13 Nov 2008

Senator unhappy with American Samoan language veto

4:30 pm on 13 November 2008

A senator in American Samoa says he is disappointed that the Governor Togiola Tulafono has vetoed the bill which would have made both Samoan and English the languages of instruction in schools.

Senator Alo Dr Paul Stevenson, a former educator, had co-sponsored the bill, and worked on it for some time

He says perhaps educators in the territory had informed the Governor that they weren't quite ready for it yet.

Senator Alo says it's now back to the drawing board.

"I think that the basic thing is that you know the Samoan language there is a different, you know, there's a variation in the spoken language. And I think also it's to allow the Samoan language, usually in history, its an oral language so there's an attempt to put some of these things in written form and be taught. And that's quite a lot of work going into development, Samoan language written."

Senator Alo Dr Paul Stevenson