Marshall Islands High School celebrated its 60th commencement ceremony on Tuesday, with 126 students receiving their diplomas.
This was a much smaller graduating class than the 204 MIHS seniors who walked in 2024.
The graduation took place in the school’s gymnasium.
The ceremony featured speeches from Public School System Commissioner Dr. Natalie Nimmer, keynote speaker and Chief Pharmacist Neptali Gallen, Principal Barbara Ned, Valedictorian Mylissa John, and Salutatorian Nikita Terry.
The event also honored several retiring teachers, including Jerry Abbang, Melena Benjamin, Armando Nevado, Vaseva Baba, Utoane Teniu and Vila Masi, for their years of dedicated service.
As is tradition, the MIHS and Majuro Middle School fields were filled with a sea of well-wishers draping leis and offering gifts to the graduates. Guests were treated to refreshments at various family-hosted sites around the campus.
This year’s graduation centered on the theme: “Who did? God did!”
A look at Public School System enrollment data illuminates the decline in student populations throughout RMI as out-migration continues at a strong pace.
In 2024, there were 204 seniors at Marshall Islands High School. This week, 126 students graduated. That is a 40 percent drop in the number of seniors in one year.
Although high school enrollment in RMI has remained fairly stable from 2019-2024, overall enrollment has declined by 18 percent. In 2019, there were 14,260 students in RMI schools. That number dropped to 11,688 last year.
Public School System enrollment data show that the class of 2025 was an anomaly at MIHS, with classes the three years before it having 204, 212 and 209 in the senior class, respectively, while next year’s senior class is larger at 131, and the class 2027 is bigger still at 177.
It does appear there is a downward trend in the senior classes developing. But the biggest decline in enrollment is in elementary grades, which have gone from 9,939 in 2019 to 7,230 last year.
High school enrollment has been relatively stable by comparison, hovering between 2,900 and just under 3,100 for 2019-2023. However, in 2024, high school enrollment broke a five-year decline by bumping up to 3,148 students, according to the Public School System.
An interesting statistic — which might suggest a discrepancy in enrollment numbers — is the jump up in enrollment on the outer islands after a five-year trend of decline.
The Public School System in its 2024 annual report shows that “neighboring island” schools saw a significant increase in enrollment in 2024. In 2019, enrollment was 4,373 in neighboring island schools. It dropped every year after 2019 to a low of 3,418 in 2023. But PSS reports that it went up to 4,187 last year, a nearly 20 percent increase.
Meanwhile, PSS reported that enrollment in Majuro and Ebeye schools took a big dive in 2024, declining from 8,895 students in 2023 to 7,501 last year — this amounts of a 16 percent drop.