Abstract:
The primary purpose of the study was to investigate the factors that cause most Lesotho
secondary schools to perform poorly in the Cambridge Overseas School Certificate
examinations. The findings of the study show that the problems that contribute to the
ineffectiveness of most secondary schools are multiple and interrelated. These problems
can be identified at the macro or policy-making level at the Ministry of Education, and at
the micro or the individual school level.
At macro level, there appears to be a lack of adequate capacity among the senior
management staff to perform the management and governance functions effectively, so
that substantive improvement could be realised in the day-to-day operations, and
academic results of schools. An upshot of this is that the professional support that the
Ministry of Education provides to secondary schools is inadequate. Furthermore, despite
the deepening poverty in Lesotho, the state does not provide textbooks to learners in
secondary schools. Consequently, many learners do not have all the textbooks, and this
affects their learning negatively.
At micro level, the problems that contribute to the ineffectiveness of most secondary schools include teacher tardiness, teacher absenteeism and a lack of learner
determination. It is contended that these factors indicate that the management of the school principals is weak. Moreover, because of poverty, many parents fail to pay school fees for their children on time. As a result, many learners are frequently sent back home by the principals to fetch money, and this reduces their academic learning time. The study also revealed that prior academic achievement of learners in primary schools is, to a large
extent, a major predictor of their achievement in secondary schools. In this regard, the highly effective schools, which have selective admission policies and accept mainly Form A applicants, tend to consistently outperform the average and less effective schools, which have open admission policies.
In order to improve the academic performance of secondary schools, it is recommended that the Ministry of Education officials, principals, teachers and learners should work more diligently and refocus their efforts on the core business of schools, namely, teaching and learning.
