Unless there is a great number of last minute resignations by teachers, Education Department director Vaitinasa Dr. Salu Hunkin-Finau said ASDOE “is ready to go” to open the new school year, with the help of 22 volunteer teachers from the U.S. and 11 teachers from Samoa, whose bachelor’s degrees from the National University of Samoa (NUS) are up to par with US accreditation.

According to the director, all school principals will be reporting to work by Aug. 17 and teachers are required to report to work on Aug. 24— which is also the day of the Back-to-School assembly at Tafuna High School to officially open the new school year.

After the assembly, teachers will report to their respective schools to get things ready for classes, which begin on Thursday, Aug. 27, when students are to report to all public schools, including ECE, elementary, and secondary.

Asked why students are starting classes towards the end of the week, Vaitinasa said that usually the first two days at school are for “settling down of students” — their schedules, their classrooms, their materials, etc.

SAMOA TEACHERS

There was much controversy surrounding ASDOE’s delegation that traveled to Samoa last year to recruit teachers from the independent state, and some local residents, including lawmaker, were opposed to hiring teachers from Samoa.

During a news conference Monday to discuss several ASDOE issues, including preparation for the new school year, Vaitinasa told reporters that the eleven teachers who were hired from Samoa are doing very well.

She said these teachers are on the second year of their two-year contract, and “if they want to stay on, and their evaluations show that they have performed to our standards, they will stay.”

These teachers “not only performed quite well... their degrees from NUS are being accepted at equal level with a US standard degree. So that’s very nice… and I’m looking at NUS to help our needs here,” she said.

According to the ASDOE director, transcripts for those teachers were sent to a center in the U.S. that evaluates all foreign degrees and compares them with U.S accredited degrees.  “And I’m happy to announce that the NUS bachelor of education degree is on par with a US accredited bachelor of education.”

“So as a consequence, they are now with the governor’s threshold salary,” Vaitinasa said, referring to the governor’s salary threshold in which teachers with a Bachelors degree are to receive $23,000 per year, and Masters degree holders $27,000 annually. Prior to that, the teachers from Samoa were paid in accordance with their credentials and qualification.

She noted all teachers recruited from Samoa are required to take the Praxis test, just like the teachers on contract from India and the Philippines, whose college credentials are also sent off to the U.S. for verification.

Teachers from Samoa “are happy and we’re happy,” said the director, who reiterated, “if the teacher wants to stay to help us, we need their help, and if they perform based on our expectations, there is no reason for us not to rehire them.”

VOLUNTEER TEACHERS

Vaitinasa said that this year ASDOE has also taken on board 22 volunteer teachers from the Boston based WorldTeach organization. She attended a meeting recently of World Teach where she requested 35 teachers.

“We depend heavily on World Teach volunteers and this year we have 22 teachers which is still a large number of teachers,” she said, adding that orientation sessions for the volunteer teachers began Monday and she attended one of the sessions. “They look very happy, very interested and ready to go,” she reported.

Some of the WorldTeach teachers will be assigned to Manu’a while the rest will be on Tutuila. Vaitinasa noted that the volunteer teachers are here on a one-year contract.

“And this is a blessing to us because we cannot afford experienced teachers from the mainland,” she said. “We requested teachers in three areas: math, science and English—the core subjects —and a lot of them are placed in high schools to help with those core content areas.”

OTHER ISSUES

Every year, there are always many complaints from parents, the community and lawmakers about the shortage of public school teachers.

Asked if ASDOE has enough teachers for the new school year, Vaitinasa first pointed out that, looking at the data and trends, it seems like teachers, and staff wait until summer time and then they resign. “If someone comes in and tenders a resignation, there is no legal basis for me to hold them,” she said. “So if 15 or 20 teachers resign, I have to quickly advertise those positions.”

“I am happy to announce this year, that all of our secondary schools are fully staffed in terms of positions being filled. Elementary, we pretty much have them filled except for a few positions,” she said.

And so— if there are no last minute resignations— “we’re good to go” with the help of WorldTeach teachers,” she said. But if there a large number of last minute resignations, “I quickly have to fill those position, which will be on emergency hire,” she said.

Vaitinasa explained that most of the teachers are paid with local funds and only a few are paid out of the federal Consolidated Grant. “Those paid out of Consolidated Grant have to meet what is called ‘highly qualified teacher’ criteria, which means a bachelor’s degree in education, [and] they must pass the Praxis test,” she said.

Samoa News will report on other issues covered in the ASDOE news conference in future editions.