Building Education System Resilience in Samoa: systems, policies, and practices that foster equitable learning

Yung Nietschke^1*Anna Dabrowski^2*michelle Arasi-Mulitalo³Nora Warren³Tim Friedman¹

• ¹Australian Council for Educational Research, Camberwell, Australia
• ²The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia
• ³Ministry of Education and Culture Samoa, Apia, Samoa

The COVID-19 crisis caused unprecedented levels of disruption to education systems worldwide. Government response strategies have varied across the Pacific region, with some countries imposing prolonged school closures while others have had short, repeated lockdown periods. In Samoa, school disruptions commenced in October 2019 with the measles outbreak, where schools were closed for five weeks, and some national secondary examinations were cancelled. Experience from the measles lockdown prompted the Government of Samoa (GoS) to act quickly when the COVID-19 pandemic reached Samoa in March 2020. While studies have been conducted by GoS on access to education during the COVID-19 pandemic, there has not been any studies to examine the systematic impact on learning outcomes, student and teacher wellbeing or preparedness of the education system to respond to such disruptions. Given the potential for future health emergencies and extreme weather events, the GoS recognises the need to build greater capacity of the education system to respond to, and be resilient to, future crises. This study uses a strengths-based approach to understand adaptive teaching and learning practices in Samoa to support education system resilience. It also contributes important insights into education research in the Pacific region.