Back to school in Gaza: Learning in tents after years of disruption

Gaza City – Early connected Saturday morning, Rana Totah held her 2 sons’ hands arsenic she walked them to schoolhouse successful al-Katiba, Gaza City, watching them instrumentality to a regular they had astir forgotten.

For Totah, 30, the greeting was much than the archetypal time of a caller schoolhouse year. It was a instrumentality to household beingness interrupted by astir 3 years of warfare and displacement aft Israel’s genocidal warfare connected Gaza began successful October 2023.

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Displaced from Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighbourhood to al-Katiba successful occidental Gaza City, Totah spent the erstwhile nighttime preparing her children for their archetypal time backmost successful face-to-face education.

She made definite they slept aboriginal the nighttime before, past woke them, dressed them and brought them to school.

“Honestly, contiguous was a beauteous time for me. It adjacent felt similar Eid,” Totah told Al Jazeera. “I prepared my children, they were excited and they went to furniture early. I prepared them arsenic if it were a mean schoolhouse day.”

The Gaza Municipality schoolhouse was acceptable up successful astir 10 tents successful the occidental Gaza City neighbourhood arsenic a impermanent abstraction for a instrumentality to face-to-face education. “Sometimes determination would beryllium months erstwhile I stopped taking them altogether,” Totah said.

During the war, including erstwhile the household was successful Khan Younis, Totah tried to support her 4 children successful acquisition done informal learning via volunteer-led initiatives. But attendance was irregular, with the dangers of warfare and the conflict to find necessities a precedence for parents, teachers and students. Ultimately, endurance came earlier school, and her children took connected indispensable tasks specified arsenic fetching water, contempt Totah’s pleas for them to absorption connected learning.

“There were precise hard days. They would deliberation astir things like, ‘Mum, bring maine water,’ oregon ‘Mum, fto maine spell and get you this.’ And I would archer them, ‘ No, I privation to absorption connected your studies.’ Education is the instauration of everything successful life.”

These Palestinian children person returned to their studies successful a structure with fewer basal supplies. Educational resources are scarce crossed Gaza [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera]

A fragile instrumentality to learning

The instrumentality to face-to-face acquisition comes aft astir 3 years of disruption owed to Israel’s genocidal war, which has seen astir each of Gaza’s colonisation displaced and astir buildings successful the enclave destroyed.

About 541,000 students returned to acquisition successful Gaza erstwhile the caller schoolhouse twelvemonth began connected September 19, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Education and Higher Education, which comes aft a alteration – but not an extremity – successful unit pursuing the October 2025 ceasefire.

In January, the ministry said 317,332 students were attending face-to-face acquisition spaces, schools and initiatives successful Gaza. Another 120,000 were enrolled successful virtual schools taught by teachers from the West Bank.

However, contempt the Gaza ceasefire, Israeli bombing has continued, with two students killed earlier this month. Such dangers person severely affected the learning situation and acquisition remains severely constrained by warfare and different realities connected the ground.

Nearly 98 percent of schoolhouse buildings successful Gaza had been damaged since October 2023, with much than 93 percent requiring large rehabilitation oregon afloat reconstruction, according to UNICEF.

About 700,000 children aged 4 to 17 had missed ceremonial face-to-face schooling for astir 3 consecutive schoolhouse years, with astir 420,000 having nary face-to-face learning astatine all.

Inside 1 tent, Nesma Nahid Abu Asim was teaching mathematics to sixth-grade students, penning connected a whiteboard arsenic children sat connected mattresses with notebooks connected their laps.

Gaza’s acquisition strategy has been severely disrupted arsenic astir schools were damaged oregon destroyed during the war, portion galore others were turned into shelters for displaced families [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera]

Abu Asim has been a maths teacher since 2010. She worked for the Ministry of Education earlier the warfare and present teaches done a UNICEF programme supporting acquisition successful Gaza.

“During this period, acquisition has been precise difficult. There person been large challenges for some parents and teachers arsenic we effort to get the pupil to safety,” she said.

“Education is simply a close for each pupil … [but] students get without basal stationery oregon textbooks, portion tables and chairs are mostly unavailable. The pupil comes to schoolhouse contiguous successful a unsafe situation, successful a warfare situation.”

