Re Education : Issue #23 - Back to School - but not for Gaza
Back to School - but not for Gaza
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This issue highlights the state of education in Gaza. Much has been written on this, including on the more than 18,000 children killed, and the physical destruction of 95% of schools. To that is now added the starvation children and their families face as a result of deliberate Israeli policies. It is difficult, if not impossible, for learning to take place if you are constantly hungry.
A new paper by We’am Hamdan, a doctoral student at Cambridge University, “Empty Chairs : Media, Movement and Liberation” published in “Child Studies” ties together the many threads of this brutal, dehumanising and one-sided conflict as it has affected, and continues to affect, education. Although her doctoral studies are in higher education, employment and ICT, like many Palestinians she has felt compelled to switch her attention to the ongoing and systematic destruction of children, their opportunities and their memories.
It’s a powerful, yet strange, read. Couched in academic language she methodically documents the ways in which children’s lives and growth are being curtailed – from language to memory, from criminalisation to scholasticide to (a new one for me) epistemicide. But, from the outset she acknowledges the inadequacy of an academic approach to the ongoing conflict, saying that she intends to adopt :
..a methodology of narrative inquiry, which treats stories not as passive reflections of reality, but as acts of survival, resistance, and meaning making. It centres the presence of Palestinian children and their communities, who continue to create and educate amid systematic erasure.
This storytelling approach gives an occasionally encouraging feel to the paper as it records and witnesses the resilience shown by Gazan children in using social media and digital technology to record their lives, their hopes and their continued determination to learn and grow. That resilience is inspiring, but a sense of fragility feels ever-present :
…every aspect of life in occupied Palestine—electricity, water, medicine, communication, and life itself—is under the control of a force that decides who gets to exist and who does not.
That includes the internet and the ability to communicate with the outside world or even to upload and store digital memories : who is curating or preserving this digital history for posterity ?
..scholasticide is a colonial weapon aimed at erasing both historical memory and future possibility. Internet blackouts, assassinated educators, and razed libraries are not random acts as they target the very capacity of Palestinians to think, imagine, and resist.
It is a telling aspect of We’am Hamdan’s experience that her paper was rejected by five journals for being “too emotional” and in the end only accepted by an education journal not well-known to the education development community. It deserves better. Palestinians deserve better.
Andy Brock, September 2025
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In countless videos, young voices whisper “ya reitni rohet ma’ahom” (I wish I had gone with them), as they sit beside the remains of their families…To stand amid such destruction and still utter “Benna n’eesh” (we want to live) is an act of unimaginable defiance.
We’am Hamdan
News
On Monday, 2.58 million Israeli students returned to their classrooms to begin the new school year… In Gaza, meanwhile, the education system has been largely levelled by two years of Israeli bombardment.
(As Israeli students return to classrooms, Gaza's schools lie in ruins : Middle East Eye 1st September).
Concerned at what's happening to children in Gaza and the misuse of anti-terror laws in the UK to discourage people from protesting, children's author and illustrator Chris Haughton and Joseph N’Han O’Reilly have prepared a statement which they are inviting children's authors, illustrators, and educators to support (Michael Rosen is one). You can find the short statement here. Educators are invited to sign the statement at the link above.
Amnesty International UK and Save the Children UK are spearheading a campaign to keep the situation of children in Gaza high on the agenda. You can sign up at letchildrenlive.com and share their name on social media to make sure every child is represented. hashtag#letchildrenlive
A new film “The Voice of Hind Rajab” premiered at the Venice Film Festival, and received a 25-minute standing ovation. The film tells the true story of the 5-year old girl, who should have been in school, but who was murdered by 355 bullets in a car in which she had been stranded. Another new film, “Palestine 36”, has just gone on release. A review in Closer to the Edge said : “Palestine 36 is not just a movie — it’s an intervention”.
Haaretz, the Israeli newspaper, reports that the Israeli Education Ministry has issued summonses to 11 school principals in connection with a video that called for the return of the hostages and an end to the war in Gaza. In Jerusalem on 6th September 15,000 people marched to demand an end to the war.
For a glimpse of some of what is being done by UK higher education to support education in Gaza, including by the Council for At-Risk Academics (CARA), sometimes against opposition and indifference, see this post from Rajani Naidoo, Vice President and Deputy Vice Chancellor at University of Exeter.
