Education as a Gateway to Development : Case of Rural Poor at Thabaneng Village in Lesotho

The study explores and unfolds the purpose of education in general, its value and the role it plays in helping development of the people in rural areas especially at Thabaneng Village in Lesotho. It reveals that education is the key to development and functions to equip the rural population in Lesotho with knowledge, training and worthwhile skills that are intended to uplift their standards of living in their respective milieus. Education is so vital for the rural poor for it makes them to have critical thinking and reasoning. It further renders them, through participation, to be part and parcel of their own development. In conclusion, the paper indicates that the Government of Lesotho launched the Free Primary Education (FPE) to promote the importance and value of Education for All (EFA) that is hoped to promote the development of Basotho especially in the rural areas.


Introduction
The problem that underpinned undertaking of this study is the fact that rural poor in the villages of Lesotho lack the skills of clear logical and critical thought that meaningfully and understandably help them to cope with issues that contribute to their well-being.President Nyerere in (Hinzen & Hundersdof, 1979) stressed that development actually means the development of people and he showed that there is only one way to cause people to understand their own development.This is by education.
The importance of this paper is therefore to establish whether or not education is a strong instrument that triggers off mass movements reform among the rural poor at Thabaneng village in Lesotho.Education before and after colonial era has helped growth (Braimoh, 1994).

Importance of the Problem
The problem that compelled undertaking of this study was the fact that within rural communities in Lesotho, there are many social and economic problems that are prevalent and obvious amongst them to the extent that the researcher was perturbed to find out as to whether or not education that members of these communities have, plays any role in assisting them to address and overcome this disturbing status quo.This is an important study because out of its findings it would be possible to establish whether or not the rural poor, out of education they have, are able to solve social and economic problems they are faced with.The questions to answer were: (1).What is the importance of education in general to the well-being and development of people?
(2).Is participation of the rural poor in their own development necessary?
The responses to these questions highlighted how the rural poor, in this contextualized area in Lesotho, derive prosperity out of education and how it (Education) serves to solve social and economic problems that they encounter in their day to day lives.Participation of the community members is key to their development and Free Primary Education (FPE) was necessitated by realization that nations of the third world experienced terrible insufficiency of Education, especially basic education, amongst their human resources and this seemingly retarded the development to occur in their respective environments.Education in this sense, is meant to help people to change their mind sets and attitudes for better prospects.In this way, it is right and pertinent to view education as a gateway to development.

Relevant Scholarship
Quite a number of scholars such as: Farrant (1977), Dankheim (1976), Kid (1972) and Rogers (1992) to mention just a few, had long realized and linked education to development.Education in this context is valued because of opportunity it is believed to provide for individuals especially in rural areas to develop their abilities and aptitudes.This is why Giddens (1998) views education as a means of equalization.It is offered in Lesotho with a view of moulding people in the rural areas to catch up and experience upwards mobility.As Cornwell (1991) points out, there is clear connection between poverty and little or no education.This means offering of education to this caliber of people is meant to equip them with knowledge and skills that are intended to emancipate them from severe poverty and have unlimited communication with the outside world hence enhance developmental activities in their rural areas.
In considering the important contribution of education to human and societal development, the Lesotho Government in the year 2000 decided to announce and launch the policy of Free Primary Education (FPE).This form of education is intended to provide basic education which is regarded as fundamental human right and helps to boost Lesotho development.EPE is therefore, offered in response to international understanding and declaration that all citizens of countries in the world are entitled to accessing education.EFA targets were goals for governments to ensure that they focused their resources on human development issues hence this is why Lesotho government adopted the new policy of FPE in their primary schools system.
In the advent of the FPE many schools have been built in the rural areas of Lesotho.The children of the rural poor failed to get appropriate education because of number of disadvantageous reasons.In rural areas schools were few and far with unqualified teachers.Children had to walk long distances daily and existing schools were congested and, indeed, offered poor quality of education.

