Education and Employment

Lesotho has a literacy rate of 91%. Although education is not compulsory, recently primary education in Lesotho has become free, meaning that every child has the opportunity to go to school.

However only one quarter of these school children will go on to secondary education. Very few pupils go on to university, and with unemployment at 45% , for most people the chance of getting a good job is very slim.

50% of the people live on less than 50p a day and unemployment levels are extremely high. The UN describes 40% of the population as 'ultra-poor', emphasising the need for educational training.

Economy

The Majority of households in Lesotho subsist on farming or migrant labour. Almost 50% of the population earns some income through crop cultivation, with over half of the country’s income coming from the agricultural sector.

The official currency is loti, but this can be used interchangeably with the South African rand. Lesotho has received economic aid from a variety of sources, including the U.S, the World Bank, the UK and the EU.

There is extreme inequality in the distribution of income which remains a major drawback in the development of Lesotho’s economy. Lesotho depends on South Africa as an employer, and as a buyer of its main natural resource- Water.