Prolonged Gaza war delays dreams of high school students: NYT report

NEW YORK - 22 June 2024: Eight months of war have devastated Gaza’s education system, with schools turned into shelters and major rebuilding needed to make them functional again, read a report published by The New York Times on Saturday.

Karim al-Masri was supposed to start his final exams on Saturday morning, just a few weeks shy of graduating. Instead, he spent his morning filling bags of water to freeze into ice, which he sold to support his family.

“I should have been studying and preparing for my final exams,” said Mr. Al-Masri, 18. But, more than eight months into the war, “I’m spending my days working to provide for my family to cope with the situation.”

Al-Masri was one of nearly 39,000 students in Gaza who were unable to take their high school final examinations scheduled to begin on Saturday across the Palestinian territories and in Jordan, and who would not be able to graduate, according to the Palestinian Education Ministry.

The war has devastated Gaza’s education system, which was already struggling after several wars and escalations since 2008.

At least 625,000 children are missing out on education in Gaza, according to UNRWA, the UN agency that assists Palestinians, with schools shut since the war began in October, just over a month into the school year.

In #Gaza, over 76% of schools need reconstructing or require major rehabilitation to be functional again, according to @GlobalEdCluster.

Despite this, @UNRWA teams continue to reach children with play & learning activities.

Education is a fundamental human right.#CeasefireNow pic.twitter.com/G0cWR9NWDw

— UNRWA (@UNRWA) June 21, 2024

Over 76 percent of schools in Gaza would require rebuilding or major rehabilitation to become functional after Israel’s months-long offensive, according to UNRWA, which operates many schools in the Gaza Strip.

The majority of these schools have been used as shelters to house the many displaced families in Gaza, most of whom are living in miserable conditions.

‘Shifting priorities’

Al-Masri said that he dreamed of studying information technology at the Islamic University of Gaza or the University College of Applied Sciences — both of which have been destroyed by Israeli bombardment.

All of Gaza’s 12 universities have been severely damaged or destroyed by fighting, according to the United Nations.

Instead of pinning his hopes on going back to school and graduating, he said the war had shifted his priorities, and he was now focused on working to continue supporting his family.

While selling ice in his town of Deir al Balah in central Gaza, Al-Masri said he often walked past his school, where “the classrooms have turned into shelters,” and when he peeks inside, he is “filled with agony.”

“The school where we were seeking shelter was bombed. I rushed to search for my father in the corridors filled with the dead and injured. I hugged him: I couldn't believe he was still alive,” says 12-year-old Susan.

No children should endure such trauma: #CeasefireNow #WRD2024 pic.twitter.com/AtiJkWQJpm

— UNRWA (@UNRWA) June 20, 2024

Islam Al-Najjar, 18, who was also supposed to be taking her first final exam on Saturday, said that her school in Deir al Balah, to which many Gazans have fled from Israel’s Rafah offensive, had also been turned into a shelter.

“I can’t imagine going back to see my school, a place where we learn, turned into a shelter full of displaced people living in miserable conditions,” she said.

“When we do go back, we won’t be seeing all of the same faces,” she said, referring to her classmate, two teachers and her principal who had been killed during the war.

Al-Najjar remains hopeful about the possibility of being able to go back to school and graduating.

Despite the “many hurdles to everything you want to achieve in Gaza,” she said, she dreams of studying abroad and has set her sights on Harvard University or the University of Oxford to study business.