Nauru

by Paul Bacsich

Nauru in a nutshell

Nauru, officially the Republic of Nauru and formerly known as Pleasant Island, is an island nation in Micronesia in the South Pacific. Its nearest neighbor is Banaba Island in Kiribati, 300 km to the east.

Nauru is the world's smallest island nation, covering just 21 square kilometres (8.1 square miles).

The population of Nauru is 9,378 (July 2012 estimate according to CIA's World Factbook).

Its capital is Yaren.

Settled by Micronesian and Polynesian people, Nauru was annexed and claimed as a colony by the German Empire in the late 19th century. After World War I, Nauru became a League of Nations mandate administered by Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. During World War II, Nauru was occupied by Japanese troops who were bypassed by the Allied advance across the Pacific, and after the war ended, it entered into trusteeship again. Nauru was declared independent in 1968.

Throughout the first half of the 20th century, Nauru was a "rentier state". Nauru is a phosphate rock island, with deposits close to the surface, which allow for simple strip mining operations. This island was a major exporter of phosphate starting in 1907, when the Pacific Phosphate Company began mining there, through the formation of the British Phosphate Commission in 1919, and continuing after independence. This gave Nauru back full control of its minerals under the Nauru Phosphate Corporation, until the deposits ran out during the 1980s. For this reason, Nauru briefly boasted the highest per-capita income enjoyed by any sovereign state in the world during the late 1960s and early 1970s.

When the phosphate reserves were exhausted, and the environment had been seriously harmed by mining, the trust established to manage the island's wealth became greatly reduced in value. To earn income, the government resorted to unusual measures. In the 1990s, Nauru briefly became a tax haven and money laundering centre. From 2001 to 2008, it accepted aid from the Australian government in exchange for housing a detention centre that held and processed asylum seekers trying to enter Australia.

From December 2005 to September 2006, Nauru became partially isolated from the outside world when Air Nauru, the only airline with service to the island, ceased to operate. (The only outside access to Nauru was then by ocean-going ships.) The airline was able to restart operations under the name Our Airline with monetary aid from Taiwan.

In December 2009 Nauru became the fourth country to recognise Abkhazia, and South Ossetia, regions of Georgia which had been de facto independent since the early 1990s and were recognised as such by Russia.

Schools in Nauru

Attendance at school is compulsory for Nauruan children from 5 to 16 years old. Two types of schools are available, both coeducational: those run by the government and those by the Roman Catholic Church. Education is provided free by the government. In the early 1990s, Nauru had six pre-primary and two primary schools, one secondary school, and a technical school, as well as a mission school.

Education on Nauru is available up to the intermediate level.

Further and Higher education

Universities in Nauru

Higher education mainly takes place overseas, primarily in Australia, assisted by the government in the form of competitive scholarships.

There is also a university extension centre affiliated with the University of the South Pacific USP Nauru Campus.

References

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