Roger Federer, in his capacity as President of the Roger Federer Foundation, visited the Mountain Kingdom of Lesotho for the first time during the week of 15 May 2023. His Foundation has been active in the country since 2020 when its School Readiness Initiative was launched.

The visit was an opportunity to shine a light on the chronically underfunded early education sector. Lesotho has been making progress in recent years. The government is establishing early education as a political priority, for example by putting in place policies to scale pre-primary education in the country and promote early education, including the National Integrated Care and Development Policy of 2013.

Together with UNICEF, the country’s Ministry of Education and Training also revised the 2016-2026 National Education Sector Plan. In 2019, working in partnership with UNICEF and Global Partnership for Education, it launched the Better Early Learning and Development at Scale.

Most recently, in April 2023, the Ministry of Education carried out a sector review together with key stakeholders. Momentum and commitments are evident.

However, the road ahead is still long. During the visit, Federer stressed that more work needs to be done urgently if the country is to fulfill Sustainable Development Goal 4.2 in ensuring that all girls and boys have access to quality early childhood development, care and pre-primary education so that they are ready for primary education.

Fewer than 1 in 6 primary schools in Lesotho have a Reception Class attached. This is a critical bridging year for young children to attend before starting Grade 1.

Collaboration across sectors is vital

During the visit, the Roger Federer Foundation brought together government officials, development organizations and private sector representatives for a dinner dedicated to galvanizing efforts towards resource mobilization for early education.

The Foundation, active in the sector for 20 years, takes the stance that a joint effort is needed to ensure all young children’s needs are met during their preschool years.

Getting the remaining half of Lesotho’s children into preschool

In 2020/21, early education was allocated just 0.16% of the country’s education budget, a drop from 0.4% in 2019. At the time, only 46% of children had access to preschool.

Of the 245 Reception Classes attached to primary schools, 40% did not provide adequate facilities for the children, accommodating them in storerooms or staffrooms instead of dedicated classrooms, for example.

Many families have no choice but to avail of privately-owned preschools for the education of their young children, which comes with its own host of challenges, especially financial.

A digital approach to boost quality of early childhood education

Building classrooms and infrastructure is not enough: getting young children ready to go to school and learn also requires holistic and engaged pedagogy easily accessible for teachers and educators. This is why, the School Readiness Initiative led by the Roger Federer Foundation incorporates a digital approach to capacitate teachers.

Since 2019, the Foundation has piloted the Early Learning Kiosk (a tablet preloaded with apps and resources in the form of PDF files) in Lesotho and other countries in Southern Africa, with promising results.

One of the apps on the tablet allows teachers to track each child’s development in various areas (physical, social, emotional and cognitive). The other comprises a course on early learning.

This course is self-guided and is supplemented by a peer-to-peer learning approach, through which teachers can support one another and exchange knowledge independently. Resources on playground construction and toymaking are also included.

The Early Learning Kiosk is particularly suitable for low-connectivity environments as it only requires a sporadic internet connection for updates. The Foundation has also supplied teachers with solar panels to ensure the tablets can be charged in remote locations where access to electricity is limited.

When using the Early Learning Kiosk, teachers can also learn how to inform parents about the importance of early learning.

The program includes a series of booklets that show parents how to make toys with their children using items that can be found around the home, such as scraps of fabric, old hangers or stockings.

Communities are also guided on how to build or improve playgrounds using readily available local materials such as clay, recycled bottles, concrete and wood.

More resources needed for school readiness

Since the launch of its program in September 2020, the Roger Federer Foundation has reached more than 7,000 children in 172 primary schools and private centers.

Working through its local implementing partner, Network of Early Child Development of Lesotho (NECDOL), it seeks to reach 800 institutions by 2025. This is an ambitious goal in both scale and quality, and one for which collaboration and partnerships will be crucial in the years to come.

The Foundation’s work in the country has already opened up the opportunity for the Ministry of Education and Training to seek support from the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) for further investments in early childhood education.

Indeed, a USD 3 million investment from the Roger Federer Foundation will unlock an equivalent amount from GPE through its Multiplier mechanism, in support of infrastructure development, workforce development and innovative pedagogy.

Taking responsibility together

The Foundation is confident that by mobilizing resources and working together across sectors, all children of Lesotho can gain a quality preschool education, laying the foundation for a brighter future for the country at large.