Financing for equity in pre-primary education
1. Education resources to subnational governments
2. Education resources to institutions
3. Education resources to students and families
4. Social policies and family support programmes
Introduction
Key financing indicators (UIS Data)
In Lesotho, the official entry age for pre-primary education is 3 years old. While the national legal framework does not specify any number of years of free or compulsory pre-primary education, the net enrolment rate for pre-primary education fluctuated between 25.25% in 2005 and 20.58 % in 2020.
Governance
The Ministry of Education and Training (MoET) is the main authority responsible for financing pre-primary education, including the allocation and oversight of budgets for Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE). The ministry manages budget planning, allocation, implementation, and monitoring for public pre-primary institutions, including reception classes attached to public basic education schools and home-based programmes for vulnerable children supported by communities. While centre-based preschools developed by communities, NGOs, and churches are mainly privately operated, the ministry provides support through school feeding and short-term caregiver training, though with limited supervision. However, the budget allocations for this subsector are low, taking up 2% of the national education budget as of 2025.
The early childhood education sector consists of reception classes for 5-year-olds (attached to existing public primary schools), centre-based preschools for children aged 3-5 (mainly developed by non-state actors and fee-based), and home-based services for orphans and vulnerable children aged 3-5.
Tuition-free status
According to the Ministry of Education and Training’s 2013 National Policy for Integrated Early Childhood Care and Development, reception year services for 5-year-old children, initially introduced in 2006, are free-of-charge. Reception classes are attached to public primary schools and prepare children for primary education. Most of the Ministry’s funding dedicated to early childhood education is for the reception year programme.
Integrated early childhood care and development services of the public sector ‘shall be free-of-charge for pregnant women, mothers, fathers and young children from 0 to 5 years of age’. In terms of education-specific services, preschool education services ‘shall prepare children to learn well in school and to complete, at a minimum, the free and compulsory 7-year primary education cycle’.
1. Education resources to subnational governments
Intergovernmental transfers from national to subnational governments serve as the primary mechanism for fiscal decentralisation under Lesotho’s 2014 National Decentralisation Policy. However, there is no established system for equitable allocation of these transfers. While the policy envisions the gradual devolution of administrative and fiscal responsibilities across key sectors, including education, the process remains incomplete.
2. Education resources to institutions
Home-based Centres
As the National Policy on Orphans and Vulnerable Children affirms, the government commits to ensuring access for orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) from early childhood onwards. To promote equitable access, the government supports community and home-based Early Childhood Care and Development centres that provide free services for vulnerable children aged three to five, especially those without access to formal preschools. These centres are managed by communities with government support in the form of teaching and learning materials and oversight. In 2014, 57 home-based centres were operating nationwide.
3. Education resources to students and families
No evidence was found of any financial support mechanisms or transfer programmes designed to improve access to pre-primary education.
4. Social policies and family support programmes
Under the National Social Protection Strategy II (NSPS II), the Child Grants Programme (CGP), led by the Ministry of Social Development (MoSD), serves as the main government-financed social assistance mechanism that includes pre-primary-age children. The strategy calls for the expansion of the CGP to all pregnant women and mothers of infants from ultra-poor and poor households, and to all households with children under 18 years.
Eligible households classified as ultra-poor or NISSA 2 poor receive a monthly cash transfer per child, indexed to inflation, to improve nutrition, health and school enrolment outcomes. The transfer is household-based and not paid directly to institutions and is complemented by social and behaviour change communication (SBCC) activities encouraging recipients to spend the benefit on health, nutrition and early-education-related costs.
