By Tapera Chikuvira
Lipolelo Leshota is a partially sighted seven-year-old girl who lives in the district of Mohale’s Hoek.
Her parents make their living selling traditional home brewed beer and rarely have enough money for bus fare to take her to hospital.
Although a very bright and keen student, Lipolelo’s attempts to gain an education have been hampered by her inability to read or write, due to her impaired vision.
Although she attends the local primary school, Lipolelo is not getting the education and attention she needs as her teachers lack the skills, resources and motivation to deal with a visually impaired student.
“She sits in class like a piece of baggage, accompanying the other children. She cannot read or write and hence has not managed to learn anything in school,” her dejected mother tells a newsletter for the Lesotho National Federation of Organisations of the Disabled (LNFOD).
Lipolelo’s parents are trying to enroll her in a school with the facilities and resources to break down her learning barriers but it is still unclear when or if this will materialise.
Lipolelo’s plight aptly epitomises Lesotho’s failure to implement its Inclusive Education Policy, resulting in continued exclusion of children with disabilities.
The red flag was contained in a report by the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) in April this year.
The ICJ is a body of experts that monitor and report on the implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which Lesotho is a signatory.
According to an unofficial list of special and inclusive schools provided to the ICJ in late 2022, there are six special schools (including one resource centre), and 15 inclusive schools operating in Lesotho. It is therefore, likely that many children with disabilities remain out of school, or in schools that cannot appropriately accommodate their educational needs.
Given the limited number of these schools, and their lack of capacity, the majority of children with disabilities are left out.
Although parents and guardians often struggle to get their children into schools, and ensure that they stay there, the ICJ research indicates that the quality of education received by children with disabilities at both inclusive and special schools, whether public or private, falls below the requirements under international law.
Lesotho has assumed international legal obligations to ensure access to quality, inclusive education for children with disabilities, by acceding to several treaties. These include the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD); the International Convention on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR); the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR); the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC); the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights; and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child.
In terms of domestic law, the Constitution of Lesotho provides for the equality of, and prohibits discrimination against, persons with disabilities.
The Constitution also includes provision of education as a “Principle of State Policy”. To give effect to constitutional provisions and Lesotho’s international law obligations, parliament has enacted a variety of laws including: the Disability Equity Act; the Education Act; and the Children’s Protection and Welfare Act.
Lesotho has also adopted an Inclusive Education Policy, designed to ensure that it fully encompasses children with disabilities. While sparse official information is available on the implementation of this policy, the ICJ is of the view that little progress has been made, partly due to the absence of an implementation framework.
The commission suggested that a full review of legislation is necessary to ensure compliance with international law and domestic constitutional law.
It further noted that given that fewer than 20 of the approximately 4000 schools in Lesotho can accommodate learners with disabilities, the vast majority are excluded from school.
“As such, it is highly likely that a large number of children with disabilities do not go to school,” the ICJ report says.
It also observes that stigma and social exclusion continue to be rife both within schools and in society.
Another major challenge is that government officials, school staff, parents and others are ill-informed about disability rights, inclusive education and sometimes consider children with disabilities ineducable.
As a result, children with disabilities are kept at home, subjected to bullying, or otherwise maligned by staff and other learners when they attend regular schools.
While a significant percentage of the government’s budget is allocated to education in general, little of this is spent on inclusive education.
“Government allocations for special and inclusive schools do not account for the costs associated with providing the education support required for children with disabilities.
“Schools commonly attempt to fundraise from external donors and/or supplement their budgets by dedicating time to potentially income generating activities to bridge this funding gap. Private and public schools sometimes ask for contributions from parents which may amount indirectly to school fees,” the ICJ report also reveals.
It further observes that the government has struggled to coordinate concerned stakeholders, including relevant government ministries, in an integrated and cooperative manner to implement policy on the rights of children with disabilities.
Delays in the development and regular review of strategies undermines the government’s ability to effectively implement policy in a targeted manner, it points out.
The report also cites the continued delay in the adoption of an implementation framework for the inclusive education policy further frustrates the Special Education Unit’s ability to implement the policy.
