Gaza — 745,000 students denied their right to education

The Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, has warned that Palestinian refugee education is under escalating and systematic attack. This is specially true in the case of Gaza.

He described the situation as one of the most serious blows to the future of Palestinian generations.

Lazzarini said more than 600,000 children in the Gaza Strip have been deprived of formal education for over two consecutive years. He noted that these children are not only out of classrooms, but living amid rubble and deep psychological trauma.

Gaza education

In a post on X, Lazzarini stressed that returning children to safe learning environments is a top priority for UNRWA. He said the education system in Gaza has nearly collapsed. He explained that around 65,000 children are currently accessing temporary learning spaces run by UNRWA inside Gaza. Meanwhile, roughly 300,000 children receive basic lessons in reading, writing, and arithmetic through digital education platforms.

These measures, he warned, are emergency responses and cannot replace formal schooling.

Data from United Nations agencies, including UNESCO, UNRWA, and the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), illustrate the scale of the crisis. Around 745,000 students in Gaza have been denied formal education since October 2023, marking the third consecutive year of disruption.

Among them are approximately 88,000 university students whose education has been completely halted. This represents a dangerous precedent that risks the loss of an entire generation of Palestinian youth.

UN reports confirm that between 95 and 97 percent of schools and educational facilities in Gaza have been destroyed. This includes government schools, UNRWA schools, and private institutions. Many buildings were completely levelled, while hundreds more were left unusable. Extensive reconstruction will be required before students can return.

Education specialists warn that prolonged school closures, combined with destroyed infrastructure, restrictions on UNRWA, and limits on student movement, have caused an unprecedented loss of learning. They estimate students have lost between three and five years of effective schooling.

They caution that the consequences will extend far beyond the present. The damage threatens long-term human development, as well as social and economic stability, entrenching what is increasingly described as Gaza’s “lost generation.”

Featured image via UNICEF