Partner since:
Total grant support: US$20,032,486
Grant eligibility:
Partnership Compact
Priority: Ensuring seamless, relevant and supported pathways based on strong early learning foundations.
Coordinating agency: New Zealand High Commission
GPE Team lead: Florian Rabenstein
Samoa has high rates of enrollment for primary and lower secondary education, but by upper secondary, one-fifth of the student population is out of school. Pre-primary has the lowest enrollment of all education levels at around 25%.
The government is working with GPE and other partners to ensure seamless, relevant and supported pathways based on strong early learning foundations.
Samoa’s Partnership Compact emphasizes building opportunities for all students to acquire the basic skills needed to progress throughout the education system and beyond.
A focus on early years foundations, includes a policy review of early childhood education and reinforced teacher training. Student progression and transitions will be supported with developmentally appropriate curriculum delivery, remedial education opportunities, better assessment of individual learning needs, and relevant vocational training pathways.
Strengthened collaboration among schools, families and communities is expected to further support students and learning.
out-of-school rate for children of lower-secondary school age
of children start learning one year before entering primary school
of government expenditure on education
(data as of October 08, 2025)
Type: System transformation
Years: 2025 - 2029
Allocation: US$2,500,000
Utilization: 0
Grant agent: UNESCO
Type: Program development
Years: 2025 - 2026
Allocation: US$200,000
Utilization: 0
Grant agent: UNESCO
Type: System capacity
Years: 2023 - 2027
Allocation: US$999,999
Utilization: US$280,436
Grant agent: UNICEF
Support:
Type: Program implementation
Years: 2021 - 2026
Allocation: US$14,997,510
Utilization: US$4,257,662
Grant agent: ADB
This is a regional grant covering the Pacific region.
As part of its investment in civil society advocacy and social accountability efforts, GPE’s Education Out Loud fund is supporting the Samoa Education Network (SEN) for the 2024-2026 period. This builds on previous support from the Civil Society Education Fund (CSEF).