It’s not only Gaza….the UNICEF Global Education Cluster has reported that nearly 9 million children are out of school in Sudan in a conflict that struggles for attention in the world’s press : Education: A lifeline for Sudan’s children of war
The Economist obituary on Razia Jan – an inspiring advocate for girls’ education in Afghanistan – had a sobering anecdote. Every day, when she ran a girls’ school, she would be the first to drink water from the school well – to ensure it was not poisoned. People like her are the heroes of our times.
The news that Cambridge Education is set to shut down – reported in last month’s newsletter - is confirmed from multiple sources, though Mott MacDonald, the parent company, has made no public statement. In “normal” circumstances projects that had years to run would have been passed over to other suppliers to ensure children’s education was not affected. Will that be the case here ?
It’s no secret that FCDO are desperate to cut budgets – where better than some multimillion-pound education contracts in countries that can’t complain ? FCDO and its suppliers have a duty to exit large education programmes responsibly and with care and sensitivity for their beneficiaries. Will FCDO reject the destructive Trump / Musk model, or ape it ?
Education.org are co-hosting an online seminar with UNICEF on the sky-high numbers of out-of-school children : “Education for All: New insights on getting 272 million out-of-school children and youth into the classroom – and setting them up for success”. Date: 18 September Time: 12-1.15pm GMT. To register: Click here.
The British International Studies Association (BISA) is celebrating 50 years at their conference in Newcastle in October. Details here.
If you’re coming to the biennial Oxford Conference, 16-18th September, hosted by UKFIET, join the creative session I’m organising called “The Demise of International Education Development : three scenarios for reincarnation”. It’s a workshop and we’ll be seeking to bring the best minds to bear on the vexed “where do we go from here” question. Reincarnation as elephant or mouse ? Details below.
Development
Jonathan Glennie has a well-argued LinkedIn post warning about the retreat from aid under the guise of universalism :
Universalism has become a smokescreen for retreat. Commitments to international public finance are being hollowed out - and in their place, donor countries are offering vague promises to support domestic resource mobilization (DRM) and policy coherence.
Nora Marketos, as part of her series PurposePhil Pulse, Female Leaders in Education & Philanthropy, has an interview with Kat Patillo – whose newsletter Edwell I referenced last issue. From Spark to Systems: Kat Pattillo on Leadership, Advocacy, and Reimagining Education | LinkedIn
Do you know the difference between obeseogenic, stupidogenic or moronogenic societies ? Read this perceptive blog by Daisy Chistodolou on how AI could be making us all more stupid, or more smart, and what role schools have to play … “Are we living in a stupidogenic society?”
Lydia Namubiru’s piece in The Continent Substack “How to fund African development – and how not to highlights the temptation for financiers to raid Africa’s pension funds for public investment. Her subtitle : “Aid is dead. Grandma is not. But taking her pension to build a road might kill her” is a pithy summary.
Voices from the front
Ahmed Kamal Junina wrote a moving article in The Guardian : ‘Too hungry to think, too weak to sit upright. Concentration slips away’: the struggle to stay focused as an academic in Gaza | Ahmed Kamal Junina | The Guardian
There is an interview with him on CBS here. and for those attending the UKFIET Oxford Conference, he will be making a keynote address on the first day.
Children now know how to hide from airstrikes better than they know how to read or write.
The Globe and Mail on how teachers using carboard, paper and pen, in makeshift tents instead of classrooms, continue to help children learn.
The National reports : “Gaza's children face third year of disrupted schooling”. The school leaving exam has also required innovation :
Education authorities have also organised online Tawjihi school-leaving exams for about 38,000 higher secondary students who are unable to sit them in person because of the war. They will answer one paper a day from September 6-15 using the WiseSchool application, with additional security measures, such as screen recording and mandatory camera use, to prevent cheating.
