A number of national efforts commissioned to review education in the country included the Report of the Education Committee of 1984, the Master Ten Year Plan of 1989 -1999, Education Conference of 1990 and the National Economic and Social Summit of 1996. These discussed the need for an educational system that is thorough and efficient, and were designed to help develop children’s capacity for self-reliance. National plans or initiatives to promote education in the Marshall Islands at whatever level, have adopted this philosophical vision, which found itself incorporated as the cornerstone of the Education Act of 1991 ( P.L. 1991-125). The aim of education, as stated, was to prepare children of the Republic of the Marshall Islands to become self-reliant individuals and to function socially, politically, and economically in society.

Since 1990, however, the Head Start Program in the Marshall Islands has developed to the point where it could establish long term goals, prominent among which are:

This goal was especially made urgent by the mounting pressure brought about by the high birth rate in the Republic of the Marshall Islands.

To ensure that Head Start program is accessible to children from socially and economically disadvantaged families, including young single mothers.

The idea was to make pre-school education accessible to all children regardless of their social and economic background.

To expand the number of outer island Head Start centres and to increase the enrolment of existing centres to ensure that all children living in the rural sector benefit from Early Childhood Development programs.

About 45% to 50% of the children of pre-school going age resided in outer islands of the Republic. Expansion of enrolment and establishment of new centres would help enhance the ability of outer islands to accommodate more pre-school children.

To strengthen teacher training programs through collaboration with training agencies such as the University of the South Pacific and PREL.

The importance of well-trained teachers at the pre-school level was considered to be critical. Their availability in adequate number was just as important in order to ensure that the recognised pupil-teacher ratio was achieved and maintained.

The relationship was ad-hoc at the time and was confined to children of non-governmental organisations using Head Start recreational facilities or officials of both programs getting together for social activities. Structuring an arrangement in which both parties could benefit from shared learning experiences or programs would give the relationship a deeper meaning.

To strengthen the relationship between Head Start and the parent community. This is already the hallmark of the Head Start program. However, Head Start had hoped to secure the voluntary services of parents with special or recognised skills, to encourage the support of the private sector, and to work together with parents over issues important to the operation of the Head Start program.

To securing a stable long term financial base.

Given the uncertainties surrounding United States funding and the future of the Compact, exploring and securing guaranteed sources of funding for pre-school education in the Republic of the Marshall Islands was considered to be of the utmost importance.

To make primary education the national standard for all citizens of the Republic of the Marshall Islands and concentrate available resources on strengthening primary education before all else.

This was based on the belief that primary education would probably continue in the foreseeable future to be the only formal schooling that half of the population would receive. It should therefore be pursued as the priority area for investment of the Republic of the Marshall Island’s limited resources.

Local ownership of the schools was considered a critical factor in achieving improvement goals for the primary schools. Long range educational reforms in the primary education would not be realised if local communities did not have a central responsibility for their own schools.

To establish a revised system of financing primary schools whereby annual subsidies on a per capita enrolment basis are offered to local communities to cover a substantial part of the cost of maintaining and operating primary schools, with additional funds provided when necessary for building construction and other capital costs.

This was viewed as a substantial change in the management of primary schools. It was designed to give local governments the opportunity to build their capacity to administer and to manage public schools in their jurisdictions.

To revise the role of the Ministry of Education from direct administration of all primary schools to one of providing national leadership and incentives to encourage local communities to develop and operate improved schools and to strive to achieve national goals and serve in the best interest of the Republic. The role of the Ministry of Education would focus on:

Standards: to develop and promulgate a set of minimum standards for the establishment and operation of primary schools.

Evaluation: to establish a system of evaluating the performance of primary schools managed by local communities and to conduct national standards and achievement tests.

Support: to develop new capabilities to support the efforts of communities and the needs of schools under their care in areas such as teacher training, recruitment and curriculum development.

Few schools were too large for any meaningful learning to take place. On the other hand, more than forty schools had fewer than eighty students.

To adopt and implement a schedule of increasing subsidies to private schools to at least double the current amount over the next three years while making the subsidy contingent upon meeting minimum performance standards set by the Republic of the Marshall Island’s government.

Subjecting public and private schools to the same standards should make both equally eligible to government support. In addition, subsidy support would make up for the anticipated loss or reduction in United States grant funds by way of textbooks and other instructional materials.

To make primary school attendance compulsory for children between the ages of 6 and 14 and restrict enrolment in primary schools to children of those ages. This goal was intended to overcome the ongoing problem where there was an extensive range in age among students at every grade level.

To postpone the development and operation of pre-school and kindergarten programs for a few years until the problems of the primary schools are substantially resolved and their performance substantially improved.

This goal considered the development of operation of pre-school programs less of a priority compared to the urgency needed to promote primary education. There was a perception that pre-schools require less complex management skills and therefore local communities could handle them for the time being.

This was essential in order to lay down a strong foundation of language skills necessary to prepare young children to comprehend, to express, and to understand concepts in all other fields of knowledge

Acquisition of basic maths skills would prepare children to understand simple computational concepts useful for their academic learning in the middle and high school. Functional knowledge of basic science laid the foundation for later learning in high school and set the basis for children to explore the world of nature and the elements of other physical sciences.

Children would need to gain some understanding of the important elements in their own culture, its values, the Marshellese family and its values, and how society functions. They needed to gain basic understanding the type of natural environment that the Marshall islands has, the nature of island formation, the natural fauna and flora, and how the Marshallese people interacted and made a living (fishing) out this type of environment.

Creating a programme with a national scope would give the literacy initiative the necessary impetus. Restricting participation to this particular age group would ensure the involvement of a potentially active labour force.

