Faleata College celebrated the end of the academic year 2022 with an awards ceremony on Thursday for the school's high achieving students.

The school also achieved a milestone by having an 85 per cent pass rate in the National Exams. Family and friends were there to witness the prize giving and graduation of 60 Faleata College Year 13 students.

The school's dux for 2022 award went to 18-year-old Aiga Naseri of the village of Aleisa, who expressed surprise at getting the top prize.

"I'd like to give thanks to our heavenly father because without him nothing would have been possible. I did not expect to get the dux prize," she said.

"It was a difficult year, a journey full of struggles but I made it because I had my faith in God who makes the impossible possible."

To have finally achieved a long-time-goal is a dream come true for Aiga as she attributed her achievement to her parents who put her through school despite the difficult times. 

She said she is excited at what lies ahead, in terms of the next step in life, and indicated that she aspires to become a teacher and help the future generation.

Faleata College Principal, Fiauivaa Iosefa Pua said the school had started well in the beginning of the year, but with the COVID-19 lockdown, they had to make changes to their lessons for the students.

"We have had so many hurdles this year but the school had prepared well to overcome them and accommodate the learning of our students," he said.

"A lot of the student families can't afford the tools to accommodate for online learning like a PC so we prepared some homework and learning material for them to pick up from school and have them do it at home.

"We were extremely happy to see that everything worked out well up to when they came back to school for face to face learning.

"Our long-term vision is to create an outstanding image for the school so that it will be numbered as one of the best colleges for you to take you children."

Mr Pua said he knew Faleata College is usually not the first choice for a lot of young people. But he and his staff are hard working and hope to make big changes so the perception people have of the school changes. – he said he wanted the students' results to speak for themselves. 

The results from Samoa's nationals exams showed that the school's pass rate has increased exponentially over the years from 30 per cent in 2019 to 85 per cent this year.

"We want to do better and achieve a higher passing rate for this school, and we thank God for this achievement so far which is the result of all the hard work put in by the teachers, students and families," said Mr. Pua.