Gaza Schools Reopen Among Concerns

Gaza Schools Reopen Among Concerns

For the nearly half a million schoolchildren in Gaza, it’s back to school time. This is the third academic year the students will be returning to class under an Israeli imposed siege.

But this year, going back to school carries added challenges. Gaza is still reeling from Israel’s 23-day war on the territory that damaged so much of the infrastructure, not to mention destroyed the lives of thousands of families. Gaza’s education system – including teachers and students - were not spared in this onslaught and now continues to worsen.

During Israel’s 23-day war on Gaza, 18 schools were completely destroyed and nearly 280 were damaged. None of these schools have been properly rebuilt or repaired according to the United Nations and the other non-government humanitarian organizations. According to Gaza’s Ministry of Education and Higher Education, 164 students and 12 teachers were killed in the war.

Compound the physical damage and death with chronic shortages in educational supplies including textbooks, papers and uniforms and one gets an overall picture of the dire conditions and challenges these students face.

The impact has already begun to show signs of declining achievement. School attendance and performance have declined as a result of over crowdedness. More than 80% of both government and UN-operated schools in Gaza operate on a shift system. In the 2007-2008 school year, only 20% of 16,000 sixth graders in Gaza passed standardized tests in math, science and Arabic. 20% of students suffer from nutritional deficiencies that in turn impacts their ability to learn.

And those who manage to complete their education in Gaza and want to pursue their academic dreams abroad rarely get the chance. Students wishing to travel abroad for higher education must obtain travel permits from the Israeli military which almost never grants them that right.

In the end, the odds are stacked against the students here…yet every year, as the school year approaches, the excitement, or anxiety that students all around the world face can also be found on the faces of children here. But what concerns officials is not so much the immediate short term consequences, but the long term impact on the children here and their ability to realize their potential and by extension that of their communities and a future Palestinian state.