Africa-Press – Lesotho. Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has and continues to bear the most severe and crosscutting effects on Lesotho’s economy, with the majority of the nation across various industries losing jobs.
Latest in the toll are teachers who are on the verge of losing their jobs as schools have been closed for almost five months now. Leqele High School is one of the schools that have a good number of
teachers hired and paid directly by the school. According to the school’s principal ‘Mantebele Mahamo, the teachers’ wages are sourced from the school fees paid by the students.
But now that students are no longer going to school, she says they are not paying any school fees and therefore the school is unable to pay these teachers.
Mahamo says not only the teachers will be losing jobs but their school will really be met with a setback to lose those “dedicated and hardworking” teachers.
“If we can’t pay them anymore, I don’t think they will wait on us. They have families to feed and they will shift focus to other commitments. We
have trained them very hard and were sharp now, helping the school attain the best results that it has been known for over the years. If we lose them now, it
is going to be a significant void that will be difficult to fill,” she rued. Furthermore, Mahamo says students are also likely to lose sponsorships. She says thelong
break is going to affect sponsorship contracts which had been bargained for a certain period that is going to be extended further by this break. Even those
whose parents had means to take to school, it is likely that they will not afford their children’s education anymore since most of the parents have lost
jobs. Even worse she said parents were rushed to pay examination fees around June, something which she says is bound to cause more inconvenience now that
students haven’t sat for any exams and will likely not do so in the near future. In her opinion, the government should at least allow students to go to school to finish this academic year since nobody
knows how long this pandemic is going to be in place. “What if it goes for the next two years? Would it mean there will not be any schooling activities taking
place until then? This is very unfortunate and hazardous to our education. It is likely that most students will not come back to school for various reasons.
Only if the government would allow students back to school and rather ensure that World Health Organization (WHO) regulations are adhered to, just like it is the case
in South Africa (SA). SA has the highest statistics of this pandemic but has allowed students to go back to school and finish their studies,” she said.
Meanwhile, the government of Lesotho on Monday evening issued a new gazette putting in place strong movement restriction measures. With regards to the reopening of
the schools, it says “schools shall be opened in accordance with the stage of risk colour coding system” this system was outlined by the Prime Minister (PM)
Dr. Moeketsi Majoro in his statement on Saturday night wherein he emphasized that the government will take different actions based on the state of risk
indications by the system in question. This in a nutshell means that schools will reopen when the government considers it safe based on its perception.
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