Kiribati

Experts situated in Kiribati

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Kiribati in a nutshell

Source: Original gif on: the CIA's "The World Factbook" / Kiribati

Kiribati (pronounced Kiribas), officially the Republic of Kiribati, is an island nation located in the Oceania region in the central tropical Pacific Ocean. The name Kiribati is the local pronunciation of Gilberts, derived from the main island chain, the Gilbert Islands. Kiribati also consists of the Phoenix Islands and the Line Islands.

It is composed of 32 low lying flat and one raised coral island dispersed over 3,500,000 square kilometres (1,351,000 square miles) straddling the equator and bordering the International Date Line to the east. This makes Kiribati the most scattered archipelago in the world with an east-west diameter equivalent to the Los Angeles-New York distance.

The population is 100,743 (a July 2011 estimate according to CIA's World Factbook).

The capital city is South Tarawa, which hosted one of the bloodiest battles of World War II between the American marines and the Japanese Imperial forces. South Sarawa accommodates more than a third of the entire population of Kiribati. One of its islands in the far east, Millennium Island, became very famous at the turn of the millennium, when it became the first island in the world to receive the first sunrise of the new millenium. Fanning Island, also in the far east is famous as one of the Virgin destinations for world cruise tourists on the Norwegian Cruise Line.

Kiribati gained political independence in 1979 from the British who had ruled for 87 years. It has a 42-member unicameral law making body or legislature called the Maneaba Maungatabu, an independent judiciary and an executive headed by the Beretitenti (local word for President) and his 12 cabinet ministers including the Attorney General.

Kiribati’s economy is based mainly on its large fishery resources from which Government derives substantial revenues from fishing access fees paid by distant water fishing nations, its earnings on its Revenue Equalisation Reserve Fund (RERF), remittances of over a thousand sailors working on foreign merchant and fishing vessels and to a lesser extent, on its copra and seaweed exports.

Education in Kiribati

Formal primary education in Kiribati is compulsory and free from class 1 - 6 usually ranging between ages 6 - 11. Juniour secondary school, this means from forms 1 - 3, usually ranging between ages 12 - 14, is also free although not compulsory. Senior secondary education from forms 4-7 ranging from ages 15-18 is subsidised by the state, making it easier for parents to sponsor their children.

Vocational training and university education in Kiribati through the local government, or by foreign governments, award numerous scholarships to fund training and education. These funding is based on academic merit and human resource or man-power requirements of the country.

The curriculum places emphasis on basic disciplines as well as professional subjects. English, Maths, Natural Sciences (environmental studies, biology, chemistry, physics and computer science), Social Sciences (including History and Geography) and Cultural Studies (including Kiribati language and traditional skills). It also includes such optional subjects as Accounting, Commerce, Home Economics and Industrial Arts. Cultural studies for Kiribati studies is essential for selection into junior secondary but not so for selection into Forms 6 and 7, as these are academically biased towards preparation for University education, in which the need for local language and skills is not critical.

Lessons learnt

Notable practices

Kiribati is one of the 12 member countries of the University of the South Pacific (USP), and therefore it has access to the facilities of the university, including the USP Centre on Tarawa and, through it, to the USPNet satellite system.

For details of ICT in Education see http://www.unescobkk.org/fileadmin/user_upload/ict/Metasurvey/KIRIBATI.PDF

This could be expanded here into a full country report.

References

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