Samoa’s cultural heritage and language have been the centre of attention this week with the 2023 Miss Samoa Pageant and the Teuila Festival now in full swing.

There has also been a lot of debate in recent days on the use of Samoan as the official language. A Miss Samoa contestant said in an interview with this newspaper last week that knowing the language should be a criterion for all aspiring contestants, as she was of the view that one cannot become an advocate for Samoan culture, without knowing and speaking the language.

Yesterday the Minister for Education, Sports and Culture added to the debate and appealed for a “full transition” from the English language to Samoan in schools, organisations and Government ministries.

An article (Minister calls for full transition to Samoan language) in yesterday's edition of the Samoa Observer reported on the speech by Seuula Ioane Tua’au when he officially opened the Samoan Language Week on Monday at the M.E.S.C. cultural museum in Malifa.

Seuula believes that nothing is being done today to protect and grow the Samoan language and that failure to protect it from technological evolution leaves it susceptible and by extension makes Samoan culture and heritage vulnerable.

“The Samoan language has officially been recognised as the language of the Samoan people,” said Seuula. “Many experts and theories have proven that the Samoan language was brought into Samoa back in the days by people who first settled in Samoa.

“The Samoan language is one of the main sources of life for our culture. Without our language, we cannot describe our culture. If our language fades, so is our culture and if our culture is gone too, our country will live hopelessly.

“This will also mean there will be no respect, the boundaries will be tarnished, as well as harmony between each other, and Samoa will live hopelessly without the boundary that protected us."

We accept the cultural significance of the language and its links to Samoan identity and heritage as Seuula has emphasised, and the Education Minister is correct in saying that the establishment of a Samoan Language Commission in Samoa will go a long way in ensuring the longevity and growth of the local language.

But where do Seuula’s aspirations for a full transition from the English language to Samoan sit in terms of the country’s overall economic development? What does he actually mean when he is calling for a full transition? Is he saying that English should be abandoned from being taught in all Samoan schools or used (written and oral) in local public and private sector organisations as well as Government ministries? And what is the economic rationale for a Small Island State like Samoa to fully transition to Samoan when English and not Samoan is the global language of commerce?

We are not sure whether the Education Minister got to think about the broader implications of his language policy change when he took the podium at the M.E.S.C. Cultural Museum in Malifa on Monday. 

In fact, if the Education Minister and his office had done their research, they would have come across numerous global studies that are now available online which have data showing a direct correlation between economic benefits and a country’s citizens’ use of English. According to a Harvard Business Review report, English today is spoken by some 1.75 billion people worldwide, which includes 385 million English native speakers in the U.S. and Australia. 

As an example, look at the seasonal work issue, where Samoa continues to send thousands of workers to English-speaking economies like Australia and New Zealand under the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) and Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) schemes. Talk to Samoan workers with a basic knowledge of English and they will tell you how easy it made their transition to employment and gave them confidence to get on with the job, upon their arrival in these foreign lands. 

Mind you, we don’t disagree with the Education Minister’s proposal, but any official language policy change promulgated by the current Government should be considered carefully and discussed widely due to the long-term ramifications for the nation and its citizens. 

The bottom line is young Samoans who graduate tomorrow from local colleges and universities – where Samoan is the sole medium of instruction and their English competencies in terms of its usage are no longer assessed – will not be internationally competitive and cannot rub shoulders with their peers outside Samoa’s borders who are moving with the times and become global citizens due to their high competencies in English.

As it stands, and in appreciation of the country’s 3,000-year-old culture and traditions that born the Samoan language, Seuula should task his Ministry to formulate a policy that would find a balance between maintaining Samoan while being successful economically beyond our borders with a knack for multiple languages including English.