Samoa Launches New Education Data System to Improve Children’s Learning

By Jeannie Penehuro/

Apia, SAMOA – 03 July 2026 – The Minister of Education and Culture, Aiono Dr. Alec Ekeroma, has launched the Samoa Education Management Information System (SEMIS), a digital platform that is a major step in strengthening education planning and management to improve children’s learning in Samoa.

SEMIS means that for the first time, the Ministry of Education and Culture will have a living, real-time data profile of every school in the country.

The system works by the principal or teacher for every school, inputting data on students’ attendances and updates infrastructure data for their school.

Their counterpart at the Ministry’s Head Office in Apia will be able to visually see the live data being updated.

“It means we can identify which schools need support before a crisis emerges,” said Aiono “and not after.”

Aiono emphasized the importance of having reliable education data to make better decisions, plan effectively, and provide high-quality education for all children.

“The future of education in Samoa will be guided by evidence, shaped by data, and driven by our commitment to every child,” Aiono said.

It is a system that is supported and emphasized by the Pacific Community’s Educational Quality and Assessment Programme (EQAP) that launching this digital platform is a major step in strengthening education planning and management in Samoa and across the Pacific region.

Samoan and educators from four neighboring islands at the Systems launch in Apia this week.

Aiono explained that Samoa’s journey to develop SEMIS started in 2018 and has not been straightforward.

“Like many Pacific Island Nations, we have grabbed the gap between vision and implementation between knowing what we want to achieve and building the conditions that make it possible,” Aiono said.

“We tried, we learned. We encountered real challenges, connectivity, capacity, resources, and the enormous complexity of transforming how a Ministry manages its information,” Aiono added.

The Ministry tried to build its system in 2021, but it was soon realized the work was too important and complex for Samoa to do alone.

MEC’s most important decision was to join the regional initiative called PacSIMS, supported by the Pacific Regional Education Framework and SPC’s Education Quality and Assessment Programme.

Aiono described their partnership with EQAP as “transformative.”

“We believe that Pacific Island countries deserve a fit-for-purpose EMIS designed with us for us,” he said.

He also stressed that “Education is the most powerful investment a nation can make in its people.”

Aiono reaffirmed that SEMIS is how we build that foundation.

The system was launched on Wednesday this week and attended by representatives from Nauru, Kiribati, Tokelau and Fiji.

“We are not competitors in this work. We are a Pacific community of practice, and every step one of us takes forward, is a step forward for all of us,” Aiono said.