The Moataa Primary School will introduce swimming and outrigger canoeing as part of their school curriculum next year.

Principal Vailili Tito in an interview with Samoa Observer said this was to introduce water safety and prevent drownings.

Teachers at Moata’a Primary School swapped the blackboard and markers for paddles and life jackets to be students during the start of a pioneering programme geared towards using the sport of Alo Va’a (outrigger canoeing) to promote water safety among students and schools in Samoa. 

"Our school is very close to the ocean and sometimes when the rainy season is on there is always a possibility of our school experiencing floods," said Mr Tito.

"But this programme in partnership with the Pualele Outrigger Canoeing Club is the first step for next year's curriculum as we are planning to insert this (Alo Vaa) in our school calendar. We will be using our P.E. subject to train and teach them paddling and swimming."

He said the majority of the students at Moataa do not know how to swim and the water safety awareness programme can help them understand and learn certain skills for survival.

"Behind all of this, I had this feeling that we need to teach the students what to do when our school is flooded because the majority of the students do not know how to swim and some teachers too. 

"That is the main purpose of why I wanted this programme. Understanding water safety is important and we may have some future paddlers from our school.

"This might be a better way to get them started as they are at the grassroots level. We can start building their interest from this age."

President of the Pualele Outrigger Canoeing Club, Faumuina Anthony Talouli said this initiative was the principal's idea, they tried to come up with ways to kick start the programme, but unfortunately, there was always something in the way. 

It is funded by the New Zealand High Commission and provides a comprehensive sustainable education and awareness programme toolkit tailored to promote community awareness in Samoa for Alo Va’a, scheduled to start in 2025.

The Pualele Outrigger Canoe Club secured $15,000 from the New Zealand High Commission Fund in 2022 under the sports, art and culture development theme. The funding from New Zealand allowed for the procurement of 18 paddles and 18 life jackets for the programme.

"This is their idea, we reached out to the school that we wanted to run the program for the children," he said.

"It's very busy this year with CHOGM and everything else that is happening. So we didn't have the time to run it and the principal came up with the idea, why don't you teach us first, and we will help teach the kids? And so I said, what a wonderful idea. We can explain the process through the teachers and they will be supportive of the program. 

"The next phase of this is to educate the parents so that the parents would allow the kids to come and be part of this program. So this is a school-driven project. We brought the idea to the school around vaa and water safety education and the school has embraced it, they wanted us to teach their Physical Education class for Vaa for the whole year for Year 7 and Year 8. 

"We all work so we don't have anyone to do that."

He believes there is also hope that there could be future paddlers in Moataa Primary School and that there is a season for every sport.

"We have witnessed some of the best players are from Moataa. There is so much talent in the district, they have rugby legends, and other great athletes so we never know there might be future paddlers in this school and this is the best age to get started," he added.

The staff of Moataa Primary School had the chance to try out Alo Vaa with the Pualele Outrigger Canoeing Club members and did a fun race just to get them interested in what lies ahead.