Gaza- As soon as the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) announcedUNRWA) in the Gaza Strip about launching an educational activity for children residing in its shelters, so thousands of displaced people rushed to register their children.
UNRWA Director of Affairs in Gaza, Scott Anderson, said that the first phase of the educational activity, which began on August 1, includes informal educational activities, such as reading, writing and mathematics lessons, in parallel with support and psychosocial activities.
He stated in a message addressed to the parents of students in Gaza that more than 600 thousand children have left their schools since the beginning of the war, half of whom are students at UNRWA, explaining that the activities will be held inside the agency’s shelters.
And students lost Gaza Strip The 2023-2024 academic year has been cancelled due to the horrific war that Israel has been waging since October 7, as the Israeli army has completely destroyed more than 120 schools and universities, and partially destroyed 332, according to a statement by the Government Media Office in Gaza.
exceptional circumstances
In Al-Nuseirat Preparatory School for Boys, in the central Gaza Strip, UNRWA has allocated 3 classrooms for the educational activity, which benefits more than a thousand male and female students. It continues in two stages, morning and evening, with one hour for each class.
The training activity faces many obstacles, such as the lack of classrooms that have been turned into housing for the displaced, power outages, and the lack of books, notebooks, and stationery. However, despite this, the teachers began their educational activity in its first days with recreational activities, as a kind of psychological and social support for the students, and due to the lack of chairs that were lost during the months of war, the students were forced to sleep on the floor.
Maali Abu Asheba, the father of two children participating in UNRWA’s educational activities, says that parents are very enthusiastic about any initiative to resume education. He tells Al Jazeera Net, “Because of the war, our children have become ignorant and have forgotten their education, and when the initiative began, we supported it for their sake.”
Abu Asheba, who lives in a shelter set up in one of the UNRWA schools in the camp, points out that: Deir al-BalahIn the middle of the Gaza Strip, he said that the large turnout of children to participate “is not surprising for the Palestinian people who sanctify education and strongly reject Israeli plans to create ignorance.”
“All the parents are thirsty for education, all the school families send their children to participate, and there are families from outside the school who are trying to participate, but this is not available at the moment,” he added.
Abu Asheba expressed his regret over what he called a “deterioration” in the children’s behaviour due to their not attending school for a whole year, and their being forced to live in shelters that “lack the minimum requirements for a decent human life.”
Individual initiatives
In the shelters not affiliated with UNRWA, associations and individuals rushed to try to fill the void left by the interruption of schooling, by establishing small schools. In the “Amira Abu Salim” shelter center south of Deir al-Balah, the Al-Sahaba Charitable Society established an educational center to teach the children residing there.
The center consists of tents, and includes 3 classes (from first to third), and operates 4 hours a day, in two stages, morning and evening. Students study Arabic and English, mathematics and science, according to the Palestinian curriculum, with the Holy Quran and Al-Qaida Al-Nourania.
The Sahaba Association supervises similar schools in the cities of Gaza andKhan Younis andNuseirat campIt is attended by about 2,500 male and female students. The supervisor of the association’s schools, Falah Al-Turk, says that he began working on establishing it with funding from the association after noticing the impact of the interruption in education on the children’s level.
Speaking to Al Jazeera Net, Al-Turk said that the turnout of families to schools was very high, which prompted them to distribute students into two stages, morning and evening. He believes that the people of the Gaza Strip realise the importance of education and fear the repercussions of being cut off from schools, and seize any available opportunity to educate their children.
Hind Khattab, the director of the educational center, also said that she noticed a big difference in the behavior of children who enrolled in the center, and pointed out that being out of school for a long time and living in random shelters had a negative impact on the children’s behavior.
She explained to Al Jazeera Net, “We notice a big difference in the children’s behaviour, as well as their interest in personal hygiene, performance and morals.” She mentioned that the difficult circumstances resulting from the ongoing war force them to focus on teaching the basics and not to go into detail.
Challenge the occupation plans
Samaher Al-Qambarji, the mother of Randa, a student at the Al-Sahaba Educational Center, believes that attending educational centers during the war is a challenge to the occupation and its plans. She added to Al Jazeera Net, “It is important and necessary not to rely on this reality that the occupation imposed during the war and hindered our lives.”
Samaher believes that the presence of schools and educational centers within the shelters is very important, and she says, “No matter the circumstances, the occupation should not be allowed to apply the policy of ignorance to our children.”
As for Ikhlas Sidr, a teacher in UNRWA schools, she decided, after her absence from work, to establish an educational center called the “Educational Tent” in the city of Deir al-Balah, which provides educational services and psychological and social support, free of charge.
Sidr says she received funding from some of her family members to set up the centre, which aims to serve children during the war. She tells Al Jazeera Net, “The war will not stop us, and we, the Palestinian people, are known for our love of learning. I was worried about the fate of our children, so I set up this tent.”
She added that she focuses on teaching children to read because it could be a factor in their survival, explaining, “Dangerous waste is spreading in the shadow of war. If a child is not good at reading, he will not read the signs warning him not to approach any dangerous areas or suspicious objects, which poses a danger to his life.”
In addition to traditional teaching, the educational tent provides psychological and social support for children, and lessons to learn the traditional Dabke dance. Teacher Sidr praises the great interest of parents in sending their children to learn at educational centers.
The educational tent gave mother Rania Salim some reassurance about the future of her son Mohammed (7 years old), as she says, “Since the schools closed, I feel that my children’s future is slipping away from me, because they were very distinguished and among the top students.”
She points out that her son Mohammed “expends his energy on education inside the educational tent, instead of discharging it on quarrels with his friends,” and she mentioned that he learns many useful things that have made a clear difference in his general behavior. She concludes her speech by saying, “Our people are determined to fight ignorance.”