{"id":61860,"date":"2025-09-19T08:39:39","date_gmt":"2025-09-19T08:39:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesotho-marks-identity-day-2025-with-focus-on-education"},"modified":"2025-09-19T09:03:55","modified_gmt":"2025-09-19T09:03:55","slug":"lesotho-marks-identity-day-2025-with-focus-on-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesotho-marks-identity-day-2025-with-focus-on-education","title":{"rendered":"Lesotho marks Identity Day 2025 with Focus on Education"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Lesotho. <\/strong><\/span>Lesotho joined the world in commemorating Identity Day 2025 on Tuesday, September 16th, under the theme \u201cMy Identity, My Umbrella\u201d at Lehakoe Recreational Center.<\/p>\n<p>The event, led by the Honourable Minister of Local Government, Chieftainship, Home Affairs and Police, Hon. Lebona Lephema, emphasised the critical role of legal identity in advancing social, economic, and national development, while calling for stronger integration of identity systems within the education sector.<\/p>\n<p>In his keynote address, Hon. Lephema described Identity Day as not only a celebration, but also a moment of reflection and commitment to ensuring that no Mosotho is left behind.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cID Day is not only a celebration, it is also a moment of reflection and commitment. Today, we reflect on the power of legal identity as a tool for empowerment, inclusion, and national development,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>The Minister highlighted Lesotho\u2019s remarkable progress in recent years, noting that between 2019 and 2023, birth registration rose from 21% to 61%, with 81.6% of children under five now registered. Additionally, around 90% of the population aged 16 and above holds a national ID card.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese achievements place us firmly on track to deliver on Sustainable Development Goal 16.9 \u2014 legal identity for all by 2030,\u201d Lephema said.<\/p>\n<p>According to the Minister, the expansion of legal identity has already transformed public services and the private economy.<\/p>\n<p>In government, it has strengthened payroll systems, eliminated ghost workers, and safeguarded public resources. Social protection programs such as old-age pensions have also become more efficient, ensuring that only rightful beneficiaries are served.<\/p>\n<p>In the financial sector, legal identity has enabled citizens to open bank accounts, access credit, and use digital services like mobile money. For businesses, it has reduced fraud, improved trust, and expanded financial inclusion.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese examples clearly show that legal identity is already an umbrella of protection and opportunity in many areas of our society,\u201d Lephema stressed.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the progress, the Minister admitted that the education sector continues to lag in fully integrating legal identity into enrolment and examinations. This gap, he said, denies the nation the opportunity to ensure every child is counted, improve resource allocation, guarantee fair access to bursaries, and build a lifelong foundation for learners.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is time for schools, at all levels, and other educational institutions to fully embrace the use of legal identity in enrolment and examination processes,\u201d he urged.<\/p>\n<p>To address this, Lephema outlined several key measures, making birth certificates or national ID cards mandatory for school enrolment and examinations, without denying children access to education, conducting public awareness campaigns to encourage early registration, extending mobile and decentralized registration units to rural areas and linking the National Population Register with education systems for seamless data sharing.<\/p>\n<p>The Minister thanked the Ministry of Education and Training and other stakeholders for their collaboration in the 2025 commemoration, highlighting their role in advancing the dialogue.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYour willingness to engage in this dialogue demonstrates leadership and vision, and it gives us hope that the education sector will soon stand alongside other sectors already benefitting from legal identity,\u201d Lephema said.<\/p>\n<p>Lephema reminded Basotho of the importance of embracing this year\u2019s theme.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLet us celebrate this ID Day with renewed dedication to our theme, \u2018My Identity, My Umbrella.\u2019 May we continue building a Lesotho where every person is protected, included, and empowered through identity,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n<p>Minister of Education and Training, Hon. Ntoi Rapapa in his remarks noted that legal identity is the foundation upon which individuals can access services, exercise their rights and participate fully in society.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cID is crucial for social and economic inclusion, enabling citizens to contribute to their communities and countries,\u201d said Rapapa.<\/p>\n<p>He urged all to commit to universal legal identification by agreeing to strengthen Identity systems, raise awareness in communities and schools about the importance of a National ID, and empower marginalised groups by ensuring that they have access to ID\u2019s and all the related essential services.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Lesotho<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Lesotho. Lesotho joined the world in commemorating Identity Day 2025 on Tuesday, September 16th, under the theme \u201cMy Identity, My Umbrella\u201d at Lehakoe Recreational Center. The event, led by the Honourable Minister of Local Government, Chieftainship, Home Affairs and Police, Hon. Lebona Lephema, emphasised the critical role of legal identity in advancing social, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":61859,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,7,12],"tags":[245],"class_list":["post-61860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-head-lines","category-policy","tag-lesotho"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Lesotho marks Identity Day 2025 with Focus on Education - Lesotho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Lesotho joined the world in commemorating Identity Day 2025 on Tuesday, September 16th, under the theme \u201cMy Identity, My ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesotho-marks-identity-day-2025-with-focus-on-education\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lesotho marks Identity Day 2025 with Focus on Education\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Lesotho joined the world in commemorating Identity Day 2025 on Tuesday, September 16th, under the theme \u201cMy Identity, My ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesotho-marks-identity-day-2025-with-focus-on-education\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lesotho\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-09-19T08:39:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-09-19T09:03:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2025\/09\/sm_1758256369.070898.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesotho-marks-identity-day-2025-with-focus-on-education#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesotho-marks-identity-day-2025-with-focus-on-education\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Lesotho marks Identity Day 2025 with Focus on Education\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-09-19T08:39:39+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-09-19T09:03:55+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesotho-marks-identity-day-2025-with-focus-on-education\"},\"wordCount\":658,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesotho-marks-identity-day-2025-with-focus-on-education#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2025\/09\/sm_1758256369.070898.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Lesotho\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"head lines\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesotho-marks-identity-day-2025-with-focus-on-education#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesotho-marks-identity-day-2025-with-focus-on-education\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesotho-marks-identity-day-2025-with-focus-on-education\",\"name\":\"Lesotho marks Identity Day 2025 with Focus on Education - 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