Susuga i alii faifeau ma o latou faletua, le mamalu o le nofo-a-laulau peresitene o lala eseese faapea faiaoga ma matua ae tainane le taitaifono o le fonoaoao faaletausaga le faletua ia Iolesina Tagoilelagi ma le laulau faapea le paia maualuga i sui auai uma o le Faalapotopotoga a le Sosaiete o Aoga Amata a Samoa i Niu Sila nei,………… o le mua-gagana ua masani ai si o tatou atunuu…, ”O lupe sa vaoeseese a ua fuifui faatasi”…..ma o le fonotaga ua amataina i le a-so, o se tasi lea o pine, o le fai mea mafai ma le sailimalo oa tatou tagata o lo o aumau i Niu Sila nei…faamalo atu i lo outou ma’ema’ea ma lo outou filiga, ina ia siitia le sao o aoga amata, i le galuega fita…faale-aoaoga i totonu o Aotearoa……….
O se mitamitaga ia te a’u, ina ua maua lenei avanoa e faatasi mai ai e molimauina, la outou galuega fita, i lona 15 lenei o fonotaga faaletausaga a le Sosaiete Aoga Amata a Samoa i totonu o Aotearoa……..E’e mai a i ou seetaga malu, ae se i o’u liliu ane, e faigata la outou valaau faaaloalo……………
Good evening and talofa lava everyone………..
Before I begin, may I thank Reverend Tumama Vili and his congregation for hosting this year’s fono here at this church.
May I acknowledge your keynote speaker, Dr Rose Turuki Pere, who I am told, recognises the importance of giving young children the best possible start in education, by preparing them with quality early childhood education experiences before moving on to primary school.
Thank you to the executive committee, Faletua Iolesina Tagoilelagi, I acknowledge your leadership as the Chairperson of Sosaiete Aoga Amata Samoa(SAASIA) and the significant contributions of the Secretary Sofaea Penn, and Treasurer Taulapapa Su’a.
Presidents of various regions, committee members from all over New Zealand, teachers, parents, new members and people who deeply care about quality education in early childhood. Thank you for your input into SASSIA and for your commitment, drive and energy towards improving the quality of early childhood education particularly for Pacific children.
My wife Maxine and I are honoured to be with you tonight at your 15th annual fono. A fono I understand that will review the constitution to allow Sosaiete o Aoga Amata a Samoa (SAASIA) to explore new developments in early childhood education.
I know that this review will build on the many gains SAASIA has made over the past seventeen years since becoming an incorporated society.
The theme of your fonotaga: “ne’i vale tu’ulima le tofi” has contributed towards the development of early childhood education services in Aotearoa and must be commended.
In the early years SAASIA’s efforts was measured through the quality of teachers in Early Childhood Education. The structure of SAASIA was based on services provided through monitoring and evaluation mechanisms that enhanced the quality of early childhood education.
I know that a significant amount of work has already been completed to identify what is needed to improve the quality of our Samoan early childhood education centres.
Today is a valuable opportunity for me not only to meet you, but also to listen to your experiences, insights and concerns in taking this work further.
Currently there are goals this government want to achieve in ensuring all children succeed in New Zealand’s education system. These include:
·Increasing Pacific participation rates in Early Childhood Education – according to Ministry of Education statistics, 84.7% of Pacific children compared with 89.3% of Maori, 94.1% of Asian and 97.6% for European are participating in early childhood services.
·Getting more qualified Pacific teachers, and having quality teaching programmes.
·Reviews have shown Pacific Early Childhood Education centres need to put in place strong systems to monitor and evaluate the quality of children’s learning.Providing quality services has emerged as one of the biggest challenges faced by providers of Pacific Early Childhood Education. Evidence shows that of the 28 Pacific Centres Reviewed by the Education Review Office (ERO) in 2003/04, ERO will be returning to 15 centres to carry out Supplementary Reviews. I hope SASSIA will play a role in supporting our Pacific centres to meet government quality learning requirements.
Let me reassure you that the Labour led Government has made Pacific education, particularly Pacific early childhood education, a priority.
Recently, the Government promised 20 hours of free Early Childhood Education services for teacher-led Early Childhood Education groups by 2007.
This service will be of assistance to low income families, especially Pacific families who are over-represented in the lower income bracket. Communicating this information to the community and ensuring that they are aware of and understand the benefits of Early Childhood Education will benefit their children.
Another great initiative is the increase in TeachNZ Scholarships with a particular focus on fluent speakers of Maori or a Pacific language. Now Pacific people can access the 700 scholarships that are available to all New Zealanders.
In addition, the new revised early childhood programme, Parents as First Teachers, also supports and helps to strengthen families’ parenting skills. It is based around early childhood education centres and is aimed at helping families at risk of poor outcomes, who have children aged from birth to three years.
The programme was made available to provide parent education, social support and outreach activities to families. In addition, new funding of $5.9 million over four years was set aside in the 2005 Budget, for 18 pilot programmes.
The pilot programmes will enable government to make informed decisions about funding parent support-based programmes in these centres.
This initiative is part of a new package of Budget 2005 services to support the Early Intervention Programme led by the Ministry of Social Development. This programme builds on the vision that all vulnerable children receive the support they need from birth through to school, so they get the best start in life.
Most importantly, this gives SAASIA, an opportunity to contribute proactively to education policy and the evaluation of Government initiatives to improve the education and well-being of all New Zealanders.
As stated earlier the findings of this fono will shape the future of SAASIA. Your organisation will continue to provide quality early education services as well as maintaining quality Samoan language environments that will help promote and maintain our language in Aotearoa.
It is my view that Pacific early childhood centres, particularly Samoan centres in New Zealand must teach quality language skills and demonstrate that their teaching is effective.
I encourage you to work together on our educational needs, not only for our Samoan people, the Pacific communities, but for all New Zealanders.
I wish Sosaiete o Aoga Amata a Samoa I Aotearoa well for the future.
Thank you for the invitation, and God bless.