Education in Kiribati is free and compulsory from age 6 to 15 years. Schools are quite well distributed all over the country, but senior secondary schools are concentrated in South Tarawa and there are insufficient numbers to absorb all potential students coming from the primary section. While the overall proportion of government expenditure on education is one of the highest in the Pacific, the greatest proportion of this spending is on primary education. Despite a clear improvement on educational achievement in Kiribati – from 23.85% of the population 15 years or older with secondary or higher level education in 1995 to 50.55% in 2005, there are still significant numbers of young people who do not attend school for various reasons, particularly from age 13 years and more so for boys.

With only 400 to 600 paid jobs available and over 2000 students leaving school each year (ROUATU I., 2009), even if all the jobs were taken by the youth, there would still be in excess of a thousand young people underemployed and unemployed each year.

When a girl loses her virginity, consensually or through rape, apology and reconciliation (tekabara bure’) is sought between the two families and her marriage is often arranged to the boy or man involved. Most schools will not accept girls as students once they are engaged, married or pregnant, a policy which discriminates against girls and, in the case of rape or an unintended pregnancy, adds to their burden of guilt and shame.