With all schools in Samoa closed, a number of primary school students have already switched to remote learning platforms such as television, in order to be kept up to date with their lessons.

The 2022 academic year was scheduled to get underway on Monday 31 January 2022. But a Government-declared lockdown and its elevation of its COVID-19 alert levels to Level 3 on 22 January – following the detection of 15 positive COVID-19 cases at that time – threw the spanner in the works for all students. 

Last Friday the Government lifted the lockdown and downgraded its alert level to Level 2, but directed that all educational institutions in the country including early learning education, primary and secondary schools and colleges, as well as universities and technical learning centres remain close. 

A day later the Ministry of Education Sports and Culture (M.E.S.C.) issued a public notice for the new changes that all schools are to adhere to for the next two weeks. 

The public notice, which was signed by the M.E.S.C. Chief Executive Officer Afamasaga Dr. Karoline Afamasaga-Fuata’i, advised of new changes to the academic year's schedule in accordance with the revised State of Emergency (S.O.E.) Orders No. 65 for COVID-19.

“All mission, private and government schools will remain closed until further notice or provision provided under S.O.E. Orders,” read the notice.

“All principals and teachers (Government, mission and private) are to report to schools on the 31st January to prepare lessons and school learning packages for students to be distributed in accordance with S.O.E. Orders.”

For two weeks, principals, teachers and parents (no more than 30) at school sites are to comply with public health conditions. These include mandatory wearing of facial masks; mandatory showing of vaccination cards; social distancing; and hygiene and hand wash requirements.

The Ministry will also make available programmes on television, radio and online for Weeks 1 and Week 2 for student learning in early childhood education, primary and secondary levels.

All parents are to check with school principals and teachers for more information on school-based home learning packages.

An elderly mother, who was take care of her grandchildren, told the Samoa Observer that she supports this new initiative taken by the Ministry.

Sixty-year-old Rula Tumua of Maagiagi said her grandchildren are learning through televised programmes and one of the advantages of learning at home is that it guarantees the safety of the children and reduces the risk of infection. 

“The lessons are useful because it gives the children a chance to make use of their time at home instead of not learning from not attending school,” she said.

She said her grandchildren’s parents also went to their children's school to pick up lessons for them and she hopes they will help with their children's lesson plans.