Help Educate 40 Bright Girls in Lesotho

The organisation that later became Educare Fund started in 1997 with just one donor and one beneficiary. The process of identifying and verifying the beneficiary was quite straightforward at that point as it involved contact with just one school.The school would identify a bright girl whose family had problems paying the fees and provide feedback. Getting this feedback about the girl’s progress was simple and trouble–free. As the years passed and the number of girls and schools grew, things got a little bit more complicated.  It was at this point that it was agreed by the Educare Fund trustees that it would be a good idea to work with people on the ground in Lesotho. This is how Ithuteng Basetsana Educare Association (IBEA) came into being. This organisation helps to contact the schools, collect the application forms, distribute the funds, collect feedback from the schools and report to Educare Fund.

The IBEA board includes two school principals who are tasked with approaching the schools on our list, facilitating the application process and selecting appropriate students for support. The thinking was that these individuals have inside knowledge of how schools work and would be a good link with the schoolteachers and principals associations, ensuring that these groups understand how Educare Fund works and what the selection criteria is. In the early days, with relatively small numbers to deal with, all went well, with the two officials managing the student selection process appropriately. This was borne out by the good exam results achieved at each year end. The pass rate for our completing students was consistently high and with a satisfactory spread of good grades achieved. However, as the list of students increased further, it seemed that the selection team was no longer properly managing to identify bright girls with good potential to succeed. Reported exam results achieved by the girls started to deteriorate and some of the girls failed to complete. There was clearly a problem with the selection process (no other issues were identified as contributors, such as illness, for example).

The board discussed the results issue and the possible problem with the selection process which is now not working as well as before. This process, in addition to failing appropriate students, would also lead to a waste of scarce resources. The selection officials may be too closely associated with their colleagues and may be finding it difficult to decline unsuitable candidates. It may also be the case that the selection now poses a problem for the two officials due to the increase in student numbers. It became clear that a change of approach was needed.

The conclusion to the discussions was that from now on the selection process should be changed. Instead of just two individuals, there will now be a larger selection sub-group. This group will be made up of two school principals, two deputies, one board member who is a retired teacher and one other without a teaching background.

We are hopeful that the new approach will help target resources at the right students and produce the good results that were observed previously. Just this year, three former beneficiaries were found to have really turned their lives around as a result of support by our donors in partnership with Educare Fund. This is what we would like to see going forward.