The majority of secondary school students in Samoa will have access to fee-free education under a new programme funded by the Governments of Samoa and New Zealand, Prime Minister John Key announced today.
“Investing in the future of Samoa’s young people is of utmost importance to both Prime Minister Tuilaepa and me. We have agreed to build on the successful primary school fee grants programme, and make secondary school education more widely accessible to Samoan students,” says Mr Key.
Mr Key is leading a Parliamentary delegation to Samoa to mark the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Friendship between the two countries.
“Today’s agreement on secondary school education reaffirms New Zealand’s commitment to our strong relationship with Samoa, as we look forward to another 50 years of friendship and cooperation,” says Mr Key.
“Details on the programme’s design are being finalised, but I can confirm there will be funding of NZD$5 million over five years. These costs will be gradually transitioned to the Samoan Government over this time.
“The new programme means students’ education will not be cut short because of hard-to-meet school fees. It will also give schools the opportunity to invest in more and better learning materials for teachers and students.”
The programme will encompass fee-free education for students in years 9 to 11 at state secondary schools, with equivalent contributions to fees at Mission secondary schools. It builds on Samoa’s primary school fee grants scheme, which is supported by New Zealand and Australia.
While in Samoa, Mr Key will attend a State luncheon at the Robert Louis Stevenson Museum, where the Treaty of Friendship was signed in 1962. He will also open the new Poutasi Memorial Community Hall, and meet New Zealand Defence Force staff running health clinics in the Poutasi area as part of Exercise Tropic Twilight.
Mr Key returns to New Zealand tomorrow.
My great grandfather William Blacklock, as US Consulate of War, was great friends with Robert Louis Stevenson, but more importantly he married Apele Tietie Atoa & because of that I am here. It is both gratifying to know of New Zealand’s support for Samoan youth to be educated & disconcerting that when the foreigners came to the islands they would charge fees to educate the children in their fashion when they were on Samoan soil. Education is a right, not a privilege. The foreigners have benefited greatly in a myriad of ways since their arrival off their involvement with the Pacific; more the pity that education hasn’t already been free. I remember my grandfather’s stories of what Samoa was before the foreigners fought over it; I have his tapas, his photos – he was born in 1888, his father’s & mother’s letters of an independent nation before Navies & gunpowder & printed money. How odd my great grandfather was one of those foreigners & now I, too, am foreign, but aiga, having been raised on the East Coast of Turtle Island. I have begun a family chart of the schools & universities my Atoa-Tugaga family members have graduated from. I am very proud of the courage, beauty, faith, and brains of my Samoan family! Anything is possible once we set our minds & hearts to it! Talofas all!