The annual National Teachers’ Conference will start next week at the Tui Atua Tupua Tamasese Efi Conference Centre under the theme: "Learning today, Leading tomorrow." 

Hosted by the Ministry of Education, Sports and Culture (M.E.S.C.) the conference will commence on 20 Wednesday to 22 Friday January. 

According to a media release issued by M.E.S.C, the three-day conference will kick off with a Thanksgiving Service on Sunday 17 January at 5pm at the Prayer House at Palisi for Principals and vice-principals of Government, mission and private schools. 

The conference will officially open on Wednesday 20 January at 9am where the Minister of M.E.S.C will deliver the keynote address.

The Associate Minister of Women, Community and Social Development, Salausa John Ah Ching, will appear as the guest speaker. 

The conference will include an induction program for new Principals, vie-principals and teachers as well as online training for selected teachers.

Various presentations featuring a retrospective analysis of the challenges, opportunities and achievements of 2019 and 2020 will be presented on Wednesday. 

Participants will also be given the opportunity to share their best work with the aim of ensuring that what students learn in the classroom has application to the real world. 

An overview will be presented by the Chief Executive Officer of M.E.S.C, Afamasaga Dr Karoline Afamsaga, who will present on the achievements and challenges of primary and secondary level in the national assessments and national examinations. 

Samoa’s performance in the Pacific Islands Literacy and Numeracy Assessment – a regional assessment of students’ fundamental skills – will inform the C.E.O.’s presentation. 

The abilities of teachers to use online resources will be the centre of the last two days of the conference, which will help strengthen teachers' skills and knowledge about making use of the latest resources to make classroom learning effective as possible. 

The 2020 conference, which had been scheduled to launch on 19 January and run until 23 January, was cancelled due to bad weather conditions which disrupted ferry services and the planned arrival of participants from Savai’i.