The results for the Territorial Math Competition held last week are in, and top honors went to South Pacific Academy, Manumalo Academy, and Pacific Horizons – all private schools.

Over 185 students representing various elementary and high schools across the territory – both public and private — participated in what Director of Education Dr. Ruth Matagi-Tofiga called “a friendly competition”.

During a brief ceremony held last Friday at the ECE center in Utulei, parents, teachers, friends, and students gathered to celebrate the achievements of the territory’s best and brightest.

The Department of Education was represented by Director Dr. Ruth Matagi Tofiga, Assistant Director of DOE’s Office of Curriculum and Instruction (OCIA) Netini Sene, OCIA coordinator Sofa’i Tuato’o, and DOE Deputy Director for Support Services Dr. Philo Jennings, who offered the opening prayer.

In her remarks, Dr. Matagi-Tofiga spoke about the importance of mathematics in our daily lives. “Math is everywhere,” she said. The DOE Director expressed gratitude to the parents and teachers for “pushing the kids forward”.

She said DOE’s goal is to provide education and the end product is “the fruit of our labor”. She applauded the efforts of all students who participated in the math comp and said, “in the end, these are our kids. When they leave, we’ll know that we are sending out the best.”

The DOE director noted that there was a lack of public school representation in the awards ceremony. This year, only two public high school students made the Top Three slots in the competition (Grade 11 category), while the rest of the awards went to three private schools.

In overall school rankings, South Pacific Academy took first place, Manumalo Academy came in second, and Pacific Horizons rounded up the Top Three.

The Territorial Math Competition is an annual event that brings young people together to test their math skills. Last week’s competition was the 26th for the elementary students and 27th for the high schools.

Students who placed in the Top Three for high school and Top Five for the elementary division were each presented a trophy, certificates, a bag of full of school supplies, and other goodies.

Papalii Laulii and his wife Wanda Alofa donated all the cash awards, while gift certificates and other items were donated by National Pacific Insurance, Bluesky Communications, ASTCA, Manu’a Stores, ASPA, Neil’s ACE Home Center, Happy World, McConnell Dowell, Mrs. Park, and Shikha Sreenivasan.

The official results (Top Three for each grade level) are as follows:

GRADE 12:

1. Seol Hee Lee– South Pacific Academy

             Alice Park– Manumalo Academy

             Ji Hyun Oh– South Pacific Academy

GRADE 11:

1. Taeyeon Bae– Manumalo Academy

             Gayathri Murali  and Timothy Guyapa- South Pacific Academy (TIED)

             Isek Kuki- Tafuna High School and Karlinna Sanchez- Samoana High School (TIED)

GRADE 10:

1. Aitulagi Alofa- Manumalo Academy and Heyao Yang- South Pacific Academy (TIED)

             Dio Feng- South Pacific Academy

             Talalelei Auva’a- Manumalo Acadmemy

GRADE 9:

1. Philip Liang- Manumalo Academy

             Evelini Suani- Manumalo Academy

             Michelle Lo- Pacific Horizons

REACTION FROM EDUCATION REFORM TASK FORCE CHAIRMAN

The poor showing by public high school students in the math competition was noticed by DOE Director Dr. Ruth Matagi Tofiga and OCIA Assistant Director Netini Sene – both touched on the subject briefly during Friday’s awards ceremony.

Samoa News sought a reaction from Utu Abe Malae, the chairman of the Task Force on the Future of Education in American Samoa, an organization established by Executive Order earlier this year in January.

“We need big time improvements in the public schools in all areas, including the assignment of homework by teachers,” Utu said in response to Samoa News inquiries over the weekend. Utu called the Education Reform Task Force ‘a huge undertaking’.

When asked about the results of the recent math competition, Utu replied, “Yes, that is a disappointment and is one of the reasons why the Task Force was established — Why the poor results and how to improve outcomes,”

According to Utu, the Task Force is currently “researching and preparing a proposal to organize public education under a different model from the present one, a model that will produce better outcomes; emphasizing vocational education and training, as opposed to the ‘everyone must go to college’ goal, which is unrealistic.”

An example of something that can be enforced immediately by all school principals and teachers, Utu said, is “assign homework to pupils, grade them, and return to pupils in a timely manner. Just do that one thing for now! From our preliminary findings, assigning homework is the normal practice in the private schools; it is done haphazardly in the public schools.”

Utu has already visited the Manumalo Academy campus, sitting in during an English class, and he plans to visit Samoana High School this week. Utu said he is interested in the teaching of English and STEM (Science Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) classes.

Utu concluded, “Obviously, we have a lot of work to do.”

Along with Utu, other members of the Education Reform Task Force are Taimalelagi Dr. Claire Tuia Poumele, Dr. Ruth Matagi-Tofiga, Dr. Mikaele Etuale, Vaitinasa Dr. Salu Hunkin-Finau, Talauega Eleasalo Ale, and Steve Watson.