PADDLE

SAMOA
COUNTRY PAPER
At
UNESCO Technical Workshop on
Sector-Wide Education Resource Projections
UNESCO Headquarters, Paris
6 - 10 June 2005

Prepared by:
Marie Bentin Toalepaialii

Assistant CEO - Policy, Planning & Research
Ministry
of
Education, sports & Culture

1. Current status of the EFA and/or Sector Plans in the country:

Samoa in its strive to improve quality of life for all, stated in its Strategy For
Development of Samoa (SDS) 2002 - 2004, that in collaboration with the EFA
Forum, strategies would be designed and implemented for non-formal and
second-chance learning, as well as strategies to address improvements in adult
literacy. The theme for the development 3-year period was "Opportunities For
All".

The country is now implementing its Strategy For Development of Samoa (SDS)
2005 - 2007, the theme being "Enhancing Peoples' Choices" and it again places
emphasis on the implementation strategies for the achievement of the EFA
goals.

The national vision of the Government of Samoa's National Plan is:
"For every Samoan to achieve a better quality of life". Achieving the national
vision will result in the attainment of Samoa's Millenium Development Goals
(MDG) targets and all of the six EFA Goals upon which Samoa gives priority. The
theme for the next three years reflects the national commitment to the need for
every Samoan to have access to every opportunity he/she desires. Enhancing
access to those opportunities is the underlying focus of the implementation
strategies.

Samoa's EFA Plan, although a separate document, is incorported in the
Ministry's Corporate Plans (July 2000 to June 2003 and July 2003 to June 2006)
as well as its Annual Management Plan activities. These activities are constantly
monitored and are reviewed after every quarter.

Achievements against Six EFA Goals:

Goal One: Expanding and improving comprehensive early childhood care
and education, especially for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged
children.

The Education Ordinance 1959 has been reviewed and is the Ministry of
Education, Sports and Culture Bill 2004. In this Bill, the Ministry's
responsibilities and role are clarified and in particular to include the support for
teachers to fulfill their duty of care to students and the welfare of students in
early childhood education centres and schools
A second draft of the Education Bill: Arrangement of Provisions; An ACT
to regulate and make provision for school education and early childhood
education in Samoa, has recently been released for comment. This Bill
includes Students with Special Needs and Early Childhood Education.
The Western Samoa Education Policies 1995 - 2005. A range of issues are
discussed including early childhood education and special needs education.
The SNE policy final draft has been developed
The ECE policy has been developed and implemented
A National Curriculum Council has been established to look at developing a
National Curriculum Policy Framework.
Scholarships are provided to eligible teacher trainees to undertake ECE or
ECE courses
Stationery is provided by the Ministry to ECE Centres and SNE providers

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A Government Grant is distributed to all Non-Government educational
institutions each year since 2000.
Parents' advocacy and support groups for children with disabilities have been
established
The 5-year plan for early intervention has started. This initiative was started
by the Loto Taumafai Centre for the Disabled.
Teacher training for ECE and SNE is conducted by the Faculty of Education
at the National University of Samoa.

Goal Two: Ensuring that by 2015 all children, particularly girls, children in
difficult circumstances and those belonging to ethnic minorities, have
access to free and compulsory primary education of good quality.

Under the Education Bill 2004, provision has been made in the enforcement
of the Compulsory Education Act. In the interim, School Review Officers are
closely monitoring school attendance of compulsory school age children.

Goal Three:
The learning needs of all young people and adults are
met through equitable access to appropriate and life skills programme.

Curriculum materials have been developed to suit the needs of students in
formal education.
Subjects/disciplines offered include Visual Arts, Performing Arts, Computer
Studies, Health and Physical Education.
Training of teachers in early childhood education all the way to post
secondary and tertiary continues
A Community Learning Centre has been established and implementation of
activities about to start
A "Skills Development Study" was conducted and a national consultation
workshop has been conducted to look at the findings and recommendations
A "Non-Formal Education" policy is being developed.

