High school students in Gaza… dreams postponed

“Today I live in a classroom where I was supposed to take the high school certificate exams, but because of the war of genocide that the Israeli occupation has been waging for about nine months, I and all the other high school students in Gaza Strip could not take the exams,”  Doaa Akram, a student from Gaza Strip, said with eyes full of tears over the lost dream of completing her high school study.

Doaa sorrow was not only over the loss of her own dreams, but also over the loss of the dreams of all other students who were impatiently awaiting for the exams and over the destruction of the future of the young generation in Gaza Strip due to the occupation’s aggression.

“Due to the loss of gas and firewood, there were times when I was unfortunately forced to burn a number of my books”, Doaa added.

“Before the war, my hope was to study medicine outside the Strip, but today, I only have to wait for the war to end and after the war I may change my plan, because Gaza needs us to rebuild it and I will do my utmost to help it,” she pointed out.

Another student said: “Since the start of the war, and despite the displacement, I have been studying with the hope of passing the exam, as the high school certificate, as they say, is the beginning of the future. I wanted to learn and I wanted many things, but today I lost everything and now I am adapting to being living in a tent under bombing.”

UNRWA Director of Planning Sam Rose noted that the war caused more than half a million children in the Strip to be deprived of education over a period of 8 months, as 39 thousand high school students in Gaza Strip were deprived from taking exams.

The Media Office in Gaza stressed that since the beginning of the war, the occupation had deliberately targeted all the people of Gaza Strip, killing, wounding, and arresting tens of thousands, including thousands of students and education sector workers.

The office indicated that 85 percent of educational facilities were out of service as a result of direct and deliberate bombing by the occupation, which constitutes a major challenge to efforts to resume the educational process after the end of the aggression.

The Palestinian Ministry of Education clarified that secondary school exams were held only in the West Bank and not in the Gaza Strip, and in very complicated circumstances, as the occupation prevented students in the Gaza Strip from taking the exams.

The Ministry stressed that 450 students, who, were supposed to take high school exams, were martyred in the occupation gunfire, including 430 students in Gaza Strip and 20 in the West Bank, while the occupation continues to detain 55 students from the West Bank and deprives them of taking the exams.

Palestinian Prime Minister Muhammad Mustafa affirmed that the start of secondary school exams is a message that education is the first weapon in confronting the occupation and achieving independence.

He noted that the Ministry of Education is making great efforts to compensate the students of the Strip for what they missed previously.

39,000 high school students were not only deprived of their right to education by the ongoing genocidal war, many of them were also deprived of their families and friends, of their homes, of their right to food and to receive treatment. The occupation turned them into forcibly displaced people from one tent to another, in search of safety, although there is no safe place in the Strip.

Instead of devoting themselves to studying, they have become breadwinners for their families, helping to secure their needs, and despite the failure of the international community to oblige the occupation to stop the aggression, and despite the United States continuing to supply the occupation with weapons to claim more lives and inflict wider destruction on the Gaza Strip, those students are still clinging to their dreams, which, they stress, have only been postponed.

Najla Khoury

You might also like
Latest news
Syria Receives Two Gold and Two Silver Medals at The Arab Kickboxing Tournament in Egypt   Terrorist Ben-Gvir Storms Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron “China's Views-The Syrian War and Europe” a Book by Chinese Researchers Translated by Safwan Bahloul Yemeni Forces Target an Israeli Enemy Base South of Occupied Palestine with a Ballistic Missile UN Calls for Accountability of Those Responsible for Targeting Humanitarian Workers in Gaza and Leba... Russia Strongly Condemns Israel's Aggression Against Palmyra... It is a Flagrant Violation of Syrian... 25 Martyrs and Dozens Wounded in the Occupation Bombing of Various Areas of the Gaza Strip Three European Countries Announce their Readiness to Arrest Netanyahu and Gallant if They are on The... Organization of Islamic Cooperation: Issuing Arrest Warrants Against Netanyahu and Gallant Contribut... The Feature Film (Temporary Darkness) Participates in The Hague Film Festival in the Netherlands Syrian Doctor Receives Best Clinical Presentation at Diabetic Foot Conference in Los Angeles Iravani: Israel's Repeated Attacks on Syrian Territory Have Reached an Unprecedented Level of Crimin... The State of Palestine Welcomes The Issuance of Two Arrest Warrants Against Netanyahu and Gallant The First ALECSO Early Childhood Forum Concluded its Events in Tunisia Al-Dahhak: Security Council's failure to fulfill its responsibilities encourages Israeli occupation ... ICC issues arrest warrants for Netanyahu, Gallant over war crimes Two Syrian films participate in the first session of the Fayoum Film Festival in Cairo   Gaza Media Office: The Israeli occupation committed four brutal massacres after the Security Council... 22 martyrs as a result of Israeli air raids on a number of Lebanese regions With Syria’s participation, Arab aviation institutions discuss enhancing cooperation and exchanging ...