Making an impact in Pacific education

LearnWell is proud to partner with Read Pacific, a company dedicated to making an impact in Pacific education by ensuring that education is accessible and effective across the Pacific Islands. Read Pacific has grown into a leading supplier of educational resources, and their mission aligns perfectly with ours: to empower every learner by providing affordable, high-quality materials. By offering NZ-curriculum specific resources, our collaboration ensures that students receive the best possible education, tailored to meet the unique needs of their schools and communities.

We recently chatted with Kirsty and Rae from Read Pacific about their mission, goals and highlights.

The heart of Read Pacific

Hi Kirsty and Rae, how did Read Pacific begin? 
We started in Fiji as a book club, similar to Scholastic, when the original owner lived there. Rae then bought the company in 2007 and continued to introduce additional product ranges to support our mission.

Can you tell us more about what drives Read Pacific’s mission? Why is literacy such a priority for you, and how does it shape your approach to providing resources across the Pacific?

Our mission is to provide affordable educational resources to all schools in the Pacific, with literacy being our top priority. Empowering all learners begins with literacy, and that’s why it’s at the core of what we do.

Expanding resources across the Pacific

You mentioned expanding into different product ranges — can you give us a peek at what that includes?  What materials and projects are you currently involved with?

Our broad range of resources includes textbooks, library books, maths and science materials, ECE resources, stationery, and large-scale specialty education projects. We also provide publishing services, ensuring we can meet a wide variety of educational needs.

Making an impact in Pacific education by supporting diverse communities

Working with Read Pacific has been such a rewarding partnership for us at LearnWell. How does our collaboration help you make an impact in Pacific education and reach your goals? 

We prioritise supporting NZ publishers whenever their materials best fit our customers' needs. We’ve had the pleasure of working with LearnWell since 2006, and it’s been a great partnership. LearnWell offers a comprehensive range of high-quality texts for all age levels, from Years 1-13, which supports our mission to provide the best possible resources. LearnWell’s willingness to adapt their resources to our specific markets is key. It enables us to offer well-aligned written materials that resonate with our multilingual communities. 

Read Pacific is involved in many special projects, and we’ve worked on some really impactful ones together over the years. Are there any particular projects with LearnWell that stand out in your memory? 

Two projects stand out: the Kiribati Maths Project, where LearnWell combined two levels of workbooks to create a maths textbook aligned with the Kiribati syllabus, and the Vanuatu project, where we produced three levels of Science and English Learning Workbooks, including a French edition for French schools in Vanuatu.

Helping schools meet their unique educational goals is something we’re both passionate about. Can you walk us through how you approach these requests? What steps do you take to ensure that the resources you provide are the perfect fit for each curriculum?

We start by asking for their curriculum guidelines and then find resources that match as closely as possible. LearnWell’s materials are great because they cover specific subjects in depth, making it easy to map out the topics that need to be covered. Sometimes, we customise content for each country, and we also offer translations into other languages when needed.

Supporting schools after disasters

Natural disasters can be so devastating, especially for schools. We know that Read Pacific has been making an impact in Pacific education by helping schools recover after these events. Could you tell us more about the impact these disasters have and how you’ve been able to assist?

Disasters like cyclones can severely impact schools, with resources lost and buildings destroyed. We’ve helped by donating money or resources and by working with NZ-based publishers like LeranWell to quickly replace materials when schools are ready. We also provide weather-proof bins to protect resources from future damage.

That's amazing. It’s always inspiring to hear about the students who’ve benefitted from your work. Can you share a couple of success stories from students you’ve helped through your scholarship program? 

For 13 years, we have run a scholarship program for Year 11, 12, and 13 students, providing financial support to help them finish high school. One of our students, Stanley, studies medicine in Fiji, while another, Junior, works as a senior accountant in the Vanuatu government.

Looking to the future: continuing to make an impact in Pacific education

You’ve accomplished so much already—what’s next for Read Pacific? What future goals do you have, and how do you plan to continue supporting teachers and students across the Pacific Islands?

Our goal is to continue expanding our product ranges and reach more teachers and students. We want to ensure that teachers are supported in using the resources we supply to enhance student learning and achievement.

Thanks Kirsty and Rae, we love partnering with you and hope to be able to do so long into the future.

Nā tō rourou, nā taku rourou
ka ora ai te iwi. 

With your food basket and mine, the people will thrive.