An educational programme established by a Samoan teacher to teach in American Samoa to gain knowledge in methods to assist children with literacy was praised by some of the Members of Parliament on Friday.

The matter was first raised by Member of Parliament for Falealili No.1 Toelupe Poumulinuku Onesemo while commenting on the Social Sector Committee Report on the Ministry of Education and Culture. He said the partnership programme contributed a lot to the future of the children of Samoa in terms of helping our teachers.

The programme offers opportunities for most of the teachers at primary levels to be trained by the Church of Scientology from the United States of America on methods to improve literacy and numeracy in Samoa.

Opposition leader, Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi echoed the same reaction in Parliament on Friday saying that there is no problem with what scientologists believe as they were Christian beliefs.

Tuilaepa said what was more important was the fact that the opportunities offered by them were important to improve ways to help the children of Samoa in terms of reading.

He reiterated when they were the caretaker government, this was a huge problem in Samoa. He said a lot of students at the primary levels do not know how to read.

Tuilaepa believes that this is something the Ministry of Education and Culture should keep on looking at and find ways to improve it.

He acknowledged the help of the Church of Scientology in helping with programmes to assist the ministry and the teachers to improve literacy and numeracy in Samoa.

Scientology is a set of beliefs and practices invented by the American author L. Ron Hubbard, and an associated movement. It is variously defined as a cult, a business, a religion, or a scam.^[11] Hubbard initially developed a set of ideas that he called Dianetics, which he represented as a form of therapy. An organization that he established in 1950 to promote it went bankrupt, and Hubbard lost the rights to his book Dianetics in 1952. He then recharacterized his ideas as a religion, likely for tax purposes, and renamed them Scientology.^[7][12][13] By 1954, he had regained the rights to Dianetics and founded the Church of Scientology, which remains the largest organization promoting Scientology. There are practitioners independent of the Church, in what is referred to as the Free Zone. Estimates put the number of Scientologists at under 40,000 worldwide.

Scientology is a set of beliefs and practices invented by the American author L. Ron Hubbard, and an associated movement. It is variously defined as a cult, a business, a religion, or a scam.

Hubbard initially developed a set of ideas that he called Dianetics, which he represented as a form of therapy. An organisation that he established in 1950 to promote it went bankrupt, and Hubbard lost the rights to his book Dianetics in 1952.

He then recharacterised his ideas as a religion, likely for tax purposes, and renamed them Scientology.

By 1954, he had regained the rights to Dianetics and founded the Church of Scientology, which remains the largest organisation promoting Scientology. There are practitioners independent of the Church, in what is referred to as the Free Zone. Estimates put the number of Scientologists at under 40,000 worldwide.