Partner since:
Total grant support: US$52,779,587
Grant eligibility:
Partnership Compact
Priority: Enhance the quality of teaching and learning for improved learning attainment in basic education, focusing on the most marginalized learners.
Coordinating agency: Lesotho Council of NGOs, UNICEF
GPE Team lead: Esohe Joan Eigbike
Lesotho made primary education free and compulsory in 2010, leading to higher enrollment. However, secondary enrollment remains low, due to insufficient school infrastructure, the cost of school fees and supplies, and limited interest in schooling, in some areas.
At the foundations, limited access to quality school-based early childhood education affected childrens’ readiness for learning. Lesotho’s 2021 national assessment shows that only 40% of grade 4 students had basic literacy and numeracy skills.
The government is working with GPE and other partners to enhance the quality of teaching and learning for improved learning attainment in basic education, focusing on the most marginalized learners.
Lesotho’s Partnership Compact marks the country’s commitment to achieve large-scale and sustainable change by ensuring all children acquire foundational literacy and numeracy skills. The priority reform is organized around three outcomes:
out-of-school rate for children of lower-secondary school age
of primary teachers have the minimum required qualifications
of government expenditure on education
(data as of November 17, 2024)
Type: Multiplier
Years: 2024 - 2027
Allocation: US$2,500,000
Utilization: 0
Grant agent: UNICEF
Ensure primary and lower secondary girls and boys are academically on track through:
Type: Multiplier
Years: 2024 - 2026
Allocation: US$2,500,000
Utilization: US$3,928
Grant agent: UNICEF
Ensure pre-primary and primary level girls and boys are academically on track through:
Type: Program development
Years: 2024 - 2025
Allocation: US$200,000
Utilization: 0
Grant agent: UNICEF
Type: System capacity
Years: 2023 - 2026
Allocation: US$1,600,000
Utilization: US$168,954
Grant agent: UNICEF
Type: Program implementation
Years: 2022 - 2025
Allocation: US$7,500,000
Utilization: US$6,350,086
Grant agent: WB
Improve student retention and teaching quality in junior secondary schools in targeted community councils and support the roll out of a new curriculum to strengthen ECCD service delivery.
As part of its investment in civil society advocacy and social accountability efforts, GPE’s Education Out Loud fund is supporting:
