[AFRICA 6] Why we don't go to school.

WHY WE DON'T GO TO SCHOOL

Why is there a gender gap in education in Lesotho?

Tsolo and Khotso tending their family's cattle in the field in Liphiring village, Lesotho. (c) Moonju Kim, 2013

When asked about their absence from school, Tsolo and Khotso's answer was simple and clear. 

"We sometimes cannot attend school because we have to look after our cattle." The 14-year-old, two young boys were found in the field while they were tending the family's cattle. 

Mpho (12) was one of the best performing students in Ha-Teko village, Lesotho. (c) Moonju Kim, 2015

Mpho, 12-year-old, was one of the brightest kids in Ha-Teko village having excellent performance in class. Despite being one of the best performing students in his school, he did not have a high ambition to further his studies. After completing primary school, he decided to remain as a herd boy. 

School boys gathered in the field in Liphiring village, Lesotho. (c) Moonju Kim, 2013

These are the common stories you can find in Lesotho where many boys drop out of school. The girl's education rate is higher than boys, as the ratio of female-to-man enrollment rates in secondary school education is the highest in the world, at the rate of 1.6 females enrolled for every man.

It is very unusual since the gender gap favoring boys in education is normally largest in low-income countries. But in Lesotho, things are different, where it is a small poor, landlocked country, which is completely surrounded by its neighboring country, South Africa. and what makes it different?

Its one of the biggest reasons for having this gender gap in education is the social norms and traditional practice in the country. Most boys of primary school age are forced to be involved in cattle-herding, which is traditionally acted as a store of wealth of the family. It is estimated that up to a third of the country's boys of school going are work full-time as shepherds or head boys. This is a high significance in the country for the boys to take this role as a cultural obligation. 

After spending months in the highlands to find pastures, young boys in Lesotho are unable to come back to school for a long period. When they come back to school, they struggle with the basics of reading and writing, which results with them being forced to repeat grades and sit in the same class with much younger female students. 

Mr.Rachabeli (78) retired from gold mining in South Africa was resting at his home in Liphiring village, Lesotho. (c) Moonju Kim, 2012

However, why do young boys have to follow this traditional practice? What about the older men who have already completed their studies and can't they take responsibilities to look after their families?

This is because most men in Lesotho leave their home as adolescents and they don't return until retirement. The scale of emigration in Lesotho is huge, for the young men leaving their country to seek to enter the job market in the gold mine in South Africa, which is triggered by high unemployment and poverty. 

For those young boys in Lesotho who have traditionally been locked from accessing formal education, what kind of alternative ways of education can we provide? While I was working in Lesotho for the community development project, this was one of the most critical issues to tackle in the country. What we were able to achieve was to provide them with night schools when boys had free time and the livestock was resting. This enabled them to have access to education where they could learn basic literacy skills including how to read and write, as well as mathematics and functional literacy. 

The night school concept can be a good example by ensuring boys to have access to education, while they respect their cultures at the same time. Ultimately though, we hope this can be a path to allow boys to move with times and access formal education which is a fundamental right that they are entitled to.