Thousands of Gazan children miss another school year

GAZA CITY

More than 600,000 children in the war-torn Gaza strip could miss a whole school term for another year if the conflict continues, with some teachers setting up tent schools in ever-shrinking areas declared safe by the Israeli army.

"Children around the world are going back to school. After losing a year of education to the war, children across Gaza continue to live in the rubble or in schools turned into shelters frequently damaged or destroyed," said Phillipe Lazzarini, the head of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA.

More than 70 percent of school in Gaza was destroyed or damaged by Israeli attacks, he said.

"With no ceasefire, children are likely to fall prey to exploitation including child labour and recruitment into armed groups,” the UNRWA chief said.

As part of its educational response in Gaza, UNRWA launched the Back to Learning program.

The first phase included psychosocial support activities, focusing on arts, music and sports, and raising awareness of the risks posed by explosive ordnance. In the current second phase, the focus has shifted to informal learning activities, which include lessons in reading, writing and math.

“I’ve been stuck in the sixth grade for two years now, because I’ve never had the chance to finish it,” Afnan Khaled al-Shenbari told a reporter in the region.

“In the fifth grade, I had a high average by the end of the year, 92 percent, but I was hoping to get an even higher one in the sixth grade. But here I am, spending my life in school, not for education, but as a shelter from the shelling," 12-year-old Shenbari said.

The war has had a negative impact on the students' psychological well-being; they are much more aggressive now, said Mustafa Abu Amra, an Arabic teacher who used to work at an UNRWA school.

“Students are suffering from many things, including a lack of education, nutrition, and security, all of which have negatively affected their learning,” he said.

He is now volunteering in educational tents set up inside shelter center’s to keep students active and busy by teaching them Arabic, math and English, in lieu of an official curriculum. He said pupils are worried they will not be able to graduate after missing a year of schooling.