Salome Paulo’s story was published in the Sunday edition of the Samoa Observer. It is a story of a woman who wants all her children to get an education and have proper employment so they can have better lives.

Mrs. Paulo has been a street vendor all her life and she admits that this was the reason she was unable to even finish her primary school education. She spoke from her experience.

This is the future many of our child street vendors are facing. They are on the streets because if they do not then, there is no income for their families.

The number of children vending now is a thing of concern. At a very young age, they are introduced to life on the streets which is all about hustling. They face the older vendors, are subjected to violence not only from other vendors but other members of the community as well and some are even sexually targeted.

They are out on the streets instead of being in a classroom. There are families who are poor and they have to think about their next meal and on top of that education is not cheap.

There has to be forward thinking here and investing into education must be a priority. This investment has to do with ensuring our children are able to access education and things like fees and household income should not become barriers.

The Government has a big task in front of them when it comes to education and this is something members of parliament should be looking at as well, considering they have constituency funds now. Development plans should include paying of school fees for under-privileged children, improving learning facilities, providing all equipment necessary and the establishment of early childhood development centres or kindergartens.

Only 26 per cent of Samoan children are in pre-schools and that is according to the Government.

Education is a human right. And, like other human rights, it cannot be taken for granted. Across the world, 59 million children and 65 million adolescents are out of school. More than 120 million children do not complete primary education.

Behind these figures there are children and youth being denied not only a right, but opportunities: a fair chance to get a decent job, to escape poverty, to support their families, and to develop their communities. This is also a snapshot of Samoa.

Government should now seriously consider making education free. If this has not been realised then people who are supposed to be doing their work are sleeping. Like many other financial burdens imposed on a Samoan family, paying of school fees is one of them along with the family and church commitments.

The common understanding is that to ignore family and church contributions brings about great disrespect and shame on the family but not to send a child to school is accepted. This should never be the case.

There are two ways how education needs can be provided, the first is through the constituency grants and the members of parliament can start by paying school fees for all those families whose collective household income is below the poverty line. Then move on to making education free for all primary school aged children irrelative of their economic background. Private schools can still operate and charge fees and whoever can afford this, can send their children to such schools.

Or the Government can do this task on themselves. The Government can spend more on education and make all primary school education free and then move to secondary schools. While the Government may look at this as an added expense, this is in fact an investment in making a better Samoa which would have a more educated workforce, this in turn will reduce poverty, help towards nation building and produce better leaders.

The importance of knowledge and learning has been recognised since the beginning of time.  Plato wrote: “If a man neglects education, he walks lame to the end of his life.”

But it was really the Nobel winning economists that put the argument of education as investment. T.W. Schultz argued that investment in education explains growth and Gary Becker gave us the Human Capital Theory.

In a nutshell, the Human Capital Theory posits that investing in education has a payoff in terms of higher wages.  Moreover, the theory and empirical estimates are backed up by current science.

Education will take Samoa to new levels and it is only in the interest of the nation to ensure that every child is able to finish primary and secondary level of education.