Historically, education in Samoa was coordinated with the Secretariat of the Pacific Board of Educational Assessment (SPBEA), a pan-national authority providing quality assurance and external examinations, including the South Pacific Form Seven Certificate (SPFSC) and the Pacific Senior Secondary Certificate (PSSC), sometimes known as the Pacific Senior School Certificate. The PSSC was offered after year 13 in Samoa, but after year 12 in other countries in the South Pacific.
In 2013, Samoa introduced their own secondary school leaving examinations after years 12 and 13. This blog post is about the primary and secondary system prior to 2013, however.
Primary education began at age 5 and lasts from grades 1 to 8 in Samoa. It included two national assessments, the Samoa Primary Education Literacy Level (SPELL) for English, Samoan, and Numeracy in years 4 and 6. At the end of year 8, students sat for the year 8 National Examination.
This assessment led to the Year 8 Certificate, which represented the end of compulsory education.
Secondary education lasted for three to five years. Upon completion of junior secondary in year 11, students sat for a leaving examination and were awarded the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) by the Ministry of Education, Sports and Culture. This was previously known as the Western Samoa School Certificate (WSSC) until 1997, when it was awarded by the Department of Education of Western Samoa.
After completing a further two years of upper secondary or pre-university education, which were known as Form 6 and Form 7, respectively, students sat for the South Pacific Form Seven Certificate (SPFSC). Some subjects on the SPFSC could also be taken at the end of Form 6. Required subjects included English, Samoan, science, and mathematics.
University education in Samoa required the completion of the South Pacific Form Seven Certificate or a Foundation Certificate at a university prior to enrolling in a 3-year Bachelor’s degree or a 4-year Bachelor with Honours.
Alternately, students in Samoa could sit for the Pacific Senior Secondary Certificate (PSSC) upon completion of Form 6.
Students who took the Pacific Senior Secondary Certificate were required to sit for a minimum of one subject and a maximum of six. The PSSC was established in 1980 to serve countries in the Pacific including Fiji, Kiribati, Marshal Islands, Nauru, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvala, and Vanuatu. The exam was administered by the South Pacific Board for Educational Assessment (SPBEA), now known as the Educational Quality and Assessment Programme (EQAP). The PSSC was offered in Samoa until 2013 when it was replaced by the Samoa Secondary Leaving Certificate (SSLC).
Samples of the PSSC are shown above. The sample on the left shows the standard format as issued by the South Pacific Board for Educational Assessment. The sample on the right is a reissued PSSC provided directly to our institution by the Samoan Ministry of Education and Culture, whose facilities are shown in the photograph behind the samples.
In Samoa, the PSSC granted access to Post-School Eduation and Training at registered training providers or further education in Certificate or Diploma programs, Foundation Certificates, and University Preparatory Year (UPY) programs.
The PSSC is scored on a grading scale from 1 to 9 where 1 is the highest and 9 the lowest. Universities typically required students to pass a minimum of five subjects with an average of 5 or 6 for admissions to the pre-university preparatory year, but the PSSC also granted access to post-secondary technical or teacher training programs.
The Pacific Senior Secondary Certificate did not grant direct access to university Bachelor degree programs. Admissions to Bachelor degree programs required completion of a the South Pacific Form Seven Certificate, a University Preparatory Year program, or a Foundation Year at a university after the PSSC.
Resources:
Education for All: Mid-Decade Assessment Report. Ministry of Education, Sports & Culture, Samoa 2007. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000221800
Educational Quality and Assessment Programme: https://eqap.spc.int/spfsc-home-schools and https://eqap.spc.int/spfsc
Examination Systems in Small States: Comparative Perspectives on Policies, Models and Operations. Commonwealth Secretariat Workshop, 1996. https://www.thecommonwealth-ilibrary.org/index.php/comsec/catalog/book/457
Exploring the Pacific Islands: Credentail Evaluation Daydreams. TAICEP 2021 Presentation. https://www.taicep.org/taiceporgwp/
Ministry of Education, Sports, and Culture: https://www.mesc.gov.ws/?option=com_content&view=article&id=82&Itemid=205 and https://www.mesc.gov.ws/education/ and https://www.mesc.gov.ws/secondary-education/ and https://www.mesc.gov.ws/education/school-year-calendar-2/ and https://web.archive.org/web/20120308040147/http://www.mesc.gov.ws/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=83&Itemid=124 and https://web.archive.org/web/20120308040142/http://www.mesc.gov.ws/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=59&Itemid=137 and https://web.archive.org/web/20120304115325/http://www.mesc.gov.ws/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=86&Itemid=128
Pacific Register for Qualifications and Standards. https://prqs.spc.int/Docs/CountryProfiles/CP_Samoa.pdf
Samoa Education Act 2009. https://www.mesc.gov.ws/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Education-Act-2009.pdf
South Pacific Board for Educational Assessment: https://web.archive.org/web/20130419043049/http://www.spbea.org.fj/Our-Work/SSSQ/PSSSC.aspx
Strategic Policies and Plan: July 2006-June 2015. Ministry of Education, Sports and Culture. http://www.mesc.gov.ws/pdf/spp_web.pdf