Pacific Region Served by PREL
PREL maintains service centers in Hawai‘i, which is also PREL’s main office, as well as in American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia (Chuuk, Kosrae, Pohnpei, and Yap), Guam, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau.
PREL serves schools in these 10 Pacific island political entities, whose affiliation with the U.S. ranges from statehood to free association. The entities are spread across more than 4.9 million square miles of ocean and hundreds of islands and atolls, many of which are uninhabited. Pacific people may live by fishing and farming on an isolated atoll, or they may work in a complex international economic system with close ties to Japan, the U.S., or other Pacific Rim nations.
The schools are challenged not only by political and economic diversity, but also by cultural and linguistic differences; at least nine different Pacific cultures are prominent in the region. The main language of instruction, English, is not the home language for most students outside Hawai‘i. “School” may mean a modern, well-equipped building, or it may mean a wooden platform with a thatched roof and no electricity. “Teacher” may mean anyone from a high school graduate to a PhD.
The 10 entities have about 285,100 students in 658 public schools. The nine entities beyond Hawai‘i have about 103,761 students in 373 public schools
Contact PREL
Pacific Resources for Education and Learning
Phone:
(808) 441-1300
U.S. Toll-free Phone:
(800) 377-4773
AskPREL
Phone:
(808) 441-1300
U.S. Toll-free Phone:
(800) 377-4773
AskPREL
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