Maseru, Mar. 07 — Examinations Council of Lesotho (ECoL) has set the record straight following confusion on social media regarding the examination fee for Grade Seven (7) as per examination structure for the said grade released.
The structure has shown that for one to sit for Grade Seven (7) examination will have to pay about M155 which people say it is too much while others do not understand why examination fee has to be paid yet Grade Seven was phased out a few years ago.
In an interview with the Agency on Thursday, ECoL Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Dr. Mokhitli Khoabane said that the examination fee for Grade Seven applies only to private or independent schools and not government schools.
He said that this is paid for assessment which is written on completion of Grade Seven contrary to the Primary School Leaving Certificate (PSLE) which was phased out. He explained that though no proper examinations are no longer written for Grade Seven, learners are being assessed to see if they are capable of moving to the next grade hence such service has to be paid for.
“Private schools learners have to pay for assessment, only government schools do not pay because that is being subsidised by ECoL,” he said.
On the other hand, Dr. Khoabane explained that for Lesotho General Certificate of Secondary Education (LGCSE) students, examination fee for a minimum of six subjects is M2,200 saying for those who take seven subjects in order to have fall back in case fails one subject, they pay about M2,300.
He said that students can take up to 10 subjects which he emphasised that it is by choice and not compulsory saying that could amount to about M3,500 that he said it is still subsidised compared to other countries.
“International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) costs about M1,600 per subject and this says that since LGCSE is our baby it costs less compared to how much students pay per subject for IGCSE. This means that we have subsidised with more than 50 percent,” he stated.
He highlighted that assessments and examinations are very costly yet government allocates little budget to ECoL.
Meanwhile in 2015, the government introduced the new education system which has replaced Primary School Leaving Examinations (PSLE) with National Examinations (NE), and substituted the Cambridge Overseas School Certificate (COSC) with the LGCSE. The PSLE and COSC were set and marked locally but ratified in the United Kingdom while the NE and LGCSE are local qualifications.
LGCSE is a non-group examination and does not have 1st Class, 2nd Class, 3rd Class, GCE and fail. There are no numerals on the grades as an aggregate serves no purpose in a non-group examination.
The Examinations Council of Lesotho serves as the authority responsible for developing, overseeing, and maintaining a robust assessment system for Basic Education that addresses Lesotho’s educational requirements.
ECoL administers the Grade 7 End-of-Level Assessment, which gauges learners’ attainment of learning goals as they transition to the Secondary Phase. Additionally, ECoL manages Grade 11 public examinations for LGCSE, a qualification endorsed by the National University of Lesotho (NUL) for quality assurance.
