Youth participants currently confirmed are from Pacific Island communities including Australia, Cook Islands, Fiji, Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, New Zealand, Niue, American Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tokelau and Vanuatu.

UNESCO: United Nations International Holocaust Remembrance Day

According to the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre, the waves this week were triggered by an 8.3 magnitude earthquake that took place some 120 miles (195km) south of the Samoa group of islands (see map).

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Samoa and the Solomon Islands have slightly different priorities.

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At least 129 people are known to have died on the island as a result of the disaster, while a further 40 people were killed on neighbouring islands American Samoa and Tonga.

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Each of these five countries, Kiribati, Samoa, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu and Vanuatu have identified through their national education plans and strategies that improving the quality of their teaching workforce is of utmost importance in order to contribute towards increasing student achievement.

UNESCO: OFFICE IN APIA

Until independence, an older tradition held sway in Samoa, one that meant politics were dominated by the islands' four paramount leaders.

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They include 22 people killed in American Samoa, 139 in Samoa and seven in Tonga, according to officials on the islands.

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Delegates represented indigenous people from Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Palau, Kiribati, Tokelau, Tonga, Fiji, Vanuatu, Niue, Cook Islands, Hawai'i, Australia, Aotearoa New Zealand, and Samoa.

UNESCO: International

While anthropological opinion varies, it is thought that settlers from Southeast Asia arrived in the Marquesas Islands around 300 AD, although other historical evidence has suggested tribes from Samoa and Tonga sailed into the region before 100 AD.

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