Schools Satellite WIFI project completed for 95% of schools in Savaii

By Talaia Mika

APIA, SAMOA – 12 OCTOBER 2022: The Satellite fed WIFI project has completed installation and online internet connectivity to forty-two schools on Savaii which is 95% of schools on Samoa’s largest island.

The government’s WIFI community project is delivered by the local company, Bluewave Wireless and aims to initially connect 42 schools in Savaii and 78 schools mainly in remote locations in Upolu and Manono and Apolima Island.

Bluewave Wireless’ Chief Operations Officer, Togisala Tony Leota said school principals and staff of each school have provided overwhelming feedback on the convenience of their newly connected internet services which they say will vastly improve their connections with the Ministry of Education now and in the future.

“We’ve got some great feedback from the teachers and principals utilizing the internet connectivity project that now enable them to connect with the Ministry and to access online education programmes other than general communications,” said Togisala.

The students are now able to use and access the internet for their researches and studies under the supervision of teachers. High on the projects objective was the students’ online protection and safety from accessing improper sites.

According to Togisala, the project was completed within two and a half months which is earlier than the estimated project time frame.

“Within those two and a half months, we had to do double work by removing satellite dishes and equipment from the church ministers’ houses and installed them at the schools so that’s double work,” he added.

These satellite dishes and equipment were first installed at the schools, then moved to the church ministers residences and they are back again at the schools due to political interference.

The Schools WIFI Project was initiated by the FAST Party for schools in Savaii in 2020 but was stopped by the government due to its political sensitivity. The company installing the satellites was put through a lot of scrutiny and threats to remove its licence by the Office of the Regulator.

However, the project proved the fact about the failure of the former Governments’ multi-million tala Schools internet connectivity project due to the lack of internet access in the Savaii schools and colleges.

When the government pressured to remove the equipment from the schools, the satellites and equipment were then removed and installed on the church ministers’ residences. But threats from the Regulators Office stopped the project until the FAST government came to power and awarded the contract to Bluewave Wireless to complete it.

Since last week, the Bluewave Wireless team have started connecting schools in Upolu and have already connected the two Primary Schools on Manono Island before they are officially launched by the Government.

The project aims to connect 120 schools mainly in remote areas in Savaii, Manono, Apolima and Upolu with a view to remote learning to address the shortage of teachers in some of the school subjects.