The school principal of St. Mary's All Girls College, Lepetiaina Sina Fitu has confirmed that from next year, there will be no more Year 13 classes at the school and the Year 11 students this year will sit the Samoa Secondary School Leaving Certificate (S.S.L.C.) exams next year.

In an interview with the Samoa Observer after the prize giving and graduation ceremony for this year, Ms. Fitu said this was one of the great achievements for the school.

"In the last decade, this was the last year that we had all students who passed their year leaving certificate," she said.

"You can see that there is a program we're doing with the government, we're still working and aligning the program that has been given so we did not sit the School Certificate this year .

"Because we only have forms one, two, three and four or Year nine, 10, 11 and 12. So we sit the SSLC in Year 12, there's no School C, and then we have an SMJSC in Year. 10. with the Four Year Level program of the government.

"St. Mary's won't go on the old program. We are on the Four Year Level already and it was proposed and became effective in 2021. This is the third year and next year will be the first time reaching the four years and it's going to be Year. 9, 10, 11 and 12. So our Year 11 now will sit SSLC next year in Year. 12 as there will be no more School C. There's an exam in Year 10 called the SMJSC."

In 2020, the former administration proposed an education reform to shorten secondary schooling from five to four years, with the reforms scheduled for rolling out at the start of the 2021 academic year. 

This means all schools in Samoa will dissolve their year 13 classes following changes passed by the Cabinet that will condense secondary school into four years instead of five.

But this took a plot twist when the new government took office and turned things around in a twist instead of pulling the plug on the reform proposal.

Meanwhile, the Education Chief, A'eau Christopher Hazelman earlier this week said no student was disallowed from sitting the national examinations this year, even for those who failed to pay the exam fees and those who were expelled from their schools.