Adaptating American adult-education methods in lesotho

This article deals with a project sponsored by the US Agency for International Development that was designed to transfer American adult-education techniques to the developing nation of Lesotho in southern Africa. The goal of the transfer was to improve the quality of education in Lesotho at the primary-school level by creating a nation-wide program to improve teacher skills. Intensive, after-hours, in-country, college-level training was offered to the country's teachers. Although this approach is common in developed countries, it was a first-time innovative technique for Lesotho. More than 400 primary school teachers participated in the program. The transfer was initially difficult to implement because of a lack of institutional and governmental interest and a “gap” between project implementation requirements and the Ministry of Education's management capacity. A contingency approach was developed that partially bypassed local institutions. In the short term, the project has succeeded in producing 334 “graduates” and in raising the level of local interest. He received his Ph.D. in economics from Southern Illinois University in 1967. He served as dean of the School of Business at the University of Tennessee from 1975 and continued as dean at Tennessee State University upon the merger of the two schools in 1979. Completing his deanship in 1985, he assumed a teaching and research position in international business and development. Masten has served in Africa as a technical advisor in both small business and education projects. He recently returned from a two-year consultancy in Lesotho for the Academy for Educational Development.