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Education Summit begins today

Governor Lolo Matalasi Moliga believes that educating the children of American Samoa must not be left solely to the Department of Education, rather is everyone’s business and that’s the motive behind the three day Education Summit, hosted by the Governor’s Office.

 

The Governor’s Executive Assistant, Iulogologo Joseph Pereira in response to Samoa News queries stated that Governor Lolo called this education summit to bring all of the education stakeholders together to address alarming student performance statistics citing 70% of our students performing below the national average and 80% to 90% of our high school graduates must take remedial courses at the American Samoa Community College before they can take college level courses.

 

“Governor Lolo M. Moliga firmly believes that the business of educating the children of American Samoa must not be left solely to the Department of Education but a responsibility which must be shouldered by the legislature, parents, businesses, community/villages, religious leaders and organizations, and everyone else; coining the phrase "it takes the entire village to educate a child".

 

This three day summit will kick off today at Governor Rex Lee Auditorium where Head of State his highness Tui Atua Tupua Tamasese Efi will give the keynote address and a panel of questions and answers will follow. Among the issues discussed in this summit are language and education, history of education in the territory, college readiness plan, and parents and community participation in education.

 

Iu told Samoa News that studies have proven the direct correlation between education and success. “It is more so in today's world where technology is the basic requirement in all jobs and employment opportunities.

 

“Being a natural resource poor island economy, we must depend on the intellectual capacity of our people and future generations to attract investments in the types of businesses that pay above the minimum wage and which provide jobs that are appealing to our younger generation.

 

“Our socio-economic development success is therefore intrinsically tied to the intellectual capacity of our people, our children, and future generations,” he said.  

 

The Governor hopes that this Education Summit will generate recommendations on the direction the Territory's educational system should take to ensure that our Territory will grow economically and socially, along with guaranteeing the provision of choices and success, through education, to our children and future generations in whatever endeavors they wish to pursue.

 

Once our educational direction/vision is set, the required supporting infrastructure will naturally evolve.

 

The Executive Director of this summit is Mikaele Eutale,and full details of this event are printed in Samoa News.