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MIDEAST: Textbooks Become a Dream
By Mel Frykberg
GAZA CITY, Sep 17, 2009 (IPS) - A chronic shortage of school supplies, and severely overcrowded classrooms are
crippling Gaza's educational system as tens of thousands of children begin a
new school year.
Israel's hermetic sealing of the strip, as part of its blockade against Hamas,
has prevented most supplies of paper, textbooks, notebooks, ink cartridges,
stationery, school uniforms, school bags, and computers and their spare
parts.
"Through our education system the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) is
spreading the message of universal respect for human rights, peaceful
coexistence and tolerance in an atmosphere that since the blockade has
become increasingly desperate and radicalised," says UNRWA spokesman
Chris Gunness.
"The best way for Israel to prevent us spreading that message to the 200,000
Gazan children at our schools is to block us sending in educational supplies,"
Gunness told IPS.
"During the summer camps that we ran in July/August we were able to get all
sorts of school supplies in and as a result the camps ran smoothly. But now
the Israeli authorities are again limiting the educational goods entering. The
psychology of the blockade is confusing. We are talking about educating
children."
Fifteen-year-old Jala Halayil, a tenth grader at the Ahmed Shawki Secondary
School in Gaza city's Rimal neighbourhood is confused too.
"Why are we being denied an education and the ability to study, and the
ability to earn a living in the future? How does this threaten Israel's security? I
don't have any notebooks, and the few textbooks I have double up as
notebooks. I have to rely on memory a lot."
May Adali, the school director, showed IPS reports she was writing on the
backside of used sheets. "The students can't make photocopies and they can't
print as we have no ink cartridges." Adali added, "The textbooks we are using
are outdated."
School uniforms are another serious issue. "Some students are too
embarrassed to come to school because they don't have uniforms due to the
shortage of clothing material in Gaza," Nadia Kishawi, an English language
teacher, told IPS. "Others can't afford the limited number available."
Gaza's education ministry is now allowing more children to attend school
without paying fees.
Electricity cuts and fuel shortages as a result of Israel's embargo have made
studying at night difficult. "Sometimes I need to study in the evening but I
can't because there is no light," says Nadia Daoud, a classmate of Halayil.
"Sometimes when we hear Israeli planes flying overhead we are scared that
they are going to bomb us again and that makes it hard to study," Daoud told
IPS. "We don't have cinemas or malls or other forms of entertainment or
places to relax in Gaza like elsewhere in the world."
"The performance of Gaza's school children has also been affected by rife
malnutrition, including anaemia and stunting, as well as the many cases of
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)," Basil Kanua, food security and
livelihood assistant with Oxfam in Gaza told IPS.
Kishawi said a lot of her pupils had become anti-social and aggressive
following Operation Cast Lead, Israel's codename for its intensive three-week
bombardment of Gaza in January.
Gaza's classrooms are now severely overcrowded, and often accommodate up
to 40 or more pupils in a class.
This has forced most UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and government
schools to run double and sometimes triple shifts for children - 56 percent of
Gaza's 1.5 million people are under 18 years of age.
Gaza's already overstretched educational infrastructure was further degraded
during the Gaza war when schools were bombed. The UN Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports that 18 schools were
completely destroyed and 280 were damaged.
The American School in Gaza was one of the casualties. It had been a centre
of tranquility and learning prior to the war, with sports, library and other
recreational facilities - rarities in Gaza. Today all that remains is a heap of
rubble, and there appears little chance that the school will open again in the
near future.
"Construction materials needed for repairing 'Cast Lead' damage alone
include 25,000 tonnes of iron and 40,000 tonnes of cement. The ban on the
entry of construction material as part of the blockade has prevented the
reconstruction or rehabilitation or expansion of schools," says OCHA's August
report.
Gaza's Ministry of Education and Higher Education says that 105 new schools
need to be built to accommodate the growing student body. To date Israel
has allowed only a few truckloads of construction material into Gaza.
Even if many Gazan students succeed in overcoming the obstacles they face
in completing their schooling, furthering their education abroad remains
enormously difficult.
"In addition to the shortage of facilities, the ongoing blockade has had a
negative impact on the ability of students to pursue university degrees
abroad. In 2008, only 70 students exited Gaza via Erez crossing between July
and September, leaving hundreds of students trapped as a result of the newly
instated diplomatic escort requirement mandated by Israeli authorities," says
OCHA.
Nevertheless, Halayil and Daoud remain defiant, and determined to finish
their education. "We are strong, we will overcome this situation, and we will
get an education somehow so that we can help our people and our
community," says Daoud.
"I want to study at university to be a journalist when I leave school so that I
can report on our suffering and what we have endured to the world," Halayil
tells IPS. (END)
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