An investigation into the relevance of technical and vocational education and training curriculum in Lesotho secondary schools

Abstract

Relevance and responsiveness of a curriculum is a topic of discussion in recent times. The current study considers the relevance of technical education and training curriculum at secondary schools in Lesotho. The focus is on the technical education that is provided in those secondary schools which offer technical education. It looks at the conceptualization of relevant and responsive curriculum. It also ascertains whether or not the goals and objectives which were set for this curriculum are being achieved. This study was grounded in qualitative tradition whereby the case study strategy was used. Semi structured interviews were conducted to capture the opinions, thoughts, perceptions and experience of the participants on the relevance of technical and vocational education and training at secondary schools. Data was analysed according to main themes that emerged from the responses of the participants. The findings of this study indicated that TVET curriculum should be improved so as to align it with the needs, demands and expectations of the market and industry for it to be able to be used as a strategy to alleviate poverty and to reduce high rate of unemployment among the youth in particular. It is hoped that recommendations that were drawn from the findings of this study will be used by the curriculum designers and implementers to improve the standard of TVET in the country in order to achieve its relevance and responsiveness, hence the reason why this study was conducted.