher training colleges. The Catholic Church had three colleges: one for male students, another for females, and one for mixed.

The latter was to serve the mountain district. The Evangelical church also had one male college and one female college whereas the Anglican Church settled for one female teacher training college. These colleges offered programmes aimed at preparing teachers to teach in the lower and higher primary schools.

The first goal of these institutions was to prepare teachers who could continue to teach Religious Education according to the practices of their respective churches. The second goal was to train local people to teach their peers in the three Rs.

The challenge for Lesotho after its independence from the British government on 4 October , therefore, was to change certain aspects of Lesotho Education so that the curriculum was not the same as it was during the British period. The eight years of primary education, for example, were cut to seven years. Subjects such as "nature study, hygiene" and several others either got new names or were phased out of the curriculum. Another challenge for the Lesotho government after independence was to reform teacher education in Lesotho.

Lesotho decided to amalgamate the seven denominational colleges into a single secular public college. The college trains Basotho people as a nation with very little emphasis on religious denominations. While there have been advantages in the establishment of a public teacher education college, there are concerns that NTTC has not grown and has failed to set up facilities in the remote areas of Lesotho.

At present the most visible trend concerning education in Lesotho is the rate at which parents are transferring their children to South African schools. Investigation of the extent to which Lesotho children register with South African schools needs to be undertaken in the near future. Information, which might be revealed by such a study, could provide reasons for such a move, including the cost implications as well as the quality of the products of the South African schools.

The Ministry of Education in the Sixth National Development Plan pointed out that the legal framework, financial and academic control of the formal education and training system are vested in the Ministry of Education Ministry of Education, It therefore seems that besides financial responsibility, government is mainly responsible for formulating educational policies, laws and regulations governing schools, providing infrastructure, developing, monitoring, and implementing curricula, as well as providing supervision of teaching through an inspectorate.

The church, which is the second partner, contributes by providing classroom facilities. The churches are free to set school fees and use them as they wish and it is not unusual to find church-halls being used as classrooms. The key role of the church in educational matters can be seen in their participation in high-powered government committees, as described in Act No. According to Act No.

However, the issue of shared responsibility, as indicated in numerous official documents, is often questioned by many educators in Lesotho. Government and church appear to have more powers than the third partner, even in the latest Education Act of , which attempts to decentralize educational administration responsibility. This culminated into schools for children aged 6 to 13, which according to Psychology Today, were established by 1st Century AD. The schools were mostly religiously oriented.

However, other institutions supported formal education. Governments wanted patriotic citizens, religious groups wanted morally upright adults, while those who operate in trade wanted compliant workers.

By the 16th Century, education had become compulsory in Europe. The protestant religion played a hand in advocating for formal education as they believed that every person should be able to read a scripture on their own. Thus, focus was put on religious education.

At this point, only boys were being taught to read and write. By the 19th Century, different religious factions in Europe were fighting for world dominance. According to Oxford University, this was the motivating reason behind the spread of missionaries to different parts of the world such as Africa.

There, they introduced church-based schools and influenced the indigenous people who were mostly still living in hunter-gatherer societies to desire formal education. The education system constituted memorisation and little exploration and students were punished as a way of making them learn.

At the turn of the 21st Century, many countries started to put laws in place barring harsh punishment for children in school. Now, there are period curriculum reviews in most countries to align formal education with the changing world. Do you have an idea for The New Times to cover? Submit it here! By Elizabeth Buhungiro. Pupils ina a classroom. Twitter Facebook Email Whatsapp linkedin. For news tips and story ideas please click here. Snapshots Must Reads. Report calls for affordable insulin access for diabetics.

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