Hypothesis and Correspondence to Research Design
The primary hypothesis that stemmed from the researcher had been that education might not be that vital to and has no impact on transforming lives of rural poor in the villages of Lesotho as a needy country.The research design employed was therefore, meant to collect information that would prove or disapprove the truth about and stand point of the hypothesis the researcher holds as his hunch.
The study owes its theoretical implication from two approaches namely; Community Development Approach and Target Oriented Approach which both are well spelt out by Gajayanake and Gajayanake (1993).The two approaches emphasise participation by the poor in their own development as key to attaining, social reform and transformation.Practically this was deduced by the researcher from deliberations from participants who declared that they took part in developmental activities, in their area, that were intended to boost their lives and change them for the better.This being the case, the following objectives formed framework within which the study was guided.
-To examine the purpose of education in general?-To determine the role played by education in bringing about development among the disadvantaged rural groups in Lesotho?-To evaluate the value of education and FPE for well-being of rural poor in Lesotho.

Research Design
Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill (2009, p. 24) claim that research design provides a general plan of how the researcher will go about answering the research questions and addressing the research objectives.It also specifies the methods and procedures for collecting and analyzing the collected information.Zikmund (2003, p. 65) summaries it up by indicating that it is a framework that guides the research project.For this research, the subjects were observed naturalistically and the following methodological aspects were incorporated: Participants and Sampling, Sample, Research Instruments, Interviews, Focus Group Discussion and Observation.

Participants and Sampling
The participants were: The Chief of the area, the Councilor and 20 members of the community from whom data was collected.The list of those members of the Community, was handed over to the researcher (and were labelled as some of the poor) by the Chief and the Councilor.Incidentally all those Community members had acquired basic education and were all literate.
The study employed a non-probability, purposive sampling (MANCOSA, 2013, p. 75).This method of sampling was chosen on the basis that this study is an exploratory, qualitative study that is primarily aimed at proofing the maxim that education is a gateway to development especially for the rural poor in Lesotho.Thabaneng village which is in a rural setting in the Mafeteng district in Lesotho, was purposefully selected to be a case study area to fulfill requirements of this discourse.It must be borne in mind that since non-probability sampling is non-random and subjective as selection criteria, in this particular case, selection was designed by the researcher for the purpose of capturing a wide range of facts (MANCOSA, 2013, p. 75).This is why the village was earmarked for undertaking of this study.

Sample
Sample refers to a number of selected people or objects chosen to participate in the research study and are referred to as subjects or participants (MANCOSA, 2013, p. 75).The total sample to this study, therefore, was twenty-two people comprising one chief, one councilor and twenty villagers: that is ten males and ten females purposefully selected from households categorized as poor.The chief and the councilor were interviewed on how helpful education was in promoting development in their area and the twenty villagers as indicated, were used in focus group to find out their perceptions about the issue of education as a gateway to development.

Research Instruments
The study was qualitative and used case study at Thabaneng village in Lesotho by employing interviews, observations and focus group discussion as a data collection instruments.These instruments were appropriate because they facilitated derivation of holistic information about the topic.According to Saunders et al. (2009, p. 145), a case study is a strategy for doing and it involves empirical investigation of a particular contemporary phenomenon within its real life context and it requires intensive investigation of the factors that contributed to the characteristic of the case under study.

Interviews
The researcher used interviews because an interview was a direct means to obtaining reliable and valid information from the two respondents, the chief and the councilor.When interviewed those respondents had an opportunity to ask clarifications where need arose (Ary, 1990, p. 45).It must also be noted that interviews to be efficient, do not require large samples hence why only two interviewees.MANCOSA (2003, p. 75) emphasize that interviews are conducted to either uncover problems, gather information about a company in process or an activity and also to gather opinions and view points of the interviewee.

Focus Group Discussion
Focus group was used in order to bring a small number of participants to discuss the topic.The group size was deliberately small so that its members could not feel intimidated but be able to express their opinions freely and hence provided valuable information as desired by the researcher.The discussion was purposely designed so that a range of aspects expected to nourish the study; were explored (Monyake, 2010, p. 57).In order to avoid boredom and fatigue from the participants, forty-five minutes was used for data collection session.A topic guide was prepared beforehand and the researcher chaired the discussion.Zikmund (2003, p. 235) states that using observation allows a researcher to observe a variety of information about the bahaviour of people while MANCOSA (2013, p. 75) declares that observation is a systematic observation, recording, analyzing and interpretation of people's behaviour.The researcher through observation was able to judge such behaviours as happiness on their countenances, freedom to speak, reflection of understanding and appreciation of the topic under discussion.This being the case, the researcher was able to gather a wide range of data for a variety of research objectives and this facilitated collection of in-depth information about the study at hand (MANCOSA, 2013, p. 105).Table 1.The participants' responses to the idea that education functions as a gateway to development

Data Analysis
The researcher analyzed information given by the three constituencies of respondents (the chief, councilor and villagers) concerning the topic.The information was arranged, aggregated and analyzed in such a way that it provided responses that indicated how education functions as a gateway to development among the rural poor at Thabaneng village in Lesotho.

