Chapter 3 – Education

The U.S. Census and the CNMI Public School System report statistics on school enrollment and educa-tional attainment.

In 2010, the Census reported about 15,000 students enrolled in schools in the CNMI.  About half of these were enrolled in elementary schools, about 1 in 4in high schools, and smaller numbers in college, and pre-schools.  The numbers enrolled increased between 2000 and 2010 even though the total population de-creased during the period.  Most of the increase was in those attending high school an increase of about 50 percent to almost 3,700.  The numbers attending tertiary schools increased from about 1,100 to 1,800.

The percentage of high schools graduates increased from about 47 percent in 1980 to 82 percent in 2010, although with a dip during the garment factory years.  Similarly, the percentage with a bachelor’s degree or more, increased from about 12 percent in 1980 to about 20 percent in 2010.  Because it is most of the population, the high school and college graduation rates for Saipan were very similar to those for the whole Commonwealth.  Tinian had about the same high school graduation rate, but a lower percentage of college graduates, while Rota had a higher high school graduation rate but a lower college graduation rate.  Of Sai-pan’s Districts, District 3 had the highest high school and college graduation rates, with about 1 in 4 of the adults being college graduates.

The percentages being high school graduates (from 69 to 82 percent) and college graduates (15 to 20 per-cent) increased considerably during the decade.   The percentage of college graduates increased for both Saipan and Rota, but decreased for Tinian, while the high school graduation rates increased for all three is-lands.

This chapter also includes data from the CNMI Public School System, but they have not provided data since 2005, so only available data are shown here.