It is a crime to deny students their exam results and an even bigger crime for the Ministry of Education and Culture to charge exam fees, something that should be free.

Education has been toted as the way ahead, the way to build the nation and move it towards prosperity but the sad fact that every parent and child faces is that education is not as easily accessible as it is made to be. On average each secondary school or college student pays $500 or more each term in just school fees.

There is an additional $500 (a rough estimate) each child needs for uniforms, bags, books and shoes. Then there is the cost of transportation, lunch and money for other extracurricular activities. In general, sending a child to school is not a cheap exercise. Then there is the dilemma of children having to pay for exam fees.

Currently, there are more than 600 students in Samoa unable to access their Samoa Secondary Leaving Certificate (S.S.L.C.) national examination results due to unpaid exam fees.

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) A'eau Chris Hazelmen is concerned because it impacts students’ ability to enrol at the National University of Samoa.

A total of 4,178 students were registered to sit for the SSLC national exam across 41 secondary schools in Samoa. Of these, 3,937 sat the examination, but 696 students failed to receive their results due to unpaid fees.

Meanwhile, 655 Year 10 students who sat the national exam also had their results withheld for the same reason. The MEC claimed it had given ample time for students and schools to pay the examination fees, with a clear deadline set.

However, A'eau revealed that despite extensions, over 40 per cent of students had still not paid by the final deadline.

Last week, Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mataafa in her parliamentary address told parliamentarians to focus on education. A week later we learn that some students who could be very capable are not getting access to university because they cannot afford to pay their exam fees.

This is when we ask the parliamentarians and the district councils if they used the $1 million a year grant on education. If they have not, this is the time they should use the funds to pay off the exam fees to ensure that the students can further their education.

This is why the government needs to make education free. This will lift the burden on many families whose biggest expense aside from the faalavelave is education and ensure that more children can get educated. The importance of an educated population cannot be stressed enough.

Maybe it would be better to scrap the district development grants and redirect the $51 million annually towards paying school fees and increasing teachers’ salaries.

It is also interesting the education ministry received requests from Samoan expatriates seeking to send money directly to cover their children's exam fees. The diaspora has always come to the aid of those in need but the exam fees should not exist in the first place.

Then there are cases of families reportedly misusing funds intended for exam fees. Relatives overseas are sending money for children's fees, but it ends up being used for other purposes. It is shameful that people would use the dire situation of their children to scam money from relatives overseas and then let their children suffer.

Make education free and accessible but before that scrap the examination fees.