So here’s what we know:

Students enter and complete primary school (like elementary school, which should be paid by the government), pass their PSLE test (primary school leaving exam, not sure about exam fees) then enter and complete secondary (Forms A, B, and C; like junior high, I would give it the US equivalent of grades 8-10, though it is no longer paid), get their JCs (Junior Certificate, exam fees needed, to take 8 JCs in 2009 costs around M 550, around 67 USD), enter and complete high school (Form D and E, I’d say the US equivalent of grades 11-12, also not paid for by the government), then finally take their COSCs (Cambridge Overseas Certificates; I’d say the US equivalent of the SAT/ACT in terms of importance but with the subject breadth and difficulty of the AP/IB tests. To take 8 COSCs in 2009 costs one student M 1075, around 130 USD). Pretty much all the universities in Lesotho (and in South Africa for that matter) require at least 3 or more COSCs as a criteria for admission to the university – most our students are taking 7 or 8 COSCs.

Then comes the matter of getting into a tertiary instution (application process/fees) and being able to stay there (having enough money to cover your tuition and fees for 3-4 years).

The application process wasn’t that difficult to figure out, but that’s only because a) we’ve already applied for college and made it in, thus, we know what to look for b) we have the Internet at our fingertips (literally) so the needed information is easily accessible and c) we have different contacts who know the Lesotho education system that could walk us through the process. Our students do not have easy access to these resources.

Figuring out how our students would get enough money to stay in a tertiary instution for the duration of their education was another matter. Of course I am going to be biased towards the student’s perspective, but let’s just ignore that for now and focus on the facts:

The main sponsor of students  going into tertiary education is something called the National Manpower Development Secretariat. We visited the office to try to get more information for our students – it was kind of saddening to see how non-transparent the entire system was. There were no written materials available (we are guessing none have ever been made) about how a student can get sponsored; it seems like most information is dispensed through the public schooling administration, which, according to our students and from our own experiences, does not seem to be the best idea. A little digging into the government website turns up this article (http://www.lesotho.gov.ls/articles/2003/NUL-Students-Petition-%20NMDS.htm), which demonstrates the unhapppiness of many National University of Lesotho’s students over Manpower’s fee disembursement system.  Other articles dated from September-October of 2003 detail how NUL admitted more students than NMDS could pay for, the NUL students’ march against NDMS, the boycotting of NUL classes (the Student Union accused university management of delying registration and thus NMDS could not process the paperwork for their stipends in time),  and of the students’ sentiments that NDMS was taking their lack of food and book fees very lightly. From the Ministry of Finance, this article was found dated at late 2008: http://www.finance.gov.ls/news/RESTRUCTURING_REFOCUS_NMDS.php, and it detailed the efforts of the Ministry to restructure and “make transparent the activities” of NMDS. Concurrently, this article (http://www.lesotho.gov.ls/articles/2009/NMDS_COUNCIL_LAUNCHED.php), published in February 2009, around 3 years after the NUL students petition, shows a NMDS Council being launched to investigate “all the operations and management of the Secretariat for a period of six weeks.” Additionally, it states that “a major challenge to all members is to ensure that all Basotho children wishing to further their studies are given equal opportunities without favoritism.”

I’m quite glad that this Council was created (hopefully in response to the students’ pleas for restructuring) and I’m glad that they seem to be doing something to remedy these issues, but…

My question now is whether or not all these efforts have produced the positive effects that they said they would – in particular, are the students that need aid the most receiving it? Are the activities of NDMS more transparent? It’s already July of 2009 and I have yet to see any updates on the situation. Our visit to NMDS this past week didn’t really convince us that positive change was happening.

One spot of hope I found was this: http://www.lesotho.gov.ls/articles/2008/ONE_MILLION_MALUTI.php. It talks about two Basotho sponsors of a Million Malulti Trust fund for graduating Form E’s in the Mafeteng district who “resolved to plough back to the community after working hard to be successful business people in both Lesotho and South Africa.” Of course, the schools that are to benefit are 3 Mafeteng schools “which did well from the district as they were ranked fifth, seventh and ninth in the academic performance out of 145 schools, which registered for 2007 Cambridge Overseas School Certificate (COSC).” Gotta start somewhere though, right?

This past Thursday and Friday, our students honed their public speaking, argument strategies, and team work by debating over issues like Lesotho’s Independence and Brain Drain. Karthik and I were rather thrilled to see how passionate and riled up the students became once they really dug deep into their arguments! That’s the kind of confidence that they’ve found within themselves and that’s the kind of confidence it will take if they want to fufill their dreams of becoming successful Basotho that give back to their community through their skills and experiences.

In other news, Karthik and I might be on Lesotho TV! The US Embassy has an open slot for “Career Guidance” which of course has been empty for a while now. Hopefully the 5 GB of media (videos, recordings, interviews) and materials (presentations, worksheets, samples) we and our sudents have created/gathered this year will be of use! CV entry under Experience/Activities: National celebrity on Lesotho TV. 🙂