Landowner closes school

Front pages from 1987, 1999 and 2010.

Journal 11/6/1987

P1 Friday night baby boom
If you think the Marshalls has a high birth rate, you’re right. And after Friday’s record 12 births in slightly more than 24 hours, it may be event higher. Majuro hospital averages between two and two-and-a-half new borns a day.

P3 Young journalists
The first issue of the Marshall Islands High School newspaper is about to hit the streets and these students are the ones behind it: Editor Kathleen Jonathan, Primrose Jones, Tesiko Antolok, Kesia John, Karlyse Hesly, Editor Hilda Jonathan, Sadie Langrine, Corrine Langinbelik, Business Manager Carolinia Henry, Tricia Lanki, Joanne Alex, Elizabeth Myazoe, Rosa Tubay, Shisko John, Mario Langinbelik, Eric Heine, Michael Halferty and Richard Domendan.

P7 Lot of accidents
The talk around town this week is how the ribelles don’t know how to drive in Majuro. The old men having coffee at the Deli chuckle and poke fund about the hotshots who can afford to wreck cars with abandon. I overheard them laughing about the latest car wreck, the third of the month. They recalled the AG going off the road at Lanwi’s curve, the AMI manager totaling a new car near the dump, and the latest when a CAA hit a coconut tree at Mona’s house. Of course I had to defend the ribelles by saying hey, the AG had a blowout, the AMI manager had to try to dodge a car that just came out of the dump without looking, and the CAA was dodging kids and a dog which caused him to lose control. The old guys said I was bwebwe, that ribelles drive fast like on the freeway in LA. I was outnumbered and the old men were probably right so I changed the subject to fishing and girls. —Grant Gordon

Journal 11/5/1999

P1 Strange bedfellows
Less than two weeks to go and everybody is on the edge of their seats in anticipation of what promises to be one of the more exciting days in the past century of the Marshall Islands. Emerging from groves of coconut trees and into the forefront of international politics, the Marshall Islands ranges from diplomatic insouciance to fundamental Christian propriety, from disco passion and alcoholic stupor, to tender all night sessions sitting witness to the dead, from knee-jerk obedience to tradition to in-your-face accusations that shock the sensibilities of audiences and titilates lawyers into dreams of libel action. Whoop-dee-do!It’s election time!

Journal 11/5/2010

P10 Dust settles at Jaluit school
Under a successfully executed PREL and UNESCO-supported pilot project, Mejrirok Elementary School in Jaluit ended school last June being highlighted by RMI educators as a pioneering school on a path showing how to integrate culture and environment into school programs for educational success. This success story was presented to the Pacific Islands Bilingual and Bicultural Association conference in Majuro this summer, and was reported on in the Journal. But this little school, with a population of about 30 students, has managed an about face in a short time. While other public schools throughout the republic resumed classes in mid-August, Mejrirok Elementary School’s doors remained closed. According to a Ministry of Education official, until about two weeks ago classes were being held outside the school buildings because landowners had stepped in to shut them. The issue causing the problem, depending on who was asked, was described as concern over teaching credentials of the head teacher’s wife or a landowner’s demand that a personal TV set owned by the teacher be given to them. The school closure finally wended its way to Nitijela in the closing days of the session last month, catching President Jurelang Zedkaia unaware. Zedkaia was acting Minister of Education at the time. Government officials told the Journal that President Zedkaia stepped in and called for a meeting between the disputing parties in order to reopen the school. As of today, Education officials say the dust has settled and the school doors have been reopened. However, the net effect of the dispute has resulted in the school being short one head teacher and the ministry being in the difficult position of having to locate a new candidate in the middle of the school year for a position on a remote outer island.

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