The goal would restore the current imbalance in the literacy rates between men and women. In addition it would highlight the importance of the mother as the first educator of the child.

This would maximise the effective support of local institutions and grass-root social groups, who, for the most part, were working closely with young people and families at the community level.

The idea was to make vocational training at the high school level capable of providing the basic academic learning desired as well as preparing the student for the employment market.

A whole range of vocational options was necessary in order to meet the different skill needs of both the young people and the demand of the job market.

The establishment of such a national entity would ensure that conflict in program offers were avoided, duplication eliminated, and quality of training carefully monitored and adhering to one national standard. Such an arrangement would ensure the efficient use of limited resources.

Most of the important initiatives in the area of education in the Republic of the Marshall Islands were the sole responsibility of the Ministry of Education, both in terms of implementation and achievements of goals set. The Ministry of Education initiated a process of planning through the use of collaboration with other Ministries and Departments and non-governmental agencies where relevant. At this level overall major goals were set and appropriate policies were proposed for Government approval. Specific initiatives pertaining to specific areas of programs were allocated to those individual bureau or departments responsible. These were responsible for the direct managing and monitoring of activities in that area. Regular reviews of performance were then scheduled throughout the implementation period. Constraints were tracked down and remedies were instituted.

Over the years the Ministry of Education had conducted extensive collaboration with a number of international agencies in an attempt to achieve EFA national goals. Some of these agencies included UNESCO and other United Nations organisations, the Asian Development Bank and the Japanese Overseas Volunteers, US Peace Corp. and the Church Mission Support from Abroad.

Usually the Ministry of Education would appoint a Project Task Force mandated to monitor both the progress of the various initiatives and the use of necessary resources. In practice, one or more of the donor community members funded financial support for the creation of project implementation. The reviewing process was a joint enterprise comprising participating members of the donor community and officials of the Republic of the Marshall Islands. The Cabinet was regularly briefed and updated through the Minister of Education. Critically important national initiatives might result in administrative structuring of a certain component of the Ministry in order to make the necessary adjustment.

Who decided on the formulation of a particular policy depended very much on the nature of that policy and its intended objective. For example, issues that had strong cultural bearings were bound to require the participation of a representative of the Council of the Chiefs. Issues with strong political connotations would likewise be submitted for due consideration of Cabinet, otherwise all policies which were strictly educational in objectives remained the responsibility of the Minister, Secretary of Education and, at times, the Under Secretaries. Other relevant and necessary information might be obtained from Heads of the various educational institutions and programmes. Educational matters concerning communities and outer island schools would involve consultation with Mayors, Marshall Islands Mayors’ Assn and local Government Councils.

Late last year the Ministry of Education established a National EFA Advisory Committee with members appointed from amongst high Government officials. Also established at the same time was the Technical Group drawn mainly from the Ministry of Education but with others from other Ministries including the Ministry of Planning, Internal Affairs and the University of the South Pacific Extension Centre. Two representatives are from non-governmental organisations, and more than 50% in this group are women. While the EFA Advisory Group met but once to be briefed over the basic concepts of EFA and their tasks, the Technical Group met several times, in which each member was assigned a specific task to perform and to report to the group in subsequent meetings. All members of this group are full-time employees, some from the Ministry of Education, others from different sectors or Ministries. However, all were willing to take time off to carry out their assignments.

National initiatives approved by Government normally receive maximum attention and co-operation from all Ministries and Government officials. There are, however, certain matters that could cause unnecessary delay - the retrieval of records and information ranks very high on the list.

This data gathering activity of EFA was taking place at the same time as the Republic of the Marshall Islands was in the middle of its population census. In addition, the Government was also active in the process of its tax reforms. All of these required the asking of questions within Ministries, agencies and households. Timing was very unfortunate as most of those with information were engaged in the implementation of these major projects.

Primary education derives its legal basis from the Constitution itself and so it commands a very favourable approval of Government so far as its financial support is concerned. Primary education in the Marshall Islands to date receives 10% of the GNP, an increase of about 2.5% over the 1991 appropriation. This 10% status has remained steady over the past three years and has given the sector of education a fairly stable basis for future planning and development. This figure includes the direct grants from the United States.

When the percentage of the Republic of the Marshall Islands’ operating budget appropriated to education is compared to the figure appropriated to education by other countries in the former Trust Territories, it becomes evident that RMI gives the lowest amount to education. For example, Kosrae FSM gives about 28%, Pohnpei FSM 22%, American Samoa 20%, and Yap FSM 18%.

Education receives a larger portion of the GNP than the Police and is on comparable level with the Ministry of Health. Both Ministries, however, receive a reasonably reliable level of funding through Federal Grants from the United States Government. Although public primary education is relatively cheap compared to private schools the imposition of progressive fees, beginning five years ago with the registration fee, indicates the Republic of the Marshall Islands’ desire for greater community sharing in the burden of education.

Funds from local sources are not sufficient even to cover personnel salaries, 20 % of which is met for through United States grants.

There is a tendency in the Marshall Islands that with respect to the use of donor funds a growing realisation is that core and essential programmes or any other national initiatives relating to human resources development must receive its funding support as far as possible from the Republic of the Marshall Island’s Government. Donor funds are increasingly directed towards capital projects, including classroom resources and equipment.

The Republic of the Marshall Islands must inject the necessary guarantee to ensure that essential programmes are continued, even at the reduced level of operation. This strategy pertains to the Republic of the Marshall Island’s determination to adhere to the principle of self-reliance implicit in the Education of 1991.