A total of 1015 students out of 1752 students that sat the Samoa Secondary Leaving Certificate (SSLC) last year made it into the National University of Samoa’s (NUS) Foundation programme.  

This was confirmed by the Chief Executive Officer for the Ministry of Education, Sports and Culture (MESC), Dr. Karoline Afamasaga-Fuata’i.

She said a total of 1752 students sat the exams last year in which 18 subjects were tested. The educational institutions included 23 government-run colleges, 16 million and two private colleges.

“In the different subjects, the trend of students sitting SSLC from 2016 there were 1823 students, in 2017 there were 1910 in 2018 1752 so there is a drop in the number of students sitting SSLC in the last three years."

“Noting the numbers, the percent will make a difference, those who are eligible according to the 200 cut off from English plus best three subjects.  This year is 1015 that’s strictly by the total which is equivalent to 57.7 per cent, it’s a drop in the percentage compared to 63.7 per cent last year which was 1218 in numbers,” she added. 

Dr. Karoline said for the NUS Technical and Vocational Training Programme (TVET), 659 out of 1752 students made it.

“There is an improvement with Mathematics by 2 per cent compared to last year which is 1 per cent. The English has dropped by 5 per cent, Gagana Samoa has dropped by 1 per cent, and Chemistry has improved by 7 per cent."

“Physics has dropped by 10 percent, Biology has improved by 20 per cent, Visual Arts has improved by 4 per cent and Design and technology has the highest improvement from 3 to 31 per cent."

“Agriculture Science has dropped by 6 per cent, and Music by 5 per cent, Computer studies has improved by 6 per cent. Accounting has dropped by 14 per cent, Development studies has gone with two years of a 100 per cent constant success. Geography dropped by 3 per cent. History has improved by 17 per cent.”

According to the Ministry of Education, the results of School Certificate (SC) were released yesterday to colleges and can be uplifted from schools.