Perception of Participants
In summary the participants responded as follows:

The Chief
The chief indicated that Education was very vital for the welfare of development of his village.Most of his subjects knew how to read and write and adjusted accordingly to changes that existed in their environments.He indicated that through education there were professionals who had emerged in his village.Those ranged from; teachers, nurses, doctors, technicians, police, priests etc.He declared that his subjects were engaged in developmental projects such as vegetable, poultry and piggery raising.

The Councilor
The councilor when interviewed confessed that education is so important that he was what he was because of it.
Had he not gone to school and acquired education, he would not be a councilor, a position so key to leading and development of his village.He indicated that his villagers had planted fruit trees which were intended to produce fruits for the market and consumption.He further claimed that basic education his people possess, makes it easy for him to engage them to self-help projects undertaken in his village because literacy helps a lot when it comes to measurements at work which involve matters related to e.g., distance, capacity and weight.

The Villagers (The Rural Poor)
The members of the community (categorized as poor in the village) all declared that education had helped them to acquire literacy and because of literacy they were able to cope up with developmental issues that prevailed in their village.Through education they gained from project trainings, they were able to participate in developmental projects such as chicken and pig rearing, vegetable production and meaningfully in self-help activities geared towards achievement of development of their area.
All these responses from three constituencies of participants, no doubt, do confirm that, indeed, education is important in uplifting lives of people especially the rural poor in their different milieus.It is evident that Education helps development to occur.

Purpose of Education
According to the study it is not wrong to conclude that, education is a strong weapon used to eradicate social, economic, political and cultural problems that hinder the smooth progress and development of societies.But education fulfils this heavy task only if it is well-structured and aimed at emancipating individuals, groups, communities and societies from the problems that they encounter in their daily lives.Education is, therefore, meaningful only where and when it helps people in their daily efforts to create a better and more congenial life (Hall & Kidd, 1978).This idea is more or less portrayed in Rogers (1992) when he contends that education, if it is effective, is a revolutionary force for both individual (providing mobility) and society (promoting development).
Jefferson (in Lauer, 1998) also believes that education is essential to the freedom and happiness of the citizenry only if the educated individuals can see the demagogues and avoid being taken in by those who claim to be wise.He asserts that education fosters personal development.In other words, through education, the individual can hope to be liberated from the bonds of ignorance and be prepared to maximize his/her intellectual, emotional and social development.On the other hand, not negating this idea, Aldrich (1996, p. 43) says: Education is the important shared experience in our lives.It is so important and so all-pervasive that it is almost impossible to define.It takes place everywhere… Education has two properties.The first, is that it is concerned with the development of knowledge, skills and values which are generally considered to be worthwhile or at least not harmful to others.For example, to teach someone to be a liar and a thief would be mis-education rather than education.The second, is that education allows for participation by the person being educated, both in the process and in the outcomes.This is the case the researcher met when undertaking the study, the villagers were participating and doing the work for themselves.
Reinforcing the same notion, Farrant (1977) perceives education as a total process of human learning by which knowledge is imparted, faculties trained and skills developed.This definition by Farrant is more or less the same as those offered by Durkheim (1976) and Lauer (1998) who respectively regard education as the formal systematic transmission of a cultures skills, knowledge and values from one generation to the next.In the same vein, Bernstein (1990) views education as the transmission of particular attitudes.Knowledge and skills to members of a society through formal systematic training.
What one grasps and makes meaning of is that education is a process of socialization by which people acquire behaviours that are essential for effective participation in society (Durkheim, 1976).It is again not wrong to bear in mind that the nature of education is to deal with knowledge that is recognizably worthwhile and capable of achieving a voluntary and committed response from the learner.Apart from that, the nature of education is to lead to a quality of understanding that gives rise to new mental perspectives in the learner.Additionally well fostered education should use methods that encourage the exercise of judgment and the use of learner's critical faculties (Knowles, 1980).The rural poor in Lesotho, among others, need education so that they can be able to respond positively to the challenges of life that face them and fulfill the purpose which education is intended to achieve through its clientele.
The purpose of education is to provide labour-force, by promoting and fostering the skills and knowledge required by societies to acquire greater prosperity.It enables individuals to achieve roles and thereby set positions which they occupy for the rest of their lives within society.It also enables the learners to reflect critically on the reality around them and to cooperate with others to change that reality, hence development is experienced.

