CAIRO: Minister of Education and Higher Education Amjad Barham said that the educational situation in the Gaza Strip is tragic, and the Israeli occupation wants to destroy the future of “our children.”
Barham said that 290 schools out of 309 in Gaza were destroyed, and the rest of those schools became centers for sheltering the displaced people whose homes were destroyed and who became homeless, adding that the brutal aggression did not spare the educational institutions of UNRWA, although many of them were turned into centers for the displaced.
He added that 80% of the universities were destroyed, as 630,000 male and female students are deprived of education until now.
“We lost 9,500 of them to the Israeli aggression,” he said. “There are 15 thousand wounded students, 5 thousand of whom are disabled as a result of the continuation of this aggression and the fierce war on our people.”
Barham explained that there are 19,000 female and male students who went to Egypt and “we are trying, through joint effort
s with officials in Egypt, to provide them with opportunities to return to their schools and complete their education, adding that more than 88,000 university students in Gaza were deprived of education, some of whom were able to reach Egypt.”
“We decided that educational life would return to the Gaza Strip through tents despite the random bombing, through e-learning for all students present in Gaza and outside it, and that the high school exams would be held, which is one of the most difficult challenges,” he added.
The Assistant Secretary-General for Palestine Affairs said that the scale of the disaster in the education sector in the Palestinian territories is the subject of the meeting today, which requires further measures and procedures, the provision of necessary support and assistance mechanisms, urgent needs to mitigate the impact of the disaster and its repercussions on the reality of education on the one hand, and on the future of education and Palestinian generations on the other hand, due to the
importance of the pivotal role of education in the survival and foundations of the steadfastness of the Palestinian people, as the meeting takes place today in fateful circumstances and challenges, especially in light of what education is facing in terms of systematic and intensive Israeli targeting to destroy the various foundations and components of the educational process.
Source: Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA