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How Israel’s war has affected education in Gaza
The Palestinian Ministry of Education says:
- More than 630,000 students have been denied their right to education in Gaza since October 7, 2023.
- 58,000 students were supposed to join the first grade and start school today.
- 39,000 students were unable to take their high school exams.
- More than 25,000 children have been killed or wounded in Israeli attacks, including more than 10,000 students.
- Some 90 percent of 307 public school buildings have been destroyed.
Children write in notebooks sitting on a destroyed building near a tent being used as a makeshift educational centre for primary school students in Jabalia in northern Gaza on Sunday
Orphaned children attend maths classes in Khan Younis
For children in Gaza, going back to school is not possible.
Over the course of the war, now in its 12th month, 10,490 students have been killed and 16,700 wounded, according to the Palestinian Education Ministry. At least 600,000 Palestinian students are being deprived of an education due to Israel’s attacks on Gaza.
In Khan Younis, Eman Ahmed, an orphaned child learning maths in a tent for displaced families, said she ended up in the camp after losing her father. “Now I am living and studying here. Today we are trying to learn and remember what we started before the war which destroyed our future dreams,” she said.
Raheen Shareef Abed, a displaced orphan in the camp, added that by going to the classes, they are “defying all odds and are adamant to march forward despite the hard living conditions under the war”.
Gaza residents rue children staying out of school
Umm Zaki’s 15-year-old son Moataz was supposed to start 10th grade. Instead, he woke up in a tent in Deir el-Balah in central Gaza and was sent to fetch a container of water from more than a kilometre away.
“Usually, such a day would be a day of celebration, seeing the children in the new uniform, going to school, and dreaming of becoming doctors and engineers,” she told Reuters news agency. “Today, all we hope is that the war ends before we lose any of them.”
The Palestinian Education Ministry said all Gaza schools were shut and 90 percent of them had been destroyed or damaged in Israel’s assault on the territory since October.
“The longer the children stay out of school the more difficult it is for them to catch up on their lost learning and the more prone they are to becoming a lost generation, falling prey to exploitation, including child marriage, child labour, and recruitment into armed groups,” Juliette Touma, UNRWA Director of Communications, said.
More than 750 education-related employees killed since October: Ministry
More than 750 employees working in the field of education have been killed and thousands wounded in Israeli strikes on Gaza, the Palestinian Ministry of Education said in an updated statement on the start of the academic year,
It also said that:
- By the end of August, more than 11,500 Palestinian school-age children have been killed, and tens of thousands more have experienced injuries, physical disabilities and psychological trauma.
- Israeli forces also deliberately targeted dozens of school and administrative buildings, with 92 percent of them out of service as a result.
- The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor stated in its latest report that Israeli forces targeted 16 school buildings in the last month.