The unit remains significantly understaffed and under-resourced to perform vital functions, according to the ICJ report.
During the research, Ministry of education and training officials expressed reservations about their ability to effectively monitor the quality of education provided to children with disabilities in Lesotho.
Only some districts employ locally located staff tasked with supporting schools in delivering inclusive education, the report shows.
On the other hand, ministry officials lack basic resources such as transport and other support required to visit schools regularly.
In addition to this, the ministry itself lacks the expertise to perform some of its functions including as screening, identification, and assessment.
The ICJ also highlighted that Lesotho’s education system and the laws governing it have not been subject to a comprehensive review to ensure compliance with the Constitution and international legal obligations.
The Education Act, for instance, permits a learner’s non-enrolment in school or discontinuation of their attendance at school on the basis of their disability. There is need to amend existing legislation to require regulation of special and inclusive school hostels/boarding facilities, and private actor involvement in the provision of education, the report advises.
While government and its partners such as UNICEF provide assistive devices to schools on an ad hoc basis, special and inclusive schools still report inadequate access for children with disabilities to basic assistive devices, such as glasses or other magnification devices, hearing aids and wheelchairs.
According to the report, although limited learning materials are provided to the schools, the current curriculum has not been fully adapted to ensure its accessibility for children with disabilities. As a result, they tend to repeat grades more than those without disabilities.
Furthermore, infrastructure is often inadequate to ensure accessibility and infrastructure at special and inclusive schools is often dilapidated and unsafe. Inadequate training of teachers.
Yet another major handicap is that teacher skills training and professional development on inclusive education are still highly inadequate in Lesotho. This causes gaps in the effective adaptation and modification of the teaching and learning environment for learners with disabilities.
Without proper pre-service training on inclusive education, teachers are unable to provide children with disabilities with the support and accommodations they may require, the ICJ report says.
It also points out that many teachers are placed at special and inclusive schools without even a basic understanding of disability and inclusive education.
In-service training is rare and ad hoc, and schools are not equipped to identify and screen learners for disabilities.
The ICJ recommends that authorities take necessary steps to implement more effective awareness-raising programmes on disability rights and inclusive education.
The government also needs to provide adequate resources to ensure access to inclusive education for children with disabilities.
It also has to invest in, and carry out regular pre- and continuous in-service training for teachers on inclusive education.
The Special Education Unit’s capacity to monitor the quality of inclusive education has to be scaled up by making regular visits to special and inclusive schools.
The country also has to conduct a review of all legislation applicable to education for children with disabilities to ensure compliance with human rights law and standards.
“Lesotho also needs to ensure the justiciability of all human rights, including the right to inclusive education for learners with disabilities.
“It further has to ratify the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Optional Protocols to the CRPD and ICESCR,” the ICJ recommends.
It urges Lesotho to submit all outstanding reports to the United Nations Treaty Bodies, and continue working cooperatively with civil society and intergovernmental partners to give effect to the right to inclusive education.
Efforts to get the ministry of education and training’s comments on the ICJ have proved fruitless.
Questions sent through the ministry’s information department more than a month ago have not been responded to despite several promises to do so.
However, the LNFOD Executive Director, Nkhasi Sefuthi, concur with the ICJ findings.
In a recent interview with theReporter, Sefuthi pleaded with the government to implement the Commission’s recommendations to ensure inclusive education for all children.
He indicated that as things stands, the Inclusive Education Policy that was established in 2019 is of no help because it does not have an implementation plan to give direction on how the policy must function.
Sefuthi further noted that Lesotho was still behind with improving accessibility of infrastructure at schools for children with disability.
For this reason, he said, children with disabilities are forced to opt for special education, meaning attending schools established only for persons with disabilities rather than going for inclusive education where all children are accommodated. “We still have a long way to go as a country but with political will from our government, we can all overcome these challenges and become a community that does not even see the difference between a person with disability and other person. We’re considered one nation, we are all human beings, and therefore deserve same rights as stipulated in our Constitution,” Sefuthi added.
