The Samoa Qualifications Authority has asked all post-school education training (P.S.E.T.) providers to close immediately.

The Authority gave the directive to the institutions in a notice, stating that they had to comply with the Samoa government’s state of emergency, which was declared last Friday in response to the measles epidemic.

"In response to the Order of State of Emergency release by Government, the Samoa Qualification hereby wishes to inform all parents, principals and students that all P.S.E.T. providers should be closed as from the 20th November 2019 until further notice," the notice reads.

The S.Q.A. Acting Chief Executive Officer, Matautia Taua Taioalo, said the notice is to ensure that all service providers complied. 

"We just wanted to make sure that in response to the note from the Government with the Emergency state, that's why that notice was issued," he said.

The notice was not issued because a P.S.E.T. provider was still operational, he added.

The Don Bosco Technical Centre at Alafua and other educational institutions started turning away students from Monday morning. There are a total of 27 P.S.E.T. providers in Samoa according to the S.Q.A. website.

The growing measles epidemic has led to an increasing number of cancellations all over the country, due to the government’s statement of emergency orders restricting public gatherings, in a bid to prevent the spread of the disease.

The government’s crackdown on public gatherings also affected the awareness programme of the Office of Electoral Commission (O.E.C.), which was scheduled to start from November 19. The cancellations affected its work in the following districts: Alataua sisifo, Salega 1, Salega 2, Palauli 1, Palauli 2, Satupaitea and Palauli 3.

The Commission put out a notice earlier in the week advising the public that the cancellation was made for the safety of everyone and to prevent the spread of measles. The public will be advised of new awareness dates. 

The aim of the awareness programme was to promote electoral legislation, registration of those who are now eligible to vote, as well as changing the register of votes in Savai’i.

This was supposed to be the fourth week of the Commission’s awareness programme with collaboration funding provided by the Women in Leadership Project.