HebronAbout 50,000 high school students inside and outside the West Bank took the first exam to obtain the general secondary school certificate (Tawjihi), at a time when about 39,000 students are prevented from taking the exam in the Gaza Strip, according to what the spokesman for the Ministry of Education, Sadiq Khaddour, revealed. For Tel Aviv Tribune Net.
The date of the high school exams this year comes while Israel has been waging a devastating war on the Gaza Strip since October 7, which resulted in the martyrdom and injury of thousands of students and their teachers, including high school students.
The deteriorating political, security, and economic conditions – in addition to the financial blockade imposed on the Palestinian Authority – cast a shadow over students and teachers, and thus the entire educational process.
Education in numbers
Sadiq Khaddour says that 450 high school students have been martyred since October 7, including 430 in Gaza and 20 in the West Bank. He added that the occupation’s crimes, attacks and incursions cast a shadow on the educational process and students’ motivation to study and even their arrival at schools.
He said that on the first day of exams, the occupation obstructed the arrival of teachers as observers to some Jerusalem schools, and also stormed the cities of Jenin and Qalqilya in the northern West Bank, while students were in the exam halls.
The Palestinian official revealed that 1,320 male and female students outside Palestine, distributed across 29 countries, enrolled in the exam on its first day at the same time, which was nine in the morning Jerusalem time.
He continued, “There are about 8,000 martyred students and 15,000 wounded students, and 90% of school infrastructure was demolished in Gaza, in a clear targeting of humans and stones.”
He pointed out plans to compensate high school students in Gaza if the war stops, and plans to compensate school students as well to save the academic year, based on “conducting a comprehensive survey and providing alternatives for the demolished classrooms using 4,500 classrooms currently available in a two-shift system (morning and evening), and a plan to compensate for educational losses.” And a plan for the psychological and social aspects.”
Incursions and sieges
Khaddour touched on the confusion witnessed last year in the educational process in the West Bank, as a result of the Israeli incursions on the one hand, and the financial blockade on the Palestinian Authority on the other hand.
He said, “The incursions and checkpoints left their mark, which prompted us to implement the combined system (face-to-face study within classes and remotely electronically). We have 130 schools that operated remotely for 3 months at the beginning of the war, and the financial blockade was also reflected in the salaries of teachers in the West Bank.”
According to Khaddour, West Bank schools presented 67 martyrs among their students, dozens of whom were arrested, and there are teachers who were martyrs and detainees.
During the 2022-2023 academic year, teachers carried out strikes that lasted for months to demand financial rights during which classes were not scheduled, while schools reduced the number of days of attendance of teachers and students during the 2023-2024 year due to the war and because teachers did not receive their full salaries.
For years, government sector employees have been receiving between 50 and 70% of their salaries, due to the inability of the Palestinian Authority to pay full salaries.
During his inspection of the exam halls in Hebron, Prime Minister Muhammad Mustafa said that the occupation deprives 39,000 students from sitting for high school exams as a result of the continued aggression against the Gaza Strip.
He added that the Ministry of Education is making every effort to compensate them during the coming period, according to a statement issued by his office, a copy of which was received by Tel Aviv Tribune Net.
psychological effect
For their part, students interviewed by Tel Aviv Tribune Net in the city of Dura, south of the West Bank, said that the aggression against Gaza and the occupation measures in the West Bank affected their preparation for the exam.
Student Wahib Al-Darabie said, after finishing taking today’s exam, that he could not combine preparing for the exams with following the news, so he decided to devote himself to his exams so as not to waste the fatigue of 12 years of his life.
Meanwhile, his colleague Muhammad Abu Znaid says that the ongoing Israeli incursions into the West Bank distract high school students from preparing for the exam, adding: “Our hearts are with our colleagues and our people in Gaza.”
Muhammad Al-Fasfus also points out that the severity of the events and incursions in the south of the West Bank is less than in the north, yet the situation distracts his attention and he cannot ignore the news.
He added that the raids and occupation measures do not exclude anyone, and he is forced to follow up on every raid and its results, considering that this has a psychological impact that will be reflected in the achievement and results of the exams.
According to a statement by the government media office in the Gaza Strip, the ongoing Israeli aggression since October 7 led to the complete destruction of 110 schools and universities, and 321 schools and universities were partially destroyed, in addition to the martyrdom and loss of 47,551 citizens, and the injury of about 85,911 others. .
