Chapter 6: Concluding remarks
6.3 Main findings
6.3.2 Qualifications of foreign consultants
quality programmes, there should be adequate resources to support educational activities. Using this information and the one on table 3.2 in chapter 3 together with data from interviews and document analysis as mentioned above, I have designed a diagram indicating the minimum resources required by NCDC to assist curriculum specialists to design and develop a quality curriculum. No matter how highly qualified curriculum specialists are in the curriculum field, if they do not have resources and tools to work with, the quality of their work will be negatively affected. It is not surprising that they were “not meeting deadlines and were doing a bad job”, which was the justification used to engage foreign consultants. The proof is that the very consultants who were engaged, had to bring reading materials to curriculum specialists to read about other countries’ curriculum models. This is where they were able to recognize and appreciate the Jamaican curriculum model that used “windows of opportunities”.
Table 6.1 shows that both consultants were not qualified for the assignment as they obtained one third of the requirements. That is, they only have high education and training but their training is not on curriculum. The other limitation is on the context of the country. In the previous chapter, under procurement procedures on evaluation of tender documents, an interrogation of consultants’ compliance of experience in the region and language shows that both consultants lack experience on the context of Lesotho, background knowledge, culture and beliefs of Basotho people. According to data, this was the main limitation observed by curriculum specialists on consultants.
Context is one of the most important factors that affect quality of curriculum design negatively.
Amin & Ramrathan (2009) argue that context is a dominant influence on the acquisition of professional performances, beliefs, and practices. Hence, they suggest that conceptual notions of contextual diversity should envelop a re-articulated programme.
Even though Bhabha (1994) claims that hybridity or luminal space in which cultural differences articulate and produce imagined constructions of cultural and national identity, the purpose of engagement of consultants in Lesotho curriculum design was not to integrate them into the Lesotho curriculum design system. CCFNRC (2010, p.24) declares that consultants are not employees but are independent private experts. These people are not interested in becoming part of Basotho and are not interested in the knowledge of the context or culture of Basotho but to do the job, get money and move out. Unfortunately, they bring with them, behaviours, values, ideals and life-styles which can influence various subgroups and subcultures reflected in the complex society of NCDC (Sighn (2007, p.62). This is possible because, by the virtue of their authority, consultants are people in positions to have some influence over an individual, a group, or an organisation (CCFNRC, 2010, p.24).
Mosisidi (1981 p 64) recommends that Lesotho should not take any offers to involve teams of non-nationals in curriculum planning, development and implementation. If this continues, the Lesotho curriculum will continually be irrelevant because no one can effectively develop a relevant curriculum without first understanding the child, how he/she learns and interacts with a given environment (Muzvidziwa & Seotsanyana, 2002; Mosisidi, 1981, p.53). The foreign consultants do not know the culture of the Basotho and they come with different ideologies from those of Lesotho. Mosisidi (1981, p.64) observes that “the importation of large numbers of expatriate ‘experts’ to plan and implement curriculum development” has left a trail of bewilderment and confusion in its wake. This would not have been the case if the implementation of the education policy were adhered to. The Lesotho education policy (2005 p.26) declares, “Reforms of the curriculum at all levels of schooling and training shall be part of quality improvement and the strengthening of developmental relevance of the education system.”
Obviously, the engagement of foreign consultants is not in support of this policy.
The puzzle is why then were they selected? Were they selected only because of their high level of education and training as both have got PhD degrees? Anecdotal knowledge shows that there are curriculum experts in the country who hold PhDs from the university and teacher colleges in the country who could have been selected for the assignment. Besides, World Bank (2011) maintains that one of the main reasons for engaging consultants is “the Bank’s interest in encouraging the development and use of national consultants in its developing member countries.” But in this case, this condition is not observed; instead foreign consultants who do not even meet the specifications are engaged by NCDC.
What explanation can then be given to the engagement of unqualified consultants while there are better qualified local candidates? The answer from data for this question particularly from Director-NCDC and curriculum specialist 4 is that local experts lack experience. I have already discussed this issue in sub-section 6.3.1.1.
But the other possibility is what I discussed in chapter 1 about the “ruling class”. I highlighted that this is an elite class of civil servants and teachers brought up in a colonial environment of academic curriculum to serve the colonizers’ interests (Ansell, 2002; Iutta, 2011). They support a colonial type of education, an elitist education system driven by individualistic interest and the needs of a small but powerful minority, whatever ideology or academia might dictate (Ansell, 2002, p.104; Muzvidziwa & Seotsanyana, 2002). These are the people who are now in power in most African countries. They make decisions about the type of educational reform to be designed and by whom. Consequently, they always look to their colonial masters for assistance in the form of foreign consultants. Shalin (1992) argues that the ruling class has power to protect its particularistic interests, and it is naive to believe that they would bow to the voice of universal reason and agree to yield its power peacefully. According to Ngugi Wa Thiongo, colonial education makes them see their past as one wasteland of non-achievement and makes them want to distance themselves from that wasteland (Ngugi, 1994). This might explain the choice of foreign consultants over the local consultants.