Lesotho officials in Kenya to benchmark education standards

Senior education officials from Lesotho will be in the country for a week to benchmark how the Kenyan government is ensuring that all children get quality learning.

The 7-member team led by chief Executive Officer of secondary education in Lesotho Bertha M Seutloali arrived on Tuesday.

“Kenya Primary Education Development (PRIEDE) Project Coordinator, Martha Ekirapa said Kenya had attained a pupil to textbook ratio of 1:1 saying this guaranteed quality learning when learners are able to interact with textbook more,” a statement from the Education ministry reads.

The team is expected to visit primary and secondary schools in Embu and Kirinyaga counties to see how basic education policy, standards and curriculum are implemented.

They will also study how the ministry has being implementing the Global Partnership for Education(GPE) program which is named in Kenya as the Primary Education Development Project(PRIEDE).

It’s main role is to support Early Grade Mathematics(EGM) in public primary school education sub-sector in Kenya at cost of Ksh.9billion ($88.4) million.

The Government of Lesotho is reforming its education system to meet changing needs and the country’s visiting officials expect to learn how to address universal access to equitable quality education for all children.

Low literacy levels and numeracy in the early years of learning as well as teacher and pupil absenteeism and transition from primary to secondary education are some of the challenges they are facing.

According to the Lesotho officials, their country will be the fourth to send a team to Kenya for benchmarking after Malawi, Zambia and Somali.