Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — A new supply of over 14,000 electronic devices is expected to arrive on island next month to help with schools that don’t have enough devices for their students to use for their online classes.

This was the explanation made by the Department of Education (DOE) director, Talauega Dr. Samasoni Asaeli when he appeared before the House Education committee this week to answers faipule’ questions about the online classes and the problem of not enough devices for some schools.

The hearing was chaired by committee chairman, Rep. Manavaalofa Tutuila Manase and lasted almost two hours.

In response to faipule’ questions, Talauega said that there are schools that don’t have enough devices for their students and the new shipment which is scheduled to arrived next month will solve this problem.

It’s been 5 weeks now since DOE switched their classrooms to a virtual learning plan due to the community spread of COVID-19. Every week, the DOE main office receives weekly summary reports from principals and division heads on how the students are doing with online study.

DOE faced many challenges when the virtual learning program resumed last month and some of these difficulties included not only a shortage of devices, but also a lack of support from some parents.

About 14,000 devices are expected to arrive on island next month and according to Talauega, this will solve the problem of not enough devices for student in both public and private schools. The delay was due to vendor shortages and also the procurement process.

Tualauta Representative Larry Sanitoa asked about rumors that there are plans to reopen schools later this month and wanted to know where DOE stands in this matter.

Talauega made it clear that there is no plan to fully reopen schools, however, there is plan to allow senior class students back in school sometime this month or next.

The DOE director explained that there are activities for which Level 12 students need to be in class in order for them to get full credit to graduate. He also told members of the committee that a recommendation was submitted to the Task Force last week and it’s now under review.

“My role is to put together a solid plan for students’ education and whatever happens in the near future or when the pandemic is getting worse, at least DOE has a plan in place to make sure our children will be able to continue on with their online study.

He further explained that there is also a plan in place for the high schools with large number of seniors — such as Tafuna High School — to have half of the senior students attend school on Monday, while the other half comes in on Tuesday.

The idea is to control the issue of too many students on campus at one time.

Sanitoa commended the DOE director for the plan to protect the safety of our children while at the same time finding ways to accommodate the needs for seniors to catch up with things they need to accomplish before graduation.

His main concern is for the safety of both teachers and students. Sanitoa said if more teachers test positive, then student learning would also be affected.

One of the difficulties some parents and teachers are facing is the internet connection in some areas and the lack of data time.

Sanitoa said that there are teachers who told him about bad internet service and being unable to connect with their online classes. And some parents are asking for more data gigabytes for their children so that they can work from home.

Talauega explained that 11,000 Mifis (a small portable router that acts as a mobile hotspot) were distributed to public and private schools for students to use for their online classes. Ten thousand (10,000) was from Bluesky, while 1,000 came from ASTCA. DOE provided 60 gigabytes to each Mifi that a student can use each month.

For some students, it only took them two days to use up their data before it ran out. According to Talauega, it appears that some students are not using the data for their online classes, instead they’re using it to watch movies or other stuff online, or the whole family is using the data.

These are some of the challenges Talauega explained that DOE is working on.

Manu’a #1 Faipule Alumamalu Filoiali’i Ale was concerned with the misuse of the devices by some students and wanted to know who is liable if some of these students use this opportunity to visit adult sites during their online classes or any time of the day.

Alumamalu said things are different now from twenty years ago. The technology is much faster these days and our children are so quick to learn how to use different types of electronic devices.

Students now have the chance to access anything on these devices with free data and DOE must be very cautious because this could cause a big problem for our young children.

(Samoa News should point out that a father was arrested last month for abusing his 11-year-daughter after he discovered that his daughter visited some  adult sites. The father told police he came home from work and was checking on his daughter’s school activity on her laptop and was shocked when he discovered that his daughter visited some of the adults sites. He then beat her with a broom handle, causing a cut on her eye.)

Vice Speaker of the House, Fetu Fetui Jr wanted to know if schools in Manu’a would reopen. He stated that Manu’a is COVID-free and students should return to school.

Talauega responded that the Task Force is now considering this, and that schools in Manu’a should reopen this week.