Due to Israel’s ongoing siege connected Gaza, schools person reported a terrible deficiency of stationery, schoolbooks, desks, and chairs. But for Abu Asim, her biggest interest is the menace of different interruption to education.

“These conditions are hard for the student, but they are not intolerable conditions. The biggest trouble is that we halt education,” she said.

“We person taken a bully measurement and opened the schoolhouse year. We are returning to mean life, to education. The pupil has the close to larn and to beryllium astatine a schoolhouse desk.”

Now she hopes impermanent classrooms volition yet springiness mode to safer and much imperishable spaces for Gaza City’s children.

“I anticipation the schools volition beryllium emptied of displaced families and returned to these students. These students are our children,” she said. “We cannot enactment 40 students successful a tent. In a classroom, we tin person 40 students.”

As his teacher continues her maths lesson, 11-year-old Osama Alayleh concisely paused to archer Al Jazeera however his archetypal time successful people feels. “I’m blessed that I’m backmost astatine school,” helium said.

Osama ranked 3rd successful his people and hopes to decorativeness the twelvemonth successful archetypal place, and says his favourite taxable is Arabic.

He said helium would alternatively beryllium backmost successful a regular schoolhouse gathering with tables and chairs, alternatively than a structure similar his home, but is acceptable for a caller schoolhouse twelvemonth with notebooks, books and stationery provided by assistance groups.

“But what tin we do? It’s OK. The important happening is that we study,” helium said. “I’m excited for this schoolhouse year. I anticipation it continues without immoderate problems.”

A schoolhouse without desks

Like Osama, galore children are inactive studying successful tents and different impermanent learning spaces, with cramped conditions and constricted resources, UNICEF said.

It is acold from a mean schoolhouse situation and this concern tin beryllium seen astatine Ahbab Shujayea School, a makeshift schoolhouse housed successful worn-out tents adjacent Gaza City’s larboard area.

School supplies, including basal items specified arsenic notebooks and pencils, person been banned from entering Gaza during the war. While immoderate restrictions person been lifted, Palestinian authorities said conscionable this period that Israel had prevented a shipment of schoolhouse bags and stationery from UNICEF from entering the enclave.

At this school, determination are nary desks oregon chairs, truthful archetypal and second-grade students beryllium crowded unneurotic connected the ground, utilizing pieces of cardboard to constitute on. Their teacher, who besides has small to enactment with, explains the acquisition connected a precise tiny board.

The school’s director, Inaam al-Batreekhi, said this was the champion they could supply the children, fixed the circumstances.

“More than 300 students are enrolled astatine Ahbab Shujayea School, but unfortunately, they are students without notebooks oregon stationery,” al-Batreekhi told Al Jazeera.

“We tin survey today, we tin beryllium connected the crushed today. But tomorrow, erstwhile the rainfall comes, we won’t beryllium capable to.”

Inaam al-Batreekhi, manager of Ahbab Shujayea School successful Gaza’s larboard area, says the schoolhouse has 300 students and urgently needs enactment for basal learning conditions [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera]

The schoolhouse serves children from 9 displacement camps astir the port, from archetypal to sixth grade. Due to information concerns, specified arsenic Israeli shelling from the sea, the schoolhouse time has been shortened, with classes moving from 8am to 11am.

“Sometimes students travel precocious and archer me, ‘I was filling h2o for my mother,’” al-Batreekhi said. “These are displaced children. A abbreviated portion ago, they were carrying h2o and food. Now they are present trying to learn.”

She runs the schoolhouse voluntarily and her ambition is for classes to instrumentality to a due building.

“I anticipation we tin instrumentality to authoritative schools, to buildings. All the buildings are gone. All the schools person go tents,” she said. “In erstwhile wars, we would miss schoolhouse for a period oregon two, past instrumentality and find our schoolhouse arsenic it was. We would cleanable it, organise it and spell backmost to studying. Now, returning to schools similar that is astir intolerable successful the blink of an eye.”

For now, al-Batreekhi says the precedence is to marque this impermanent schoolhouse arsenic comfy arsenic imaginable for the children.

“I anticipation the concern astatine the schoolhouse and for the students volition improve, and that we tin get the enactment we request to amended their learning conditions,” she said.

“Even having chairs and desks would marque a difference. These are children successful archetypal and 2nd grade, and they are conscionable opening their education. They merit to person the basal conditions to learn.”