The Role Played by Education in Lesotho as Per the Study
The general expectation of education is to improve the well-being and of all and particularly that of the under-privileged elements of society (Hall & Kidd, 1978).Even though education may not supply all the answers to the problems that an individual or society encounters, it is the best single means of promoting intellectual, moral, physical and economic well-being (Aldrich, 1996).Theorists like Piagent in Hergenhan (1982) confirm that learning affects the following domains: cognitive (intellectual), affective (behavioural) and psychomotor (physical) which together mould a total human being that is resultant from the influence of education.Influence here means change effected on a particular individual through educational impact.Danlin (1990) when furthering the argument related to the role of education, states that through education developments occur stage by stage and that there is progress in society.He elaborates by saying, "Education is seen as playing a major role in the modernization of society and the learning process to correspond with new stages of development in society" (Danlin, 1990, p. 63).
But Horton (1986) regards education as an agent of development only if educators understand their role and approach when they deal with learners.Also educational systems change to incorporate and respect the learners as co-members in the educational arena.Horton states: We have learned from Paulo Freire and others like him and from great popular movements of this century that people become motivated when they are personally involved in the process relating directly to them and their own life situation.Thus, the only way to effect radical changes in the educational system is for educators to make alliances with community people, students, various ethnic groups and union members.Goals, curricular and policies will be changed to the degree that more and more people should be made to participate in decision-making and become agents of fundamental changes, in the educational system and society at large (Horton in Danlin, 1990, p. 65).
It must be noted that the current challenges facing development circles in Lesotho, is to search for human-centred development strategies which emphasize active participation of the people at grass-roots level.
Attempts in this field in rural poor communities in Lesotho are increasingly being focused on an evolving approach to development, based on bottom up initiatives and self-reliance.Such endeavours, as Gajanayake and Gajanayake (1993) understand, have resulted in a transformation from a welfare-oriented approach with masses as passive beneficiaries, to a community of active participation.
According to the two authors, Gajanayake and Gajanayake (1993), there is a growing acceptance that the community development approach, when applied to education has the potential to address development issues and challenges faced by rural communities in developing countries such as Lesotho as well as issues encountered by disenfranchised, disadvantaged and marginalized groups in the world.They emphasize their point in this manner.
The community development approach places the human being at the centre of development and is primarily concerned with human dignity and potential.It assumes that in order for people to control and shape their own environments, the community development approach places the human being at the centre of development and is primarily concerned with human dignity and potential.It assumes that in order for people to control and shape their own destiny they should first realize their own worth and strength.The community development approach provides a high level of participation of the members of the community in all aspects pertinent to the development process (Gajayanake & Gajayanake, 1993, p. 1).
However, the community development approach, although so well articulated, seems to encounter some problems when it comes to assessment of its impact on the poorest of the poor.Since it encompasses the whole community, some members, do not significantly reap the desired goals.In this case what is required is what is referred to as target-oriented approach focusing directly on disadvantaged groups like the rural poor in Lesotho.
Proponents of this target-oriented approach declare that it requires a process of empowerment, consciousness-raising and leadership development in the community (Gajayanake & Gajayanake, 1993;Freire, 1977;Knowles, 1980).The development of relevant skills, knowledge and attitudes among the members of the community is equally important: "it is an essential process because it is initiated by the community itself" (Gajayanake & Gajanayake, 1993, p. 1).
In the context of Lesotho, this is perceived in line with Noor Toure (Cornwell, 1991) who both identify and connect the purpose of Education to development by raising the following points:  Education provides knowledge, skills, values and attitudes which increase people's ability to change and willingness to accept new ideas and practices.In rural area, for instance, where mechanization is becoming more common, peasant farmers need to acquire the necessary technical know-how education.A person who knows how to read and write better is able to grasp new knowledge and benefit by it.
 Education provides the means for people to satisfy other needs.It provides connection between improved nutrition, clean water and primary health care and enables people to make better use of new medical and other services.Improved health in turn raises productivity, incomes and standards of living. Education socializes people in the dominant political and cultural value systems.
 Education and literacy makes people less dependent upon assistance.For instance, local cooperatives in the rural areas may employ their literate members to do simple bookkeeping.Such people are also less vulnerable to exploitation and the affects of official corruption (Cornwell, 1991, p. 152).
It is in this understanding of purpose and connection of education with development that makes the researcher to believe that if the rural people of Lesotho are equipped with education, they could experience the development that is necessary for them to be viable and productive members of their society.The role of education for development focuses on education activities that are organized for social movement and contribute to the transformation of rural people in Lesotho where they operate.Various authors such as, Freire (1985) and Brookfield (1985), concur that education has a significant role to play in the transformation process.These authors agree that through education, people should be made aware of societal forces which have an impact on their lives.