And it’s not just Gaza, as this article from UN News demonstrates. Education is being disrupted in the West Bank too. Roland Friedrich, Director of UNWRA affairs in the West Bank is quoted as saying :
This time last year, I opened the school year with children in Jenin camp. Now, these students have been forcibly displaced from their homes, and UNRWA schools in the camp stand silent. Of the more than 30,000 Palestinians displaced in the northern West Bank, more than one third are children from the Jenin, Tulkarm and Nur Shams camps. In East Jerusalem, for the first time in our history, UNRWA has been prevented from opening its six schools after they were forcibly closed by Israeli authorities in May, affecting some 800 children.
The Rest is Politics has an in-depth interview with James Elder of UNICEF on trying to provide humanitarian support in Gaza. There’s a lot about the trauma children are experiencing - a tough, but essential, listen.
Voices from the rear
(Gray and Published Research)
Hiba Ibrahim and Savo Heleta have a paper Scholasticide in Gaza and Palestine as a Portal : A Duoethnography on Silence, Silencing and the Struggle for a Better World. In layperson’s terms it’s a dialogue between two researchers, with a lot of academic references, focusing on the responses of higher education institutions and their students to Gaza.
A new book, published in July, by Samah Jabr “Radiance in Pain and Resilience” addresses the mental health repercussions of the Palestinian trauma.
Education And Training In West Bank And Gaza: Facts And Figures June 2025 update. The European Training Foundation (ETF) provides statistics on the destruction of education facilities and spaces, updated June 2025. Table 1 reproduced below shows that 95% of children are out of school. In January UNWRA launched a distance learning programme – 277,000 students registered. But, internet access is patchy.
The New Arab has an interview with Mohammed El-Kurd about his recently published book “Perfect Victims and the Politics of Appeal”. He says
You see the world functionally, fundamentally fund the Israeli and the Zionist regime, and you wonder if all of this hasn't changed, if all this butchery and massacres haven't changed people's minds, why is the written word important? But then you remind yourself that it's an obligation more than anything. It's our obligation to write.”
Mona Jebril highlights education and innovation responses with examples of a portable desalination plant and creating electricity from wind power. Innovative Dimensions for Health Resilience Amidst War and Humanitarian Crises in Gaza and Beyond
Tom Vandenbosch reports on how the recently declared Santiago Consensus has applied the concept of “the common heritage of humankind” to the teacher-student relationship. In Tom’s words this elevates “teaching to the level of oceans, space, and cultural treasures.” I like this, even if the cynic in me asks “ready to be trashed then?”.
Peps Mccrea has a website and newsletter for teachers called Evidence Snacks, a kind of Dave Evans for teachers. For example, he’s just published a nine minute video summary of 12 key education papers in the last year. Although largely northern referenced, it’s one to pique interest or whet appetites for teachers anywhere. (h/t to Asyia Kazmi).
And finally
We’am Hamdan’s paper ends with this speech written for her years ago by her teacher. An invocation to the power of education to provide hope :
Between the destroyed home and the road covered in dust, every Palestinian must find a way to cling to life. This is another year among years of catastrophe and sacrifice, yet we write with our pens only that we will never abandon our dream of freedom. Knowledge is our path, and understanding is our goal. We bear witness before the whole world that we are students of truth. In this academic year, which we crossed as if walking through a field of thorns, we proved, beyond doubt, that we are students in the fullest sense of the word. We proved that the power of killing and destruction in the hands of the ‘enemies of life’ will never kill our determination to seek knowledge and continue our journey. Time and again, we struggled to reach school, but the will to live always triumphed. And each morning, we repeated: My homeland, my homeland, my homeland, to you belong my love and my heart.
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Again one of many great issues of the Journal that you launched after becoming 'independent' again. A great job indeed Andy and I wholeheartedly congratulate you with the result. Sincerely hope that your efforts, thought leadership and personal commitment will contribute to a resurgence of western support to education, not in the least to those most in need!
The picture of the olive trees prompted a poignant reminder of my first visit to the West Bank and Gaza. My driver had picked me up from Ben Gurion Airport and was taking me to Ramallah in the West Bank where I had an assignment. We passed a series of olive groves, some of which were being decimated and the land cleared. My driver rather laconically remarked that as the Israelis moved onto the land, more and more of the trees, some planted decades ago, would disappear and the livelihoods of hundreds of Palestinians destroyed. And so it has come to pass!
Alan Penny, former DFID Senior Education Adviser.