The high dropout rate in the Aana Alofi No. 4 constituency has motivated the local Member of Parliament to begin work to address the issue during his five-year term of office.

Local M.P. Toeolesulusulu Cedric Schuster raised the concern in parliament this month during debate on the recently passed budget for 2021/2022 fiscal year. 

An environmentalist by profession, Toeolesulusulu said that out of the 6,000 plus residents of the constituency, 75 per cent of them did not complete their education to Year 12 and Year 13 levels. 

“And only 40 per cent of those from the constituency are employed,” he said. 

“It is my personal goal that after the completion of my five years in parliament, I hope to increase the number of people from my constituency that complete school and obtain work…” 

The constituency of Aana Alofi No. 4 comprises the villages of Faleatiu, Faleolo, Fasitoo-tai, Magia, Sagafili, Satapuala and Vailuutai. 

In addition, the M.P. also raised the teacher shortage issue, noting that in some classes there are more than 60 students per one teacher. 

A recent study by the Samoa Bureau of Statistics (S.B.S.) highlighted a drastic rise in youth unemployment which coincided with a rise in school dropout rates. 

The national school dropout rate is holding back Samoa’s national development and remains a significant policy challenge for the nation, the S.B.S. said in its recent report.

The proportion of unemployed Samoan young people aged between 15 to 24 has doubled between 2012 and 2017, rising from 16.4 per cent to 31.9 per cent. 

The “S.B.S. Samoa Youth Monograph 2020 on School Attendance, Engagement and Inclusion” report also noted that there is a substantial disparity in school completion rates between girls and boys and young people with disabilities. 

In 2018, 86.5 per cent of students progressed from primary to secondary school; a fall from 93.7 per cent in 2014, the bureau found. 

"School dropout rates are of concern in Samoa with 32.2 per cent of males dropping out by Year 13 with a corresponding figure of 27.9 per cent for females," the report reads.

"The completion rate for secondary school has declined overall by 10 per cent between 2016 and 2017."

The recent rise in dropout rates has not affected Samoa's relative standing in the region in terms of educational attainment, which remains above average for Pacific Island states.  

Statistics in 2014 showed that 27 per cent of girls were completing secondary school compared to only 23 per cent of boys; which was a reflection of gender disparities in education. 

A similar disparity between the genders was also shown in truancy rates. 

The bureau measures the net attendance ratio for girls at 71 per cent, which is substantially higher than their male cohorts whose school attendance averaged only 58 per cent.

Students who are victims of family violence, orphaned or who have a chronically ill family member are the most likely to drop out of school, the report found. 

Time constraints placed on students who must look after ill-relatives or the absence of access funding for school fees are considered the chief factors driving this demographic’s high dropout rate.

Meanwhile, the geographical location of students was highly predictive of a students' attendance rate, the report found; the gross attendance ratio for secondary school students in rural areas was 66 per cent, while it was 73 per cent in urban areas.