The Value of Education and Launching of Free Primary Education in Lesotho
Here the suggestion is that for development to occur, the rural poor in Lesotho must be made to participate in and offer decisions about issues that affect them.Educators should understand participants and involve them in preparing, planning, implementing and evaluating educational system in order to reap better prospects of transforming the life in general (Lauer, 1998).
This is why Lovett (1980), from a conflict perspective assets that idealistic education should be that which is referred to as radical education which mounts alternatives into its philosophy, pedagogy and institutional arrangements.It should not merely be a critical or opposition movement but be counter hegemonic, threatening to construct a whole alternative.He raises the idea of preoccupation with education and politics, knowledge and power.He says: "educating yourself and other, especially in knowledge of your circumstances, is a step in changing the world" (Lovett, 1980, p. 102).
Radical education for the rural poor in Lesotho is essential because it then serves as a true transformational power.It will be counter-hegemonic to the present situation where many Basotho do not have a wide spread education that fosters their empowerment and development.Here, by radical education, the researcher refers to education which sheds light to people and makes them to view life issues in a better informed way, and is seen as, a power that exerts its force to serve for upward mobility (Simon, 1985) of the rural people of Lesotho.This is because education offered to people, can easily change lives of participants for the better because it provides them with better perception whose ultimate goal is to give them better control over factors associated with the problems they face and such education is, indeed, valuable (Jensen in Merriam and Cunningham, 1991, p. 52).
Indeed, the service of education is required in Lesotho for rural poor because as Hall and Kidd (1978, p. 65) state when talking about education and equality: "This is especially true of functional literacy programmes and other similar non-formal activities aimed at applying new-oriented and problem-related approaches".
Failure to provide education is characterized by the situation of street children, national economic recession, rural-urban migration, deterioration of social services and extreme rural poverty in Lesotho.When the situation is like this, Bernstain (1971) argues that street children need access to education designed to support the goals of obtaining non-exploitative employment, access to safe shelters, Health Services and above all participation in normative social support groups.To support his argument Lauer (1998, p. 445) cites three case studies of education programmes for street children in the Philippines, Kenya and Columbia.These programmes use development strategies that are meant to rehabilitate and rescue lives of humans.
Furthermore education (especially Primary education) has its aim being to establish literacy.In this way, education is seen both as a goal of development as well as a method or a tool for realizing interrelated goals.These include health, higher labour productivity, a more rapid growth rate in the gross domestic product and the broad social integration, including participation in cultural and political affairs.Cornwell (1991, p. 150) shows that according to the United Nations definition literacy refers to a person's ability to read and write with comprehension of a short, simple statement about his daily life.More specifically the UNESCO definition talks about functional literacy and refers to it in this manner, "literacy is only functional… to the extent that it conveys a technical, vocational, social and economic content related to development requirements" (UNESCO, 1985, p. 65).
No doubt the definitions link literacy, and hence education, directly with development.Literacy is one component of education which is vital to help an individual to cope meaningfully and understandably with issues that contribute to his/her well-being.These skills include not only the ability to read and write but also an enhanced capacity for clear, logical, critical thought, (Cornwell, 1991, p. 152).This is what the researcher believes education should do for the rural poor in Lesotho: provide them with the skills of clear, logical and critical thought in order that the education they may acquire can develop their country.
In the same vein, Paulston (1977) perceives education as a system described and consciously used as an instrument for transmitting new values and creating a sense of motivation.Where its intent is to break down an older society and to build a new one, moral education becomes a learning priority.This is what the researcher believes should happen in Lesotho.New forms of perceptions within rural communities should be installed through education.The use of Education should be transmitting certain desired values and attitudes and to adopt new ways of tackling life problems.This therefore, makes us to conclude that clearly a country which is unable to develop the skills and knowledge of its people and to utilize them effectively in the national economy will be unable to develop anything else.In fact proponents of development theories emphasize that national development plan can be enhanced or limited by the level of education attained by the citizens of such nations.
