PA 'neglects education in Gaza' for 3rd year in a row

The Ministry of Education run by the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah has “neglected” Gaza’s young people for the third year in a row. The claim was made by the Deputy Education Minister in Gaza, Ziad Thabet, who told a press conference that 499,643 students in the besieged enclave are “suffering” from the lack of basic needs because the PA in Ramallah “does not fulfil its duty towards them.”

Around 1.2 million Palestinian students started the new academic year on Sunday in both the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Thabet said that his ministry in Gaza has a shortage of teachers. Vacancies cannot be filled, he pointed out, because the ministry in Ramallah does not recognise any new employee recruited in Gaza. In an effort to overcome this problem, Thabet said that officials in Gaza have been obliged to recruit temporary teachers to satisfy the requirements of the students.

He added that the ministry in Gaza has been suffering from cuts to the administrative and operational budget made by the Palestinian national government in Ramallah. This means that the renovation and rebuilding of schools in Gaza has been extremely difficult. Many educational facilities were targeted by Israeli military offensives over the past few years, and the government in Tel Aviv places tight restrictions on the amount of cement allowed to go into the territory.

The deputy minister called on Arab and international bodies to put pressure on the PA to fulfil its obligations towards the besieged Gaza Strip, as well as to put pressure on the Israeli occupation authorities to lift the ten-year-old siege.