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Second-Chance schooling.- In December 2003, the National Coordinating
Committee on Second-Chance Education was established. The first expert
visit in 2003 focussed on a needs assessment survey followed by a strategic
planning workshop. This committee is chaired by the Chief Executive Officer of
Samoa Polytech.
The second input in April 2004 was based on student-centred curriculum
design. This focussed on producing SCE materials designed in a student-
centred mode.
The third input in June/July 2004 concentrated on Innovative Training of
Facilitators and importantly the role as a Life Skills Coach. This training
focussed on the observation that many premature school leavers have a low
self esteem and show a lack of necessary behavioural skills, which constitute
obstacles to them on successfully taking up the challenge of re-entering the
education system.
The Commonwealth Secretariat has recently approved further support for
SCE in Samoa.
Public Awareness programmes and discussions about the causes, modes of
transmission, consequences, means of prevention and control of HIV/AIDS in
the community is spearheaded by the Ministry of Health but involves members
from other sectors.

Goal Four:
Achieving a 50% improvement in levels of adult literacy
by 2015 especially for women, and equitable access to basic education for
all adults.

A survey to find out what the actual status of adult literacy in the country is yet
to be conducted.
The Ministry's Policies and Strategies 1995 - 2005 are currently being
reviewed.
The next ten-year plan 2006 -2015 will be developed with the assistance of
grant from Asian Development Bank in late July 2005.

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Goal Five:
Eliminating gender disparities in primary and secondary
education by 2005, and achieving gender equality in education by 2015,
with a focus on ensuring girls' full and equal access to and achievement in
basic education of good quality.

The upgrade of facilities, teachers as well as the introduction of subjects to
provide a more focussed learning environment are on-going
Literacy and numeracy are given top priority in primary level, with greater
focus on boys. Annual SPELL tests show that boys are more at risk than girls.
Student Counselors is a must although the Ministry has not yet addressed it.
However, some private and mission schools already have Counselors.

Goal Six:

Improving all aspects of the quality of education and
ensuring excellence of all so that recognised and measurable learning
outcomes are achieved by all, especially in literacy, numeracy and
essential life skills.

Research is being conducted by various organisations on areas of concern.
METI conducted a research/survey in 2002 on the need for second-chance
education.
Government and othe Donor Agencies give NGOs support in "Revenue
generating" projects.
Accreditation of NGO programmes by 2015 - The Samoa Qualifications
Authority has been set up and this will be one of its priorities. The SQAwill
provide measures of quality to apply across both formal and non-formal
systems particualrly in the areas of training of educational personnel and in the
delivery of basic education in literacy, numeracy and life skills.
Under the Education Sector Project, schools are being upgraded,
rehabilitated, constructed and this includes fully equipped standard school
libraries.

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Training for teacher librarians are carried out in schools by the Public Library
staff of the Ministry.
Research into IT in school was conducted by the Ministry in 2003. IT is
promoted by NUS and Samoa Polytech as well as the private sector

2. Partnership with development agencies and civil society.

The promotion of working in partnership with each other is an important in the
economic and social development of Samoa.

In the beginning there was no coordination amongst donors and the country so
there tended to be some duplication in the conduct of activities. However, proper
coordination is now in place not only in the Ministry but also between Ministries,
the private sector and NGOs.

This year, at the annual Donor Meeting with the Ministry, the sector-wide
approach has been adopted. This certainly promotes better coordination of
development projects but also better relationships among the donor community.

3. Financing and Expenditure frameworks.

Financing the EFA Plan activities is done through the assistance from funding
agencies but also from the local Ministry's budget. Many of the activities in the
EFA Plan are incorporated into the Ministry's plans and therefore funding is
received through the Ministry's budget allocation.

The Ministry receives about 20% of the total government budget. Of this amount
only about 45% is allocation for the operation of activities to achieve the various
annual objectives of each division. So assistance from the donor community is
always appreciated.

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4. Resource projections for EFA.

There are projections in terms of enrolments, education staff. The EFA Plan for
Samoa has made costings for the various activites. These are taken into
consideration during the budget formulation each year, or by donors at the donor
meetings. Quite a number of activities are now being funded under the PRIDE
project.

In our Policies and Strategies 1995 - 2005 we stated in the strategies the various
component projects and not the costs required. This was done after a donor was
identified.

5. Challenges for EFA achievement.

The implementation of the EFA Plan has been conducted under the coordination
of a full-time employee of the Ministry. In his capacity as the Principal Corporate
Planning Officer, he is given this task as well. However, despite the fact that he is
overworked, there is no better person to see the progress in the implementation
of the Plan.

The next challenge is the inability of the EFA Forum to meet as regularly as it
hopes due to the members having numerous other commitments.

The last challenge to the EFA achievements is the lack of funds. We can only get
so much from the local budget and there is sometimes delays in implementation
when there is no funding available.

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last updated Sat Sep 01, 2012