Published by “972+The Israeli e-mail reported a lengthy report on the repercussions of the war On education in the Gaza Strip, where neither schools nor universities were spared from the Israeli destruction machine.
Although nearly two months have passed since the start of the school year, the hearts of young students are filled with intense sadness, not only over the martyrdom of their family members and friends and the destruction of their homes, but also over the loss of their right to education as well, according to the magazine.
In the report, journalists Ruwayda Kamal Amer and Ibtisam Mahdi from Gaza conducted interviews with a number of students, teachers, and officials in the education department in the Gaza Strip, in which they talked about their feeling of loss and fear of the future.
Salma Wafi (14 years old), who is now displaced in the Al-Mawasi area and is waiting for the end of the war so that she can return to her high school, says, “School was the most beautiful thing in my life, and I miss it every day.”
She adds with clear regret: “Everywhere else in the world, children returned to school, but some of my teachers, friends and colleagues, whom I saw all the time at school, were martyred. I lost my childhood in this war.”
Salma: Everywhere else in the world, children returned to school, but some of my teachers, friends, and colleagues who I saw all the time at school were martyred. I lost my childhood in this war
As for Farah Miqdad (11 years old), losing an entire year of school had a profound impact on her social life, “My school was on Al-Jalaa Street in Gaza City, and I used to go there every day with my friends. After the end of the school day, we would go to each other’s homes.” To study in preparation for exams.
Farah lost her older brother, Walid, in March last year in Rafah, and she and her family have been displaced several times since the beginning of the war, and she is now taking shelter in the Al-Mawasi area, explaining that “school was not just educational classes, but rather a completely different life,” and she adds: “ Now all of this has become a thing of the past. Today we live in very difficult conditions, where we cannot buy food, so I have to look for work to survive and help my family.”
“+972” – a left-leaning, independent news website founded by four Israeli writers and including a group of Israeli and Palestinian journalists – quotes a United Nations report in which it stated that 87% of school buildings in Gaza were partially or completely destroyed due to Israeli raids, and some of them were transformed into Israeli military bases.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs indicates that more than 10,600 children and more than 400 teachers were martyred in Israeli military operations, while more than 15,300 students and 2,400 teachers were injured.
Today, more than 625,000 school-age children in Gaza are suffering from profound trauma due to the deprivation of their right to education, which 19 independent experts and rapporteurs from the United Nations have described as part of “educational genocide,” a deliberate attempt to destroy the Palestinian education system, according to Israeli magazine.
Meanwhile, a new report by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) warns that the ongoing Israeli air bombardment and ground invasion of Gaza could lead to a decline in the education of children and youth for up to 5 years.
The magazine quotes Ahmed Ayesh al-Najjar, director of public relations at the Ministry of Education in Gaza, as saying that the widespread and systematic destruction of the educational infrastructure and the killing of thousands of students, teachers, and educational staff “made it almost impossible for the ministry to restore the educational process to its previous state.”
In an attempt to remedy the matter, the Ministry of Education in Ramallah launched an electronic platform to provide lessons remotely to students in Gaza. Its spokesman, Sadiq Khadour, told +972 magazine that about 200,000 students, male and female, have registered for online lessons, adding, “We consider this a major achievement, because last year there was no teaching at all.”
However, the two Palestinian journalists indicate – in their report – that it is not clear how many students were able to participate in these lessons, given the frequent Internet and electricity outages throughout the Strip.
For Maram Al-Farra, a mother of 4 children, the idea of distance lessons as an alternative to in-person education is unacceptable. She said, “I feel that (ministry officials) think that this war is simple or like previous wars. We have lost our homes and are living in a tent in Al-Mawasi. Using the Internet in these circumstances is impossible.”
Maram: I feel that (ministry officials) believe that this war is simple or like previous wars. We lost our homes and are living in a tent in Al-Mawasi. Using the Internet in these conditions is impossible
Soha Al-Abdullah, a mother and teacher, also doubted the feasibility of this new initiative. She explained, “I cannot follow these lessons, not even my children, because we need the Internet and more than one phone to use it.”
She continued: “These things are not only difficult, but impossible! As a teacher, I can only provide complete and useful information to my students in the real classroom.”
With the Ministry unable to implement an effective plan for the school year, teachers in Gaza have been left to try (on their own) to organize their own educational programmes, and some have taken it upon themselves to set up temporary schools in shelters and camps across the Strip.
Among them is an English teacher named Doaa Qadeeh, who gives daily lessons to her students while they are sitting on the floor. I asked them about their wishes when they grow up. Qudayh said that a young student told her that she wanted to become a doctor to help her wounded brother or mother, and another dreamed of becoming an engineer or a journalist, adding: “Every one of my students has a big dream when the war stops.”
She added, “As a teacher, I realized the danger of interrupting education for more than 8 months, and the importance of continuing the educational process. Our students are the future generation, and rebuilding Gaza will only be achieved through knowledge and learning.”
Another teacher, Muhammad Al-Khudari, began offering Arabic lessons to his three children at his home. Then his initiative attracted 60 students in Deir al-Balah, using puppets and colorful illustrations.
One of the most prominent educational programs is presented by Laila Wafi (42 years old), a blind teacher from Al-Mawasi who holds a doctorate in educational sciences.
Wafi established the Al-Awael School on a piece of sandy land in Al-Mawasi, consisting of 3 classrooms built of cloth and plastic, and operating in 3 periods a day, one in the morning and two in the evening. The school now accommodates about 74 students, and 80 volunteer teachers take turns teaching the entire primary school curriculum from first to sixth grade.
“I noticed the effect of the war on the students’ skills and how they were forgetting the basics of their educational subjects,” Wafi tells +972, noting that there are another 500 students on the waiting list who want to join the school.
