Palestinians have always been passionate about learning. During the Ottoman era, Palestinian students went to Istanbul, Cairo and Beirut to continue higher education. During the British mandate, faced with colonial policies aimed at keeping the local population ignorant, Palestinian farmers pooled their resources and established their own schools in rural areas.
Then came the NAKBA, and the occupation and the displacement brought new pains which raised the Palestinian Paless of Education at an entirely different level. Education has become a space where Palestinians could feel their presence, a space that allowed them to claim some of their rights and dream of a better future. Education has become hope.
In Gaza, instruction was one of the first social services established in the refugee camps. The students sat on the sand in front of a blackboard to learn. The communities did everything they could to make sure that all children had access to education, regardless of their level of destitution. The first institution of higher education in Gaza – the Islamic University – held its first conferences in tents; Its founders did not wait for a building to be erected.
I remember how, child, I would see the alleys of our neighborhood every morning cluttered with children at school. All families sent their children to school.
When I reached the university age, I saw the same scene: crowds of students going together to their universities and their colleges, dreaming of a brilliant future.
This relentless prosecution of education, for decades, suddenly stopped in October 2023. The Israeli army has not only bombed schools and universities and burned books. He destroyed one of the most vital pillars of Palestinian education: educational justice.
Make education accessible to all
Before the genocide, the education sector in Gaza was booming. Despite the occupation and the blockade, we had one of the highest literacy rates in the world, reaching 97%. The registration rate in secondary education was 90% and registration for higher education was 45%.
One of the main reasons for this success was that education in Gaza was entirely free at the primary and secondary stages. Government and UNRWA schools were open to all Palestinian children, guaranteeing equal opportunities for everyone.
The textbooks were distributed free of charge and families have received support to buy bags, notebooks, pens and school uniforms.
There were also many programs sponsored by the Ministry of Education, UNRWA and other establishments to support talented students in various fields, regardless of their economic status. Reading competitions, sporting events and technological programs were organized regularly.
At the university level, significant efforts have been made to make higher education accessible. There was a government university which billed symbolic costs, seven private universities with moderate in high fees (according to the college and the major) and five university colleges with moderate costs. There was also a professional college affiliated with UNRWA in Gaza which offered a completely free education.
Universities have provided generous scholarships to exceptional and disadvantaged students.
The Ministry of Education has also offered internal and external scholarships in cooperation with several international countries and universities. There was a higher education loan fund to help cover tuition fees.
In other words, before the genocide in Gaza, education was accessible to everyone.
The cost of education in the middle of the genocide
Since October 2023, the Zionist war machine has systematically targeted schools, universities and educational infrastructure. According to UN statistics, 496 of 564 schools – almost 88% – were damaged or destroyed. In addition, all the universities and colleges of Gaza have been destroyed. More than 645,000 students were deprived of classrooms and 90,000 university students were disrupted by their studies.
While the genocide continued, the Ministry of Education and Universities tried to resume the educational process, with lessons in person for schoolchildren and online courses for university students.
In travel camps, tent schools have been created, where young volunteers taught children for free. University professors have used online teaching tools like Google Classroom, Zoom, Whatsapp Group and Telegram Channels.
Despite these efforts, the lack of regular education has created a significant gap in the educational process. The incessant bombardment and the forced displacement orders issued by the Israeli occupation made the presence difficult. The absence of resources also meant that tent schools could not provide an appropriate instruction.
Consequently, paid educational centers have emerged, offering private lessons and individual attention to students. On average, a center invoked between $ 25 and $ 30 per subject per month, and with eight subjects, the monthly cost reaches $ 240 – an amount that most families in Gaza cannot afford.
In the higher education sector, the cost has also become prohibitive. After the first semester online, which was free, universities began to force students to pay parts of their tuition fees to continue distance learning.
Online education also requires a tablet or a computer, stable internet access and electricity. Most students who have lost their devices due to bombing or travel cannot buy new ones due to high prices. Access to stable Internet and electricity in private “workspaces” can cost up to $ 5 an hour.
All of this has led many students to abandon because of their inability to pay. Myself, I could not finish the last half of my diploma.
The collapse of educational justice
A year and a half of genocide was enough to destroy what took decades to build in Gaza: educational justice. Previously, social class was not an obstacle for students to continue their studies, but today, the poor were left behind.
Very few families can continue to educate all their children. Some families are forced to make difficult decisions: sending older children to work to help finance the education of the youngest, or give the most remarkable child the opportunity to continue to study and deprive others.
Then there are the extremely poor, who cannot send any of their children to school. For them, survival is the priority. During the genocide, this group came to represent a large part of the company.
The catastrophic economic situation has forced countless children of school age to work instead of going to school, especially in families who have lost their family support. I see this painful reality every time I go out of my tent and walk around.
The streets are full of children selling various goods; Many are used by war profiteers to sell things like cigarettes for a meager salary.
Little children are forced to beg, continue passers -by and ask them everything they can give.
I feel unbearable pain when I see children, who only a year and a half ago ran in their schools, laughing and playing, are now standing under the sun or in the sale or cold begging just to win a few shekels to help their families get an inadequate meal.
For Gaza students, education has never only been to obtain an academic certificate or an official newspaper. It was optimism and courage, it was a form of resistance against the Israeli occupation, and a chance to withdraw their families from poverty and improve their situation. Education was life and hope.
Today, this hope has been killed and buried under the rubble by Israeli bombs.
We now find ourselves in a dangerous situation, where the gap between the wealthy and the poor widens, where the capacity of an entire generation to learn and think is decreased, and where Palestinian society risks losing its identity and its ability to pursue its struggle.
What is happening in Gaza is not only a temporary educational crisis, but a deliberate campaign to destroy the opportunities for equality and create an unbalanced society deprived of justice.
We have reached a point where the architects of the current genocide are confident in the success of their “voluntary transfer” strategy – pushing the Palestinians to depths of despair that they choose to leave their land voluntarily.
But the Palestinian people always refuse to let go of their land. They persevered. Even the most vulnerable children do not give up. I often think of the words I heard of a conversation between two selling children during the last EID. One of them said: “There is no joy in Eid.” The other replied: “It is the best EID. It is enough that we are in Gaza and we did not leave it as Netanyahu wanted it.”
Indeed, we are still in Gaza, we have not left as Israel wants, and we rebuild just like our ancestors and our elders.
The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Tel Aviv Tribune.