THE KINGDOM OF LESOTHO COMBINED SECOND TO EIGHTH PERIODIC REPORT UNDER THE AFRICAN
CHARTER ON HUMAN AND PEOPLES’ RIGHTS AND INITIAL REPORT UNDER THE PROTOCOL TO THE
AFRICAN CHARTER ON THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN IN AFRICA
Lesotho Education Sector strategic Plan 2005/2015 (ESSP) was adopted to
operationalize the constitutional obligation to quality education for all by reduction of
poverty through the provision of sustainable universal and compulsory primary
education.
School Nutrition Policy, in terms of which all public primary schools provide lunch
for learners. This policy is meant to lower the rate of school dropout due to hunger.
Campaigns against early and forced child marriages as well as sex education to
lower the prevalence of teenage pregnancies in schools.
School Improvement Plan Manual in terms of which 150 facilitators have been
engage with the aim of implementing the manual in 2017.
In 2012, there was also established the Child Friendly School Standards whose
aim is to trigger children’s interest in education and thereby lower dropout rates.
Special Education Unit within the Ministry of Education was established in 1991. It
focuses on four fields, namely, visual impairment, hearing impairment, physical
disability and intellectual impairment. The main objective of the Special Education
programme is to advocate for the integration/inclusion of learners with special
educational needs/disabilities into the regular school system at all levels in order to
enable them to acquire appropriate life skills and education. The learners include
those who have physical and sensory impairments as well as those with learning
difficulties, the gifted and talented, those with intellectual disability and those with
behavioural disorders. Notwithstanding this, the Ministry of Education recognises the
need for support to specialised schools to cater for learners with extreme needs.
The Ministry of Education is also working with the Council of Initiation Schools to
agree on appropriate times when learners may be admitted to initiation schools so
as to ensure that their attendance does not clash with the primary and high school
calendar. This is aimed at ensuring that learners who opt to go for initiation schools,
do not miss out on the formal school education.
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