More than half a million students returned to school in Gaza on Monday, August 29. The Palestine Chronicle correspondent visited several schools throughout the besieged Gaza Strip.
According to figures provided by The Undersecretary of the Ministry of Education and Higher Education, Dr. Ziad Thabet for the new academic year 2022-2023, there are over 300,000 students who are currently registered in government schools.
UNRWA-run institutes serve almost 300,000 additional students.
Despite the Israeli military occupation, the hermetic siege imposed on Gaza, and the repeated Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian population remains one of the most educated in the Middle East.
According to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the literacy rate in Palestine (estimated at 96.3 percent) is one of the highest in the Middle East and the illiteracy rate (3.7 percent among individuals over the age of 15) is one of the lowest in the world.
Unfortunately, some students did not return to school today, following the latest Israeli war on the Strip, which killed 49 Palestinians, including 17 children.
(All Photos: Mahmoud Ajjour, The Palestine Chronicle)
These young children so nee and to be free of the Israeli assaults and occupation. They should not have to face missile strikes, home demolitions, threats with weapons and such terrible uncertainty of events every day.