While Samoa and Dominica share the characteristic of high female teacher numbers with regional neighbours, Sri Lanka - as a South Asian country - is relatively unique among the majority of its politically regional neighbours, India, Bangladesh and Pakistan, all of which continue to struggle nationally with increasing female teacher numbers, in that it has made progress towards gender balance in the teaching workforce. Lesotho is also a small state, this time landlocked. However, within the Commonwealth African mainland context, again the characteristic of high female teacher numbers goes against the overall trend within the continent, although it is important to note that are three other Southern African countries on the mainland continent - Botswana, South Africa and Namibia, which also have high female numbers.