A landscape of Higher education system in Lesotho

1. Higher Education system in
Lesotho
By
Zizwa Msukuma
14th June, 2016

2. Background of education system
• The provision and
management of
education is
characterized by a
strong partnership
between the
government and the
churches.
• The churches own and
operate over 90% of the
schools. The
government pays the
salaries of more than
95% of the teachers

3. • the government
provides school
facilities through its
capital budget.
• The Ministry of
Education and Training
(MOET; formerly, the
Ministry of Education),
is responsible for the
management, provision
and regulation of
education and training
in the country.
• The curriculum is
centrally developed by a
unit of the MOET––the
National Curriculum
Development Centre
(NCDC).
• The Ministry of
Education is
decentralized at the
district level through
the
• Inspectorate

4. The Higher Education Landscape in
Lesotho
• The Council on Higher
Education (CHE) is a
statutory corporate body
established by the Higher
Education Act (HEA) of
2004.
• Its overall mandate is to
regulate higher education
and promote quality
assurance across higher
education institutions in
Lesotho
• The Higher Education Act
assigns CHE the
responsibility to, amongst
other things, publish
information regarding
developments in higher
education on a regular
basis, monitor and evaluate
the performance of
academic programmes and
higher education
institutions, and, monitor
implementation of the Act
and the Higher Education
Policy

5. Higher Education Institutions
• Higher education in
Lesotho is provided
through a number of
institutions with
different institutional
arrangements.
• There are currently 13
institutions that are
recognised by CHE and
the Government of
Lesotho, and these are
either publicly or
privately owned.

6. • Public institutions are either
those established by an Act of
Parliament or those currently
existing as departments of
government ministries.
• Private institutions (38.5%) are
those privately owned and
largely comprise four nursing
institutions which offer
programmes such as general
nursing and midwifery
• Public institutions constitute
61.5% of the total number of
HEIs in Lesotho, and include
the National University of
Lesotho (NUL), the highest
academic institution in the
country that offers a wide
range of programmes at both
undergraduate and
postgraduate levels; colleges
that offer certificates and
diploma programmes in
teacher training, agriculture
and health; and other
institutions that provide
professional qualifications
such as accountancy and
management.

7. Regulatory Framework
• The legal framework for
the higher education
sub-sector is provided
by the HEA. This
framework regulates
both public and private
higher education
institutions.
• Private institutions have
to be registered,
whereas public ones
should be declared by
the Minister of
Education and Training
or be established by an
Act of Parliament.

8. • Only three of the public
institutions have been
established through
acts of parliament,
namely National
University of Lesotho,
Lesotho College
Education and Lerotholi
Polytechnic.
• Other public institutions
are departments of
Government Ministries.

9. Draft Qualifications Framework
• A Draft Qualifications
Framework was developed
in 2005 by the Ministry of
Education and Training.
• However, it has not been
given a legal footing and
therefore, has not been
fully operational.
• A framework of this nature
is critical for any country to
determine levels of various
programmes offered by
different institutions.
• Programmes range from
certificate level to a PHD
level. It is also used to
determine levels of
qualifications acquired
outside the country by
nationals and non-
nationals.

10. Conclusion
• The Higher Education
sub-sector in Lesotho is
fairly small and does
not cater for all those
who qualify for
education at this level.
• With only thirteen
institutions most of
which are very small,
there is need for a
scale-up in terms of
both the existing
institutions’ capacity
and introduction of new
ones.

11. • Currently institutions
are generally driven by
the number of
qualifying students who
get sponsored by the
state in their
admissions, since this is
one of the major ways
through which they
raise funds.
• Circumstances in the
higher education
institutions are to a
great extent militating
against quality.
• It is important
therefore, that there is
an external authority to
ensure that quality is
assured and the Council
on Higher Education
was established to play
that role.