The Samoa Information Technology Association (S.I.T.A.) says Samoa’s youth are well-placed to take the country forward into its digital future, but some adults are still struggling with technology.

S.I.T.A.'s President, Fainuulelei James Ah Wai, said while rolling out a school-based programme he has seen the gulf in computer literacy between year 13 students and their teachers and school staff.

He said if Samoa is to take full advantage of its potential digital economy, more people need more training on computer basics and the innovative online tools available today:

“It’s very challenging for the teachers,” he said of the e-learning platform S.I.T.A.is training seven schools on at the moment.

“It takes time. We wanted to see that they are comfortable uploading materials on the platform.”

Originally S.I.T.A. had planned to do just one training session for teachers per school in their United Nations Development Programme funded e-learning training.

But when they realised how uncertain many of the teachers and administrative staff are, they expanded that to four sessions. 

“Mind you, some of the teachers graduated from university and in some schools they have teachers that were very easy to work with, who have a high level of computer skills, compared to other schools,” Fainuulelei said.

“It’s a bit of a challenge, this digital transformation. You don’t expect everyone to be at the same level, especially in the rural areas where there is a lot of people who are not connected to phones.”

He said while Samoa’s so-called digital transformation will be hard to achieve, the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed how necessary it is.

If there are interruptions to normal life, education and other essential services should be able to continue as normal, he said.

The more than 500 students involved in the project so far have shown improvements in their use of the e-learning platform and are very comfortable with it, Fainuulelei said.

"Most of the students are very comfortable using this e-learning platform because it’s quite similar to social media they already use. If you know how to use Facebook and find your way around, the e-learning platform is very user friendly

"We developed it to make sure the students actually know how to use it and how to operate it in the most appropriate and proper way. That’s why we added in how to secure your password, and understanding of why it’s important to protect the digital assets you are using – not only your phone but password and making sure your confidential data is not compromised."

A larger, more lucrative digital economy features in the Government’s "Samoa 2040 Plan", which lays out the economic vision of growth and development for the next 20 years. 

It says Samoa stands to add an extra $350 million to Samoa's Gross Domestic Prouct if the supporting investments  are made to get more of the population online in their daily lives, and to bring international business to Samoa’s internet-connected shores too.

The plan says there is still some resistance to digital technology and this needs to be overcome. 

“Raising digital awareness and literacy among the consumer base will be important to increase adoption rates for digital products, e-commerce applications, digital payments and remittances.”

The plan, compiled by the Ministry of Finance, says Government could be a role model and leader, investing in digital solutions in health, education, and commerce to show the way.

“You can see in the Government plan, everything is going to digital, like health, education,” Fainuulelei said.

“We have to be adept and learn new technologies and be able to have a broader understand on digital platforms.”

But with many families already using smart devices mainly to connect with their families abroad, there is a foundation for ramping up how technology is used in daily life, he said.

“That is a bit of an indication we are slowly moving, I can’t say we are there yet but we are slowly moving there.”

He said the idea behind S.I.T.A.’s small-scale project is to quickly expand by working right alongside the Ministry of Education, Sports, and Culture on delivering e-learning capacity and safe internet training across the country.

“We can see this is the future of education, not only in Samoa but overseas. We wanted to make sure students are able to continue their quality education despite a lockdown and all the unexpected events that will arise.

“We can also see that for Year 13s it will be beneficial for them to go to the National University of Samoa, the University of the South Pacific or overseas and already have these skills incorporated into their learning experience so they won’t have issues."