By: Boitumelo Koloi

Maseru-She steps out of the Sekolopata Primary School premises beaming with a smile from ear-to-ear and a sense of great fulfillment and purpose for the future, if not hers that of her two children whom she is single-handedly forced to feed, school and fend for. ‘Mamotseki Libakeng’s story is one of perseverance and soldering on against all odds in order to realise the education dream for her children.

Libakeng, an unemployed mother of two, dreams that one day her children will become the best versions of themselves and lead lives better than her own. She feels she is far from living her dream. To support her children, she relies on quarterly financial assistance from the government through the Ministry of Gender, Youth, and Social Development under the Child Grants Programme. This initiative aims to alleviate extreme poverty and ensure that school-aged children remain in school.

Although Libakeng acknowledges that the money falls short of covering all her quarterly expenses, particularly her children’s educational needs, it does help lighten her burden to some extent.

“On days like this when I come to collect this money, I am always overcome by mixed feelings of pride, gratitude and bewilderment,” she says as she carefully stows her money in preparation of the grueling four-hour walk over the mountains, across gorges and thickets to her home village of Ha Sekolopata adjacent to the Mohale Dam some 85km north easterly of the capital Maseru.

She says she feels a sense of pride at the initiative taken by the government to step-in and help those unable to sufficiently take care of themselves. However, she is quickly reminded of the reality of the insufficiency of the money versus her and her family’s daily needs, but maintains that it is the bigger picture of what she is able to do for her children’s future with the money “…meagre as it might seem, I’m always overcome with emotion at the knowledge that there is someone somewhere thoughtful about my children’s education hence bright future just as I am,” Libakeng adds.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), also known as the Global Goals, were adopted by the United Nations in 2015 as a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that by 2030 all people enjoy peace and prosperity.

The 17 SDGs are integrated—they recognize that action in one area will affect outcomes in others, and that development must balance social, economic and environmental sustainability.

SDG-4 talks to access to inclusive and quality education for all.

Within Lesotho, social assistance programmes are offered through cash-transfers that have been used to improve enrollment in basic education, by providing unconditional cash transfer to poor households with school age children through the Child Grant Programme (CGP) and covering secondary school fees and some related costs on behalf of poor students through the Orphans and Vulnerable Children’s bursary (OVC-B).

The OVC Bursary Program was established in the year 2002 with the objective of providing educational support to orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) in Lesotho while simultaneously fulfilling education policy on increasing accessibility to education. Since its inception, the bursary program beneficiaries increased from 14,107 in 2002 to 27,115 in 2010. However, coverage had declined to 11,458 beneficiaries in 2013 due to decreasing financial resources even though vulnerability was still escalating in the country.  However, in 2014 when the program moved to SD, the coverage increased again until it has reached 26,000 in 2021.

In ensuring that the stated objective is successfully achieved, the Ministry of Social Development is engaged in providing fees and educational requisites for OVCs. The program covers junior and senior secondary students in registered schools.

It is this initiative that keeps parents like Libakeng relevant and able to fulfill their education responsibility for their children.

According to the United Nations (UN), enrollment in primary education in developing countries has reached 91 percent, 57 million primary-aged children remain out of school, more than half of them in sub-Saharan Africa.

Targets of the fourth SDG entail ensuring that all girls and boys complete free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education leading to relevant and Goal-4 effective learning outcomes, ensuring that all girls and boys have access to quality early childhood development, care and preprimary education so that they are ready for primary education.

By 2030, substantially increase the number of youth and adults who have relevant skills, including technical and vocational skills, for employment, decent jobs and entrepreneurship

By 2030, substantially increase the supply of qualified teachers, including through international cooperation for teacher training in developing countries, especially least developed countries and small island developing states