If you live in Pohnpei or are related to a Pohnpeian, you are a stakeholder in our education system--that is, it's in your best interest that the education system work transparently, collaboratively, efficiently, and with accountability. Our hope is that this page will allow our department to share with Pohnpeians, Micronesians, and the world at large who we are and what we do, to showcase our successes, and to inform the public on matters of public interest with regards to the education system. With the arrival of Churchill Edward as our Director, our department's recent guiding statement is "strengthening our schools"--be they large, small, public, private, on the right track or off the rails, by working collaboratively and with accountability to all stakeholders we seek to create an education system that fulfills our mission and results in a literate, responsible, and informed populace. DEMOGRAPHICS
Pohnpei State Department of Education serves over 11,000 students ECE to 12th grade across 40 public and private schools, with campuses ranging from large urban and suburban campuses serving between 500-900 students each (e.g. Ohmine School, Kolonia School, Nett School) to smaller community schools (e.g. Rohi School) serving ~120 students, to remote outer-island schools (e.g. Nearly 1/3 residents in Pohnpei State is an actively enrolled student of a public or private school, and ~3% of the adult population serves them, either as a teacher, principal, or staff member. While Pohnpeian remains the native tongue of the state's majority population, there are numerous other primary languages in the state, including Kapinga, Nukuoroan, Mwoakillese, Pingelapese, Chuukese, and Mortlockese. By extension, in order to remain united as citizens of Pohnpei State and as citizens of the Federated States of Micronesia, our primary language of instruction is English. More information will be updated here soon. ECONOMICS
Pohnpei State Department of Education currently operates on a budget of ~10 million dollars per year, the majority of which comes from the Education Sector Grant (ESG) or the Supplemental Education Grant (SEG), both components of our friendship with the United States of America via the Compact of Free Association. In fact, 99.99% of all Pohnpei State Department of Education funding comes from these sources. While 10 million dollars sounds like a significant sum, our large number of schools and the staff to serve them means that 82% of our budget, at present, is dedicated to Personnel costs. The amount of spending per child amounts to a little under $1,000 which is well below developed nations. ACCREDITATION
Under Title 40 of the FSM Code, all schools are required to undergo a process of continual self-improvement, called accreditation for short. We're currently in the process of updating our department's website, which will eventually be home to both consistent news updates as well as a collection of data sources, from teacher resources (e.g. lesson plans, materials) to public information resources (e.g. reports on Pohnpei State schools, their strengths, weaknesses). Expect more information to be forthcoming.
