Alarm bells are ringing and those who cannot hear it are still in denial about the literacy rate in Samoa and the need to overhaul the whole education system including curriculum and student teacher programs.

It is indeed worrying that only 33.5 per cent of students who sat for the Proficiency in English Language Test (PELT) at the National University of Samoa (N.U.S.) have actually passed.

This alone raises a lot of question on how these students are passing examinations when majority of the papers are in English, is the system rigged to pass students and hide the failure of the teachers, what is the proficiency of the teachers that they are not able to teach in English from primary school level and what type of products are being released into the workforce?

An article published in the Samoa Observer on 15 February 2022, noted N.U.S. academics have released alarming data showing failure rates of up to 60 per cent among Foundation students in English language skills.

“The latest statistics on the failure rate among the university's Foundation students were revealed in a paper that was presented by senior N.U.S. lecturers during the 2023 Teachers Conference convened last month,” the article said.

“According to the data presented last month by the university's senior lecturers, Professor Silafau Dr. Sina Vaai and Diana Betham-Scanlan, the failure rate for PELT in 2022 dropped to its lowest rate of 66.5 per cent compared to the 2021 results when 59.3 per cent was recorded for entry-level students.

“This means the PELT 2022 pass rate stood at 33.5 per cent, compared to 40.7 per cent recorded the previous year (2021), which showed a 7 per cent drop in the students’ performance for that period.”

To make things clearer, this is not an attempt to say that our mother language should not be used. We have Samoan language as a subject in schools for that, we speak Samoan at home and in our churches. There is no way we will be losing our language if emphasis is given on teaching subjects in English.

Try speaking to a primary school student over the age of 10-years in English and you will get an idea of how good of a job the teachers are doing. From the experience we have had at the Samoa Observer, the journalism graduates from N.U.S. who have come for attachment cannot string a sentence of English together.

We have wondered what could be the reason for this and this study just proves what we had been experiencing.

How are the students passing their examinations? It seems that most teachers are trying to keep a good track record and keep passing their students to show a good pass rate, this even brings up the question on how well versed these teachers are with the English language themselves.

The Ministry of Education, Sports and Culture have a big task ahead of them. They seriously need to set policies which will allow for the use of English in most subjects. It is understandable that Samoan is used in early education or even Year One to help students understand but the pathway must be such that by Year Three, English becomes the language in which all subjects must be taught in.

This will ensure that the students progressing higher education have the proficiency in English. This also indicates that most study programs at the N.U.S. are being taught in Samoan because students are unable to understand English.

In an earlier article, a counsellor said the programs offered by APTC were too complex and she had to help students with their courses. Mind you, APTC’s curriculum remains the same across all countries in the Pacific and it is in English. Is that the reason why the students are finding it complex because it is in English or is it because the people who are supposed to teach them these things in high school opted not to because they too were not clear on what they should have been teaching because the instructions are in English.

If we are to assume that the teachers themselves are not understanding the curriculum, they are being selective on what should be taught in different subjects apart from English and then this would mean that the education our children are supposed to be getting is not being delivered to them.

The Ministry responsible needs to seriously look at this issue and immediately make plans on how this can be addressed because the problem is just not limited to proficiency in English but the way the whole curriculum is being administered in our schools. Children are the future and right now the future is not being properly armed to understand school work, how will they understand the world and get ready to take on the reins of this country.

We have to remember that the world we are living in is connected and things are happening at a global and regional level which we need people to understand. How do we expect them to understand what is happening when we are not delivering the targets in education?

This is an urgent issue and it requires urgent attention.