Education in Gaza: The Struggle for Survival and the Battle for Consciousness

The education sector in Gaza is experiencing an unprecedented existential crisis, whose descriptions are no longer limited to the “collateral damage” of wars, but have risen to become a full-fledged “epistemicide.” In the context of the war of extermination committed by the Israeli army, and with more than two years having passed since the war, its effects are still evident. Gazans found themselves facing a paralyzed educational landscape, not only due to the destructive bombing of buildings, but also due to systematic policies aimed at dismantling the right to learn and emptying Palestinian society of its human and intellectual capital.

I live and witness the education sector in Gaza daily, not from the perspective of a distant analytical reading, but as a direct experience with children and students who struggle daily amidst an ongoing war of extermination. Here, the school does not merely represent a building, but has become a temporary space for survival amidst the destruction, and a refuge that tries to protect what remains of a childhood that is daily exposed to bombing, fear, and displacement.

I am displaced in Gaza City after my home was destroyed, and today I live next to two schools that were partially damaged and are being used as shelters for the displaced. In one of the displacement tents set up in the schoolyards, a group of students gathered around their teacher in a cramped and modest corner, sharing a single textbook that survived the rubble. There were no seats or a blackboard, but a few papers and pens that barely worked. The atmosphere was heavy with heat and noise from around the tent, while the children tried to concentrate amidst the clamor and chaos.

Nevertheless, the students enthusiastically raised their hands to answer questions, as if they were defending their dream before defending their right to learn. Their eyes sparkled with hope despite the fatigue and fear of the sounds of explosions coming from the east of the city and the daily aerial targeting, and their broken voices expressed an unbreakable will. As for the teacher, despite the harsh conditions, he remained steadfast, guiding every question and word of encouragement, as if planting the seeds of knowledge in a desert of rubble.

In these moments, education for Palestinian children becomes more than just a school duty; it is hope, life, and a future, and a lifeline amidst the devastation. Even in the absolute silence of continuous danger, children insist on learning, on dreaming, and on surviving, affirming that knowledge is their last fortress against displacement and oblivion.

Education Under the Guillotine of Systematic Destruction

The language of numbers in Gaza does not only speak of material loss, but screams of the magnitude of human loss that will leave its scars on the face of future generations. The discussion here is about deprivation and the human meanings it carries, as nearly 660,000 children are deprived of their basic right to formal education. And when we know that more than 95 percent of educational facilities have been damaged or completely destroyed, we realize that the Israeli army is not only targeting walls, but is targeting “the future” and future generations.

This destruction affected 285 government schools and one-third of the schools of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). What is more, the remaining schools have been converted into forced shelters for the displaced, lacking the most basic elements of human dignity. The destruction of schools does not only mean the loss of educational buildings, but the collapse of an essential part of the social structure that protects children and gives them a sense of stability. For Palestinian children, school is not just a place for learning, but a space for daily life, social relationships, and rebuilding a sense of security.

And when schools are destroyed or converted into shelters, the educational process is not only disrupted, but childhood itself is severely harmed.

As for universities, they have been widely destroyed, with more than 80 percent of higher education buildings destroyed, academic records lost, hundreds of academics martyred, and laboratories and libraries destroyed. The targeting of universities becomes the peak of epistemicide; it is an attempt to make society ignorant and cut its connection with global scientific development, which makes rebuilding the intellectual and professional elite a sacred national task. For Palestinians, education is the holiest of holies.

Popular Education Experience: Restoring Collective Spirit and the Reference of Steadfastness

To understand the depth of the current challenge, we must not view the Gaza crisis as an isolated event, but as a link in a long chain of attempts to tame Palestinian consciousness. Here, the utmost importance of returning to the “historical memory of popular education” emerges. During the First Intifada (1987–1993), Palestinians faced the policy of closing schools and universities adopted by the occupation to break the popular movement. At that pivotal moment, education transformed from a mere educational process into a sovereign “act of resistance.”

“Alternative education” initiatives emerged within homes, mosques, and churches, where informal educational networks were formed and managed by teachers, students, and the local community with unparalleled solidarity. That experience proved that society is the true incubator of education when official institutions collapse, and that national consciousness is an unbreakable pillar.

Recalling this model today is not merely nostalgia and longing for a past era, but a practical necessity to innovate flexible educational solutions that challenge the rubble of war, based on a long legacy of “stubborn knowledge” that characterizes the Palestinian human being.

Guardian of the Dream: The Palestinian Teacher

It is impossible to talk about resuming the educational process in Gaza or planning for the day after without standing in awe before the file of educational staff and cadres; these who were never just functional numbers, but were the pulsating “memory of the institution” and the guardians of the Palestinian dream in the darkest and harshest circumstances.

