The Ministry of Education, Sports, and Culture (M.E.S.C.) says passing rates for minimum standards across the country's schools recorded in its recent annual report only partially reflects schools' performances as the Ministry's evaluations are ongoing.  

Last week the Samoa Observer reported that of the 167 public schools just eight primary and one secondary school met all the minimum service standards (M.S.S.) and several even outright failed them.

But in a press release, M.E.S.C. chief executive officer Afamasaga Dr. Karoline Fuatai-Afamasaga said the data in the annual report is based only on school self-evaluations, not the full Ministry assessment on whether the school is meeting all 244 service standards, first introduced in 2010. 

The Ministry’s 2019-2020 annual report did not specifically say that the data only reflected self-evaluation, but did say the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic had affected the Ministry’s ability to complete its evaluations. 

Afamasaga declined to be interviewed for this story. 

But in her statement, she said since the data on the self-evaluations was collected, the Ministry has started working to help schools improve.

She said many of them reported gaps in teacher quality, student achievement, school hygiene and partnerships with the community.

She said to deal with the issues around teacher quality and student achievement, the Ministry has been carrying out curriculum support and a professional development programme, especially in the areas of online teaching and delivering lessons via radio and television. 

The Ministry has also successfully managed to report on all S.P.E.L.L. and S.P.E.C.A. assessments in order to diagnose the success of the curriculum and the abilities of students.

“These diagnostic tests are critical and support the Ministry’s way forward in ensuring target teaching interventions enable the achievement of national curricula, at all levels, for all students,” Afamasaga said.

She also said reducing secondary school to four school years is “another strategic and evidence based reform by the Ministry to address issues pertaining to student achievement.”

The four-year system is meant to work alongside a strong Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) sector that should take on students who excel in the relevant subjects.

Another strategy M.E.S.C. launched in January this year was to make bathrooms and hygiene something to take pride in, with a competition called My Loo Kingdom. Afamasaga said the first visits were conducted on Monday 22 March. 

And to improve the relationships between the schools and communities, in September 2020 the Ministry developed a Samoan translation of the School Management and Organisation Manual 2018, which was explained in “awareness workshops” across the 15 school districts.

The School Agreement between the Ministry and School Committee was also reviewed and signed again. 

“The Ministry continues to advocate that to effect positive changes and outcomes in our schools; it is our collective responsibility as communities and country to provide whenever and wherever the support needed by schools regardless if it is a government, mission or private school,” Afamasaga concluded. 

After the nine schools that met the 244 indicators of meeting the minimum service standards, 20 per cent (29) primary schools and 22 per cent (five) secondary schools only “partially” met the standards. Five primary schools and one secondary school each achieved less than half of the 244 standard checks.

The majority of the primary and secondary schools subjects to checks “mostly meet” the standards. The standards were last revised in 2016 and are a mix of self-evaluation and school inspector evaluations.

The report says 71 per cent, or 102 Government primary schools, and 70 percent (16) secondary schools mostly meet the M.S.S., by achieving anywhere between 50 and 99 percent of the standard’s indicators.

The M.S.S. is scheduled for another impact and quality evaluation this year.

The Samoa Observer was unable to compare school results between years due to a lack of available data, but the Ministry is developing an M.S.S. database.