Morena boloka sechaba sa heso, U felise lintoa le matśoenyeho (Lord, protect our nation; End all conflicts and sufferings). These words come from a South African liberation struggle song. These words are now in the South African national anthem and are relevant to our school education system today. The Lesotho school education system requires some form of divine intervention.
On 18 January, 2023, the Minister of Education and Training announced that the 2022 Lesotho General Certificate in Secondary Education (LGCSE) were imminent. The following day, 19 January, 2022, the Ministry published the results. They were dismal. They shocked everyone.

A press release revealed the pass rates were at a lowly 47.3% and 54% for Grade 11 and Form E classes respectively. Two groups of students wrote one examination. Why would such near calamity school-leaving examinations outcome not be a national disaster? These outcomes spell out that it is no longer business as usual. Something must turn.

There were 27 477 students registered for the 2022 LGCSE examinations, compared to the 17 798 in 2021. The first group, the Form Es, are students who took five years of high school education. This group did their traditional three-year Lesotho Junior Certificate (LJC) followed by two years of LGCSE studies. The second group, Grade 11s, entered directly into the LGCSE curriculum taking four years to complete their studies.

These LGCSE results turn winners into failures. Biology teaches that at conception, thousands of male sperm compete to fuse with a female egg to produce us. The fastest sperm wins the race and fuses with the egg. We are winners even before we are born. However, these results portray these learners as losers.

As I write this article, I read an article titled ‘Teachers abandon industrial action’ from a local newspaper. The contention was about unpaid wages, improvement of salaries for primary school teachers and tenured positions for principals. The unions agreed to suspend their impending strike pending their discussions with the government. The strike would take place while the LGCSE national exams are running. While I respect the workers’ rights, there are innovative ways that would not make the students suffer and lose learning time.

I revisit the 2022 national school leaving examination outcomes almost at the twilight of the Class of 2023 national exams. Many might say that the article is out late. Is it? Nope. The right time is now. Another argument might be that there are more important issues to grapple with and tackle. Education is the least of these challenges. That would be myopic.

One of the six strategic goals Prime Minister Sam Matekane undertook to pursue in his acceptance speech was: “to strengthen the human capital.” Education is the only way to achieve this goal. Investment in human capital is crucial to any developing country.

I participated in the Ministry of Education and Training (MoET) symposium of 28 to 29 March 2023: ‘Basic Education Systems Reform’. It was reflective and consultative. It was the first post-1978 national curriculum dialogue. So, even though its intentions are noble, the symposium happened after the fact. Schools already teach the curriculum. A crucial revelation of this symposium is the absence of consultative processes in government policymaking.

The Examinations Council of Lesotho (ECoL) officials made a presentation at the symposium. The role of the Examinations Council is to establish an efficient and effective assessment system that meets the development needs of Lesotho. The Examinations Council of Lesotho assumes that there is a coherent and relevant curriculum aligned with the Lesotho Qualification Framework (LQF). LQF regulates qualifications and guides curriculum application in the country.

The outcomes are not a shock to me. However, stakeholders need to introspect on these outcomes. The law of Cause and Effect teaches us: ‘For every effect, there is a cause.’ So, the LGCSE outcomes are a result of a cause. Also, as Hill says: ‘For every adversity, there is an equivalent or better benefit.’ There are lessons from these results. Let us find them.

Explanations by the Ministry of Education for the poor results include:

It was the first time that LGCSE took four years. Schools had no experience with this curriculum.
ECOL officers did not know what to expect in terms of results. This argument is not truthful because some schools tried the curriculum in the 1960s. MoET must revisit the reports.

When governments introduce new curricula, they first pilot it with some experimental schools. They administer trial examinations with these schools. The pilot study and the trial examination help the system identify potential challenges. The Ministry of Education would then address them before full implementation. They then use the information from these pilot studies to implement the new system or policy.

A teacher in the symposium said that the Ministry of Education used her school to pilot the system.
The Ministry of Education did not train teachers to implement the four-year LGCSE system before implementation.

The lack of training for principals and teachers complicated the implementation of a new system. The principal could not assist teachers.
High among the explanations for the causes of the high failure rate was the enforced Covid-19 lockdown coming close to a prolonged teachers’ strike.
A teachers’ unionist justified their strike actions. He explained that strikes are a weapon for improvement of the work conditions. Among these conditions was the lack of teaching resources.

Unions must review their strikes’ modus of operandi. They must use strike actions to hurt the employer without compromising pupils’ education. The strategy of ‘downing the chalk’ misdirects strikes to harm learners. Disgruntlements are between unions and the employer. So, for example, teachers should continue to teach but issue out Schools Supply Unit (SSU) textbooks free to all. In this way, the government bleeds while the learners benefit.
Lack of resources, physical and financial.

The lack of teaching resources is a point that has been laboured for too long in Lesotho. The national dialogue of 1978 culminated in the Education Sector Survey Taskforce Report. Dr E M Malie of the Ministry of Education headed the task force. The report contended that schools did not have resources. The same conditions persist today. Schools and unions lament the lack of resources but do not explain how they deal with their teaching and learning conditions. The problem is a lack of innovation and creativity.