Today, in the face of calls for development and reform, we are not in conflict with renewal, but we long to see new blood flowing in the veins of our educational system. But we firmly believe that true renewal does not start from “ground zero,” but is built upon the foundations of experience built by the hands of the first teachers. These male and female teachers are the ones who accompanied the education file from the first moments of the establishment of the Palestinian National Authority, and even before that in the years of steadfastness and insistence on knowledge. They are the ones who transformed simple classrooms into fortresses of thought, and struggled with chalk and book to draw the features of the national character in the minds of generations that succeeded under the weight of siege and wars.

The Palestinian teacher is the cadre who possessed “field experience” baptized with sweat and sacrifice; how can any reconstruction plan bypass those who spent their lives instilling values of belonging and building the educational system brick by brick? Integrating them, honoring them, and providing them with all means of material and moral security, is an acknowledgment of years of giving and effort, and it is the only guarantee against the collapse of the educational structure. The Palestinian teacher is the compass, and protecting their existence and stability is protecting the Palestinian identity itself.

Sovereignty and Illusion… The Dilemma of the National Committee for Education Management

With the emergence of “day after” discussions and the formation of the “National Committee for Gaza Management,” fundamental questions arise about the limits of powers and actual sovereignty. The education management file raises real concerns; while the committee is supposed to organize the educational process, its presumed subordination to international administrative structures, such as the Executive Council headed by Nikolay Mladenov, puts its national independence at stake.

Education in the Palestinian context cannot be managed with a “technical agency” mentality that only implements donor agendas. The greatest danger lies in transforming education into an arena for “reshaping consciousness” beyond national references, under the guise of “reform” that may empty the cause of its historical and struggle content. Therefore, this committee must be a “national shield” that protects the independence of curricula, and ensures that the educational process remains linked to the cultural and political context, based on the experience of the cadres who built this system since the mid-nineties and before.

UNRWA: The Witness Targeted by Political Assassination

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) represents more than just a service provider; it is the living international witness to the tragedy of refuge, and it manages a huge educational apparatus that includes thousands of teachers who possess exceptional experience in crisis management.

The frantic Israeli campaign to dismantle UNRWA is, in essence, an attempt to erase the right of return and destroy the educational infrastructure that has formed a safety valve for hundreds of thousands. Protecting UNRWA’s role, in integration with the government role, is an utmost national necessity to ensure that no educational gap occurs that leads to the loss of an entire generation in the depths of ignorance and poverty.

The Best Interest of the Child

Talking about “changing curricula” as a condition for reconstruction or for receiving international funding raises great concern, because educational curricula are the last fortress of national identity. Any attempt to tamper with historical memory or erase concepts of steadfastness is a continuation of the war with soft tools that target the child’s mind after targeting their body.

The principle of the best interest of the child forms the basis for protecting Palestinian children in the war of extermination. This does not mean merely the right to sit in a school desk, but requires a safe and stable environment that helps the child grow, learn, and restore their stolen childhood. Education must be accompanied by real psychological and social support, so that children can deal with trauma, regain a sense of security and belonging, and continue their normal lives despite loss and displacement. For the school, even if it is a tent or a temporary room, it must become a space for protection and building trust in life.

The Road Back to the School Desk

For the education sector to emerge from this catastrophe, a comprehensive national strategy must be adopted based on considering education a sovereign priority: considering the book and the blackboard as emergency relief tools equal in importance to medicine and food, and empowering the National Committee by providing clear political support that guarantees its independence and its ability to make national decisions with distinction.

The most important thing is to protect facilities and cadres: international pressure to stop targeting the remaining schools, and considering the teacher “protected” under international laws as a humanitarian cadre. Flexible education models can also be adopted by developing temporary schools (tents and caravans) in displacement areas, while providing “accelerated learning” programs to compensate for the huge educational loss.

In parallel, the teacher must be stabilized, meaning ensuring the financial and professional rights of all teachers who have spent years of their lives serving this system, and providing them with psychological security so that they can give.

Not Just a Dream… But a Foundation for the Future

What is happening in Gaza today is not just a fleeting educational crisis, but a test of the will of an entire generation and its ability to survive and excel despite attempts to crush it. The displaced child who reads and does their homework, and searches for a place in a cramped, dark corner of the tent, with a teacher next to them who bandaged their wounds to give them a lesson in will, sends a message to the world that “the right to consciousness is the essence of the conflict and the condition for victory.”

Education in Gaza cannot be reduced to being just a basic right; it is a daily life that tries to continue despite the destruction, a dream of a different future, and a tool for survival and hope in a reality that threatens everything. For Palestinians, education is a lifeline that protects society from collapse, and from the rubble generations have emerged who carry their cause to the world.

The battle to rebuild education in Gaza is not just about rebuilding schools, but it is a battle to protect Palestinian consciousness and the future. If we succeed in protecting the minds of our children and preserving the dignity of our teachers who built this system with their sweat and patience over long decades, we will have laid the true foundation for the future of Gaza.

Education in Gaza will remain an act of steadfastness and an act of liberation at the same time, and our historical responsibility is to protect this light from going out, and to ensure that the book remains open in the hand of the Palestinian child even in the darkest moments.