Protecting the Right to Education in the Face of Educational Genocide

Stability and calm have been fading from Palestine for decades, with killers raising the specter of death in the face of the international community’s inability to take effective measures in accordance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and international legal instruments, including the Geneva Conventions that define the required behavior during military occupation. As a result, the occupation’s violations of the right to education continue, hampering the ability of the Palestinian education sector to realize the right to education for students at all levels of education. In this context, many Palestinian students are still deprived of education, which is considered an act of liberation, as all children in Gaza were deprived of education during the 2023/2024 academic year due to the aggression. Moreover, the inhumane statements of the leaders of genocide and ethnic cleansing (Israel), where the Minister of War described the Palestinians as “human animals”, confirming the lack of water, food and fuel, ignoring UN resolutions and disrespecting international law, which increases tension and reflects the ugly immoral face of the occupation’s policy towards the Palestinians.

The aggression on Gaza has led to the total destruction of society and the collapse of the educational system, as homes, schools and universities were destroyed, and the specter of death has destroyed the dreams of childhood and the hopes of students, leaving spiritual and social scars and deformities in all Palestinians. Perhaps the most prominent effect of the genocide that has affected education is that the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Group (ACLED) has classified this war as one of the top three in terms of the level of violence and danger to civilians. Sources from the Palestinian Ministry of Health have indicated that the death toll from the (Israeli) aggression has risen to more than 40,800 martyrs and 94,300 injured since the beginning of the aggression on Gaza until September 2, 2024, and a number of victims are still under the rubble and on the streets.

The targeting of children, women and the elderly is one of the most prominent manifestations of the brutality of this war. The UN Secretary-General has indicated that Gaza has become a "graveyard for children", as children constitute 47.3% of Gaza's population of approximately 2.3 million people. The World Health Organization reports that a child is killed every 10 minutes, including more than 10,000 school students. According to data from the Ministry of Education, 630,000 students are prevented from reaching their schools, including 39,000 students who were prevented from taking the high school exams. In addition, more than 10,000 students were martyred and more than 15,400 students were wounded, in addition to 88,000 university students who are prevented from attending their universities, including more than 660 martyrs and 1,320 wounded. This comes in light of the fact that more than 88% of educational buildings have been completely destroyed or severely or moderately damaged, and the remaining ones, despite being subjected to attacks, are being used as shelters.

The aggression has created a tragic picture of the educational situation in Palestine, turning children into victims, as they witnessed painful horrors. UNICEF reported that 1.7 million people have been displaced, half of them children, and are suffering from lack of water and food, while the rains are flooding tents, increasing malnutrition. Nine out of 10 children in the Gaza Strip lack sufficient nutrients, and the impact of this violence against children will continue for generations to come, as more than 17,000 school-age children have been orphaned.

All this comes amid a difficult economic situation that has placed heavy burdens on families, as reports from the International Labor Organization indicated that the sector’s gross domestic product has declined by 80%, in addition to the occupation’s piracy of tax revenues, which has cast its shadow over Palestinian life as a whole and the weak ability of institutions, especially educational ones, to bear their responsibilities, which has negatively affected students and educational cadres and increased psychological and social pressures.

In light of the genocide in Gaza and the accompanying genocide of knowledge and education in general, protecting education is a top priority, considering education as a national and societal security. The return to education requires interventions that rely on an educational philosophy based on continuous improvement and performance development, the most prominent of which are:

First: Interventions to provide places to resume education:

- Providing temporary places to resume studies, such as: public and private institutions and residences that are still suitable for human use. Tents can be set up in the courtyards wherever possible, and implementing the shift system until schools are renovated in succession in a way that preserves public safety and security.

- Working to gradually evacuate the displaced from schools according to the possibilities by providing housing for them, in order to restore school life.

Second: Accelerating learning for students:

 Focus on core subjects: strengthening reading and mathematics skills in the early primary stage, and more focus on languages, mathematics, and science in other grades.

 Identifying the skills and concepts necessary for learning in the following years, with a focus on educational outcomes, and using the educational packages of the Palestinian curricula prepared and implemented by the Ministry in the year 2020/2022 in accordance with the principles.

 Adapting education according to students’ proficiency levels, grouping them into groups according to their needs, allocating educational content that suits individual differences, and employing active learning strategies.

 Employing teaching strategies that are appropriate for the new contexts resulting from the aggression, and which the teacher considers appropriate, such as: problem-based learning, the use of technology in education, active learning, differentiated education, in addition to enhancing cooperation and partnership, applying continuous assessment, and others.

Third: Psychological and social support:

 Implementing cultural activities and programs for psychological and social support for students, teachers and parents, to relieve psychological pressure, depression, anxiety and isolation.

 Activating the role of educational counselors to address the negative psychological effects on students and all parties of the educational community, and communicating in appropriate ways with students, especially those with disabilities.

 Encouraging civil society organizations to participate in implementing informal programs and activities, with the necessity of providing psychological counseling services to students and teachers on an ongoing basis.

Fourth: Training and professional development:

 Organizing workshops to train teachers and develop their capacities on active learning strategies that enhance self-learning, joint cooperation, and crisis management, such as learning by playing, learning through drama, dialogue and discussion, analog activities, problem solving, cooperative learning, flipped learning, collaborative learning, diagnostic learning, experiential learning, simulation learning, project-based learning, and others.

 Enhancing the ability to respond effectively, which contributes to protecting students and reducing psychological and social damage.

 Carefully design training programs to meet the needs of individuals and teams in challenging circumstances.

Fifth: Use of technology

 Replacing alternative learning patterns that are compatible with the new situation, by training teachers and administrators to deal effectively with all technological means, whether synchronous or asynchronous; in a way that responds to the lack of internet availability, or via the internet if it is available.

 Use technology to provide online educational resources if available, and pre-prepared digital content on disks or flash drives can be used. If home computers are not available, students can be provided with special paper materials for students who cannot access temporary teaching spaces.

Sixth: Cooperation and partnerships

 Building bridges of cooperation with all local community institutions, and formulating real partnership opportunities to support educational programmes and provide resources.

 Involving parents in the educational process through workshops and seminars to raise awareness of the importance of education.

Seventh: Evaluation

 Providing immediate feedback to help students and teachers identify strengths and weaknesses.

 Use assessment results to improve learning and teaching strategies, reflecting the principle of continuous improvement.

 Enhancing student participation in the evaluation process, which contributes to improving educational outcomes.

 Conduct periodic evaluations to measure the effectiveness of educational programs and interventions, and modify them as needed on a regular and continuous basis, instead of relying on final exams only.