By Neo Kolane
‘Maseribane High School in the Quthing district, 172km south of the capital Maseru, finds itself having to contend with a new and particularly disturbing trend – a rapid and high rate of learner drop-out due to the ‘introduction of an untenable curricular system’.
The decline has seen the Mount Moorosi-based learning facility lose its status as a school classified as ‘large’.
The worrisome situation came to light during an impromptu visit to the school by this publication last week.
According to the school’s principal, Mokutu Mohale, the school had an enrolment of up to 1100 students a few years ago, but the figure has plummeted to 550 this year. There are 15 tutors teaching Grades 8 to 11.
He attributed the spiralling drop out to the introduction of the new curriculum in 2019.
“The drop-out issue is a new a phenomenon as the school was classified as large school not so long ago, due to its accommodating a large number of learners. There are large, medium and small schools, that’s how they are classified,” Mohale explained.
Among the other irking factors are the emergence of Covid-19, lack of funding to cater for school needs such as fees, books and uniforms, leaving the students with no option but to abscond from school.
“The situation at ‘Maseribane High has resulted in a disproportionately large number of teachers left to teach an ever-declining number of students.”
He noted that in its heyday the school was among the more prestigious learning facilities in the country.
For instance, he said, four streams of Form 5 classrooms would have 40 students each and a total of 160 students, but it is impossible to reach that number presently.
In addition, he said, the secondary level is almost on par with the high school level, sand some learners are therefore unable to leave secondary level as the curriculum is the same.
Mohale also said the students are not coping “because they write the Lesotho General Certificate for Secondary Education (LGCSE) examination after four years while previously they would write the high school examination after five years.
“if you look at the previous Forms system and the newly introduced Grades system, they are different even though the content of the examination based on the curriculum, is still the same.
“Those who studied for five years definitely have an advantage compared to those who study for four years. It is actually three years because at Grade 8 they are regarded as bridging, so they effectively study for just three years.
“Even the smart students find the compact and condensed curriculum difficult to take in because they were not prepared adequately with the proper foundation.
“It also takes its toll on teachers because it has been implemented before a new generation of teachers could be trained at college. This leaves the old crop who were not taught the new curriculum, to blindly navigate their way around the curriculum.
“Students who are already in the system drop out after examinations if they have not passed regardless of which grade they are doing.
“The curriculum was implemented in such a way that students automatically proceed to the next grade notwithstanding their low pass mark.
“The level of literacy is a big problem. Students cannot write Sesotho or English. It is a big problem. When it comes to the science, students do not have content at all,” Mohale said.
He argued that if a learner studies for 11 years before moving to the tertiary, they will eventually not be on the same level for those who studied for 12 years ahead of the higher learning enrolment.
He regretted that there was a disheartening shortage of books on the new curriculum.
‘Maseribane High School is now in the third year of adopting the new grades system. For Grade 10-11, there is also a considerable shortage of textbooks.
“The Grade 11 learners who have been writing examinations had no textbooks. It was only last year that the Grade 8s and 9s were given books,” Mohale said.
Adding weight to Mohale’s concerns, the secretary general of the Lesotho Association of Teachers (LAT), Letsatsi Ntsibolane admitted that the new curriculum could be one of the factors contributing to a high rate of dropouts.
Ntsibolane shared Mohale’s sentiments on the fact that the introduction of the new curriculum may have had a negative impact on learning and teaching.
“The curriculum is very demanding, but the perception that children do not fail at primary level but only get promoted makes parents reluctant to pay fees at high school level, hence students dropping out,” Ntsibolane said.
However, the director of the National Curriculum Development Centre, Sekhotseng Molapo, explained that the new curriculum was introduced to respond to the needs of the country’s economy.
Molapo said the motive was to motivate a modern-day Mosotho child who aspires to be competitive in the world of work and or to study beyond the borders of his or her country without hindrances.
According to the Lesotho, Education Sector Plan 2016-2026, Introduction of A-Level is particularly welcomed by all sectors of the public as it is viewed as a step in the right direction to reduce the high cost of tertiary education by reducing the number of years in tertiary.
It continues to observe that, currently, entrants into a degree programme have to go through a common first year, whose aim is to scale up the learners to A-level. This results in high endurance of costs at the level of tertiary education.
“There are already a handful of schools offering A-Level and government is inundated with requests from both public and independent schools to grant them permission to offer this much sought-after qualification,” the 2016-2026 Education Sector Plan stated.
Similarly, the ministry of education and training’s chief education officer responsible for curriculum and assessment, ‘Mabakubung Seutloali was adamant that the curriculum is learner centred, “meaning the curriculum centres on the interests of the student”
Seutloali argued that the absence of textbooks is not necessarily a train smash, as textbooks are only meant to support teachers’ guides for proper learning and teaching.
