Adults in the mainstream : free primary education in the southern districts of Lesotho.

Abstract

The United Nations Declaration of Human Rights has as one of its components and the world call to achieve education for all has led to a number of countries' introduction of Free Education. In Lesotho the call was heeded with the introduction of the Free Primary Education Programme in phases as from the year 2000. It was with the advent of the Free Primary Education Programme that a number of adults who never had formal schooling and or who had very little schooling took advantage and enrolled in the mainstream of primary education. This study therefore investigates the teaching and learning processes of adult learners in the mainstream of primary education where the curriculum is designed for the school age learners. It consists of the in-depth investigations of three primary schools in the Southern districts of Lesotho namely Moyeni Primary and Zibandayo Primary in the district of Quthing; and Naleli Primary in the district of Mohales'hoek; This study also investigates how these schools handled the education of adult learners while still not compromising the tuition of the school age learners. It also tried to find solutions as to how best the tuition of the adult learners could be handled so as to benefit them and the country as a whole.