The UN reports that Palestinian children are returning to bombed out schools in Gaza while on the West Bank they have to put up with harassment from settlers on their way to and from poorly maintained and equipped schools, despite the best efforts of the Palestinian Authority. 10,000 children will start school in tents and caravans. And all this is against a background of the general psychological stress and damage brought on by war and occupation.
The Minister of Education and Higher Education, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), and the United Nations relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) warn that educational standards have plummeted to an unacceptable level, despite the efforts of the Palestinian Authority and the support of the international community.
Today, as over a million children return to school in the oPt, an unacceptable number of them are facing long and precarious journeys to schools ill-equipped to receive them. In Gaza, more than a year after 'Cast Lead', 82 per cent of the damage to schools have still not been repaired, compounding the already stressed education system, where vast majority of schools have been teaching on a double-shift system. In East Jerusalem, there is lack of more than 1,000 classrooms, putting children at risk of not attending school at all. more
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