I wish to start off by commenting the Government of Lesotho for taking a noticeable giant step in introducing Free Primary Education, which is intended to contribute towards the achievement of Education for All (EFA) goal (2). It is also important to recognize a very positive initiative that the Government of Lesotho has undertaken by introducing the secondary schools rental books scheme which to some extent reduces the cost of the schooling needs. We, of the CEF Forum wish to express our sincere gratitude on behalf of the children of Lesotho for many other interventions by the government.

However, in spite of the interventions employed by the government, the education of Lesotho is still characterized by a number of challenges. The challenges predominantly centre on issues of quality and accessibility. To start with, many school going age children (15%) are still out of school. In fact, the reduced access is exacerbated by a combination of factors namely; non enrolment, high drop-out and repetition rates.The situation threatens to deteriorate further if drastic interventions are not introduced, given the ever increasing poverty, HIV/Aids pandemic and orphan hood etc.                                                                   

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