Children in Gaza are returning to school as a new academic year begins, but many are facing classrooms damaged by years of war and a severe shortage of basic educational facilities.
At a school in Nuseirat operated by the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, some classrooms have no desks, forcing pupils to sit on blankets on the floor. Other classrooms have old and damaged desks that survived the conflict.
For many children, the years since the war began have been marked by repeated displacement, as families fled airstrikes and shelling. Some children have also spent much of their time helping their families search for water and food instead of attending classes or spending time with friends.
For some families, however, the return to school has provided a sense of routine that had been lost during the conflict.
“I arrived to find a normal school environment—as much as was possible—with a morning assembly and a warm welcome from the administration,” said Asmaa Al-Hour, whose two children attend the school.
“My child is overjoyed; he had been waiting since dawn to go to school, just as he had seen his siblings do. I also have a daughter in the fourth grade; she attended classes for the first month, having spent the three years of the war wishing she could at least visit a school,” she added.
UNRWA said more than 280,000 children are currently attending classes in its schools and educational tents across Gaza.
Tawfiq al-Hourani, head of UNRWA’s education programme, said the agency was working to improve learning conditions and restore the education system.
“Three years ago, UNRWA had 182 fully equipped schools; however, we have unfortunately lost more than 95 percent of them, and those that remain are occupied by displaced people,” al-Hourani said.
He said UNRWA hoped to “improve the educational environment and restore it to the state it was in three years ago.”
Schools resumed operations last November following an October ceasefire, but Gaza’s education system has continued to face severe disruption.
Several school buildings remain damaged, while others are being used as shelters by displaced families.
According to UNICEF, about 700,000 children aged four to 17 in Gaza had been deprived of formal in-person education for nearly three years as of April.
The agency also estimated that about 420,000 children had received no face-to-face education at all since October 2023.
