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Schools bring sounds of music to Samoana

The Department of Education Office of Curriculum, Instruction and Accountability (OCIA), held their 12th Annual Elementary School Music Festival this past Saturday at the Samoana High School Gymnasium with seven schools that included, Mt. Alava (Vatia), Lauli’i, Afonotele, Matafao, South Pacific International Christian Center (S.P.I.C.C.), Coleman (Pago Pago) and Pava’ia’i, participating in this year’s festival.

In his opening remarks, the Deputy Director of DOE Philo Jennings said, “Music is a language we all understand. It is an important aspect of our culture and tradition.”

Francis Leleua of the OCIA-Music Department thanked everyone for coming out to support the youth.

“Music is more than what everyone witnessed today with the performances of these young people. Music for our young people is a learning experience,” he said.

“ It is a journey for them to get to where they are today, what we witnessed at the festival. What a lot of people do not realize is, when our young people are working together to produce and perform a number of programs, they are learning how to work together, think together, solve problems together and trust one another. What they are learning here are life skills. In other words, you can get a lot more out of this than just performing music,” said Leleua.