Nations with high illiteracy rates and unskilled workforces have fewer development options (Matsepe, 2010).This goes in line with the maxim that any country that does not love education, does not love itself.
Having realised this valuable contribution of education to the development of national economy, the Lesotho Government adopted Universal Basic Education.According to Hangai conference: case study summary, Universal Basic Education is largely understood as universal primary schooling.Only after the Jomtien conference on Education For All (EFA) in 1990, was it understood that by making primary education free would include children from poor families thereby perhaps making them to become universal.School costs for families were major constraint to achieving Universal Primary Education (UPE).Direct costs could include general fees, school fees, salary top-ups, textbooks, materials, uniform, feeding, transportation, sports and culture.Indirect costs were the opportunity cost at home or work.By eliminating direct costs of schooling families could send their children to primary school, thus increasing demand for education.On the supply side very few school systems in Africa and particularly in Lesotho were keyed to EFA from the outset, and a strategy combining elimination of fees together with the reform of the EFA system was needed.
FPE was implemented with other reforms: curriculum reform provision of textbooks and other materials, the use of local languages in education, Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) Medium-Terms Expenditure Frameworks (MTEFs), civil service and local government reforms.These added to the burden of change and to ensure a protected resources envelope and increased funding for primary education.
The FPE outcomes so far included, first and foremost, increased access, especially from the poorer quintiles of the population; and increased provision of textbooks, classrooms, and teachers, with a very considerable scale of change in Malawi, Uganda and Lesotho.Other main outcomes include the realization of UPE's implications, the impact on the electorate and closer inter-ministerial and donor/lending agency cooperation.Unforeseen outcomes included a possible push out effect of overcrowding on disabled and weaker pupils and falling survival rates.Other unforeseen outcomes needed to be researched.
HIV/AIDS was the biggest short-to-medium challenge because its impact was being felt across all poor African Countries.High prevalence was causing in efficiency in education and the supply of teachers.There was rapid increase of number of orphans, affecting girls in particular.The pandemic had terrible financial impact on nations.Improved planning and administrative and managerial efficiency were needed to ensure that FPE continued and that children affected by HIV/AIDS were not lost to education.Indeed, FRE is still intended to provide upward mobility of rural poor in Lesotho hence their development.

Conclusion
Education in general is very important in providing knowledge, training and skills that are valuable to emancipate people, especially the rural poor in Lesotho, from the state of ignorance and make them to attain their survival and development of their communities at large.The role of education in Lesotho is seen as a goal of development was well as a method or a tool of realizing interrelated goals.These include health, high labour productivity, a more rapid growth in the gross domestic product and the broad social aims of social integration, including participation in cultural, economic and political affairs.This is why education is directly linked to development.For example, literacy is one component of education which is intended to help the rural poor in Lesotho to cope meaningfully and understandably with issues that contribute to their well-being.President Nyerere had long realized the importance of Education and indicated that providing education to people means acceleration of their own development.
The Government of Lesotho in the year 2000 launched FPE policy in response to Darker declaration.This was done with realization of the outstanding value the education has for entire development of Basotho.Government schools had been established in quite a good number in rural areas in order to facilitate the notion of EFA to be implemented especially for the people in the rural area of Lesotho.EFA has widely opened access for basic education to all citizens of Lesotho but notable in the rural areas.