The Senior Bursary Administrator Mrs. ‘Mamohau Mochebelele indicated that the overall goal is to create secondary and high schools’ students database that will be able to provide not only the number of OVC in the country but also their different needs.

Currently the Ministry of Education is aware about the total number of OVC in high school but is not aware of their other needs such as shelter, food, uniform and if they are in child headed household or they have a guardian who is employed or unemployed.

The project started in 2006 and was able to capture 2007 data for all secondary and high schools students. It was funded by the Government through Ministry of Education’s budget. However in 2008 the project stopped due to shortage of funds and therefore was not able to record any data for that year.

The students record capturing project was revived early 2009 with the assistance of Global Fund grants. “Once it is operational the database will be able to provide the number of all children in secondary and high schools. It will be able to give the number of orphans who lost both parents and those who lost one parent.

Furthermore the database will provide in depth information focusing on the needs and vulnerability of each child,” said Mochebelele.

“This database will be able to define the exact number of children with specific needs,” said Mochebelele. The information derived from the database will help institutions as well as individuals who would like to offer assistance to OVC with specific needs at any given school or district. It is envisaged that the database will be implemented at district and school level at the Lesotho has redefined its education goals in line with regional and international initiatives namely Education For All (EFA) and the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) that resulted with the introduction of Free Primary Education (FPE) Policy that was officially implemented in Lesotho since the year 2000.

However, despite of availability of free basic (primary) education for all, one of the most serious challenges for Lesotho is the difficulty the average child from a poor family faces with respect to transition from primary to secondary school.

According to Education Sector Strategic Plan 2005–2015, there are 1,500 primary schools throughout Lesotho but only about 300 secondary schools country wide. This means only 73% of pupils who complete their primary cycle proceeds to secondary education. The cost of both primary and secondary school access has in the past inhibited enrolment of children from poorer families.

Furthermore the high cost of secondary education and the increased number of parents’ death due to HIV and AIDS has significant effect to the attaining of secondary education among orphans and vulnerable children.

Most end up in primary education where it is free but fail to pursue their high school education. As a result, they lack education and skills to help them to survive in their adulthood.

Therefore the Government through Global Fund grants and other development partners is currently offering secondary bursaries for needy orphans and vulnerable children. However, recently, OVC stakeholders realized that despite offering education bursaries to OVC, there is still significant drop-out in schools that is caused mainly due to hunger where children forced to drop from school to look for means of fending for their food. Other common challenges that hinder OVC education is lack of clothing which include uniform, poor or no shelter at all as well as stationeries and book fees etc.

The national secondary students’ database will therefore be able to provide the number of OVC in the country and their individual as well as group needs so that stakeholders could be able to address specific needs of children in order to groom the skilled Lesotho future leaders.