Teach at American International School of Lesotho in Lesotho

The American International School of Lesotho (AISL) is a non-profit, independent coeducational day school that offers an American-style educational programme to students from Preschool (age 3) through grade 8. The School, founded in 1991, serves the needs of the American, wider community, and other students seeking an American-style education delivered in English. The school year is divided into 3 trimesters extending from August to November, December to March, and March to mid-June. AISL is accredited through Middle States Accreditation (MSA). Our next MSA visit will be approximately December 2022.

Organization: AISL has a School Board made up of 8-10 members. 5 members are elected from the parent community, 2 board members are appointed by the US Ambassador and the Board itself may appoint up to 3 extra members who may have specific skills the school needs. AISL aims to involve the parent community as much as possible when organizing events and running community-building activities.

Curriculum: The standards-based curriculum is similar to that of established US public schools. Textbooks and teaching materials are often sourced and used from suppliers in the United States. Regular academic courses include language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies. In addition to the regular academic courses, music, French language, technology, library research, art, and physical education are offered at all grade levels. The standards used by all grades are those from the American Education Reaches Out (AERO) programme.

Faculty: In the 2021-2022 school year, there are 17 full-time and 2 part-time teachers, including 5 US citizens, host country nationals, and third-country nationals from Australia, South Africa, Malawi, Nigeria, India, Zimbabwe, and Zambia.

Enrolment: At the beginning of the 2021 2022 school year, enrolment was 115. 17% were US citizens, 32% were host country nationals and the remaining are third-country nationals from over 20 different countries. Of the US citizens, 5 are US government dependents and the rest are from private or US NGO organizations. Class sizes are small and allow for good communication between teaching staff and students. Currently, the maximum for classes is 20, with the average being 14. Most lower elementary classes have a teaching assistant to support learning.