War prevents 39,000 Gaza students from sitting school-leaving exam

Inability to take the Tawjihi exam underlines Israeli offensive's impact on education in the Palestinian territory

A gutted UN school in the Jabalia refugee camp, in northern Gaza, after fighting between the Israel military and Hamas in May. AFP

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The war in Gaza has prevented 39,000 students there from sitting the school-leaving public exam held on Saturday, the Palestinian Ministry of Education and Higher Education said.

The ministry, based in the occupied West Bank, said 50,097 high school students were taking the exam, know as Tawjihi, including 1,320 who were displaced from Gaza.

Israel's military offensive in Gaza, now in its ninth month, has severely affected education in the Palestinian enclave.

Most of Gaza's 2.3 million population have been forced to flee their homes, while much of its infrastructure, including utilities, hospitals and schools, has been destroyed, and hunger has become widespread because Israeli of controls on the entry of goods.

The UN says distribution of aid that enters the territory is increasingly difficult amid continued fighting and rising levels of lawlessness.

More than 625,000 students are missing out on education or access to a safe learning environment because of school closures and attacks on education since the war began on October 7, according to the Global Education Cluster, a forum led by the UN children's agency Unicef and the NGO Save the Children.

It said a satellite-based assessment conducted in April showed that more than 85 per cent of schools in Gaza have suffered some level of damage.

In addition, schools are now being used as shelters for displaced people.

Of the 307 government school buildings, 286 have been damaged, including dozens that were destroyed, according to Sadiq Khadour, spokesman for the Ministry of Education and Higher Education.

The destruction extends beyond buildings to include vital communication and electrical networks, making the prospect of shifting to online education unfeasible in the near future, Palestinian news agency Wafa quoted Mr Khadour as saying.

At least 8,000 school-age children and 350 teachers have been killed in Gaza, and more than 12,500 students have been injured, according to the ministry.

It is planning a special exam session for high school students once conditions in Gaza permit and the minimum required curriculum can be taught, Wafa reported.

The ministry will also conduct an assessment of the damage to educational institutions and identify locations for temporary classrooms.

Preliminary estimates suggest that Gaza needs at least 4,500 additional classrooms, operating in double shifts to accommodate all students.