Schools to resume 25 January

By Adel Fruean 07 January 2021, 12:00PM

Students in Government-run schools will resume classes to kick off the new academic year on 25 January 2021, says the Ministry of Education Sports and Culture.

The Ministry also confirmed that all teachers will start work on 18 January 2021 and the 2021 academic year will comprise four terms.

The M.E.S.C. is yet to respond to questions sent by the Samoa Observer seeking a progress report on the marking of the 2020 national examinations and the subsequent results, these include the results for the Samoa School Leaving Certificate (S.S.L.C.).

The National University of Samoa (N.U.S.), which runs the University Preparatory Year (U.P.Y.) programme is yet to receive the results of the exams from the Ministry, according to the N.U.S. Vice Chancellor Professor Alec Ekeroma.

He said the S.S.L.C. examinations were held in the second week of last December and they are yet to get the marks prior to the start of student enrolment on 25 January 2021.

The N.U.S. requires the examination results for students who have sat the S.S.L.C. in order to prepare for the enrolment of students undertaking the U.P.Y. and the Technical Vocational Education Training (T.V.E.T.) programmes. 

A previous statement issued by the M.E.S.C. advised that the national primary examinations for lower-primary levels will see approximately 5,930 students sitting the Year 2 tests for Numeracy (mathematics) and Gagana Samoa.

 Similarly, a total of 5,670 and 4,980 students will sit the SPELL Year 4 and 6 in the four literacies, that is numeracy, english, Gagana Samoa and science.

However, for the S.P.E.C.A. a total of 4,400 Year 8 students will be assessed on their knowledge and skills acquired at the end of primary education for all the seven subjects of the Samoa National Primary Curriculum.

Due to the impact of the state of emergency for COVID-19, the national secondary examinations were postponed to 7-17 December 2020. These examinations target Year 12-13 students from all 41 colleges sitting their Samoa School Certificate (S.S.C.) and the S.S.L.C. exams respectively. 

More than 4,000 students were expected to sit the S.S.C. exam, and the S.S.L.C. exams.

By Adel Fruean 07 January 2021, 12:00PM

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