Abstract:
Accelerated Teaching and Learning in Lesotho schools. The study adopted a qualitative
methodology and semi-structured interviews to gather data from nine participants purposely
selected from three schools in the Berea district. The data collected included (1) How the AL/ATL
was introduced in schools; (2) Instructional leaders’ roles in implementing and managing the
strategy; (3) The challenges they encountered in fulfilling their roles; (4) Strategies they used to
solve the challenges and the effectiveness of such strategies; and (5) The general views about the
introduction of AL/ATL in schools, whether it has achieved its intended purpose. The findings
revealed that the strategy was introduced in schools upon re-opening of schools after closure due
to the COVID-19 pandemic. The purpose of introducing AL/ATL was to assist teachers in
covering content not done when schools were closed together with the current grade content
quickly. Instructional leaders were not familiar with this strategy prior to its introduction. The
findings also established that the roles played by instructional leaders were to supervise and
support teachers, provide resources and to encourage and monitor teachers to work properly. The
findings revealed that instructional leaders encountered challenges in fulfilling their roles, namely
a lack of resources and knowledge to implement the strategy and demotivated teachers and
learners. They solved those challenges by engaging parents, improvising, teaching theory and
leaving out practical part of the syllabus, inviting District Resource Teachers and counsellors. It
was revealed that some of these strategies were effective while others were not. The findings
indicated that the strategy achieved its purpose to a certain extent. Based on the findings, it is
recommended that the MoET should provide intense training to the instructional leaders and
teachers and provide resources to achieve the desired outcomes in Lesotho schools