The Examinations Council of Lesotho administers the same examination papers per subject nationwide. Yet, students’ learning experiences differ. Schools’ contexts differ by districts, regions (rural or urban), access to resources (physical or human), etc. I question the efficiency of the examination system if it compares apples to bananas.

This article discusses the dismal 2022 LGCSE examination results. The Examinations Council of Lesotho has promised to establish an efficient and effective assessment system. An aspect of such a system is fairness. Quality examination must be fair and equitable. The exams must not prejudice students. They must endeavour to achieve the best possible outcomes for learners.

Moreover, schools and teachers lament their lack of preparedness for implementing the new school curriculum. The same happened with the introduction of the four-year LGCSE. But for this to happen, school management and teachers must be adequately prepared for any new developments in the education sector. The Ministry of Education piloted the new curriculum in some schools. However, there is no evidence to show whether the Ministry of Education used the findings of the pilot to implement the revised curriculum. The government must refrain from fancy grandstanding statements and draw evidence-based education policies.

The Examinations Council of Lesotho introduced the term ‘efficiency’. This term has economic origins and connotations. Efficiency is a level of performance that uses the lowest amount of inputs to create the highest amount of outputs. It is the effective utilisation of productive resources. A schooling system that passes 47% cannot be efficient. This inefficiency calls for the need to account. So, schools must account.

The teachers and schools are in a state of inertia. Inertia is the tendency to do nothing or to remain unchanged. The law of inertia decrees that an object or mass will remain at rest or in motion in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force. The lack of resources is just an excuse to justify inaction and inertness. It may not improve the results.

The starting point for success is the definiteness of purpose, backed by a burning desire. There is a saying: ‘Where is a will, there is a way’. Teachers may demonstrate the will for the success of their schools by providing a concentration of effort towards achieving it. The appropriate action is teaching in classrooms. Hill found that persistence, concentration of effort, and definiteness of purpose are critical to achievements. Bargaining with students’ learning opportunities does not demonstrate the will to succeed.

Moreover, educational psychology teaches that for students to learn, they must be willing to learn. They must have the desire to learn. The role of the teacher in a school is to facilitate learning. Teachers must have a desire to teach. School curriculum should be at the head of their priorities.
However, I am yet to hear of a union undertaking a strike to address curriculum issues. There is no evidence that the quality of teaching and learning in schools features in unions’ agenda.

These arguments show why Lesotho’s school education system is in a state of inertia. Schools wait for external forces to improve the conditions before they act. In other words, they compromise with circumstances, hoping to obtain ‘different’ outcomes at LGCSE examinations. Schools that have strategies to improve results implement them. A good result is Leqele High School. They created strategies to deal with their circumstances. The results talk for themselves. Success requires no apologies. Failure permits no alibis.

The Prime Minister promised to strengthen governance and accountability for improved service delivery. Tenets of democracy, especially where it concerns taxpayers’ money, are accountability and transparency. Schools and principals must account for their school leaving results.

The Ministry of Education already has accountability systems in place. But, presently, it is ineffective. Principals must account for their schools’ outcomes. But something is failing. Drastic accountability measures must follow. Schools must account to the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and bear the consequences. Heads must roll. At the same, achieving schools together with different categories of learners must be acknowledged.

The continued high failure rate defies logic. While necessity and common sense dictate that the country learns from past experiences and plans strategies to eliminate waste, the results suggest the contrary. The LGCSE curriculum, as measured by the Examinations Council of Lesotho, fails Basotho.

My observations reveal that last year’s LGCSE results were terrible. They made losers out of winners. The students were the first cohort who took four years to complete LGCSE. The Ministry of Education and authorities did not undertake the necessary preparatory processes for the innovation. For example, they did train teachers. Schools did not administer trial exams. But valuable lessons emerged.

The Ministry of Education continues to implement policies without research evidence. The Ministry of Education’s consultation processes are poor, at best. And non-existent at worst.

The school education system continues to be in a state of inertia. I used the lack of resources to highlight that stakeholders issue excuses for their inaction.
I question the efficiency and equitability of the examination system. Students in different settings take identical examinations. Consequently, students take unfair exams.
Lastly, while systems are in place to assess and monitor performance, authorities do not utilise them. Thus, there is no accountability and transparency. Thus, the system is inefficient and wasteful. Money is lost, and we end up wasting students’ lives. Students are the victims of the whole debacle. Schools must account to the PAC. There must be consequences.

To conclude, these results reflect the failure of our education system and governance. They mirror the socioeconomic state of Lesotho. If the Ministry of Education does not arrest this awkward situation, the futures and lives of the youth are lost. But solutions are there.

Prevention is better than cure. The Ministry of Education and the Examinations Council of Lesotho must be proactive. Proactivity may include conducting pilot studies, scenario studies and thorough consultations with stakeholders. These measures exist for any institution that oversees the quality of employment. Education is vital in developing countries. Get it right, and your world will follow. If the man is right, his world is right.

Dr Tholang Maqutu