On July 27, the Palestinian Ministry of Schooling launched the outcomes of the secondary schooling certificates exams, also called tawjihi. Like yearly, households sat collectively, eyes mounted on telephone screens, hearts pounding, everybody hoping to be the primary to entry the ministry’s web site and break the information with a jubilant shout. There have been joyful tears and celebrations.
Hundreds of scholars, who had endured months of stress, sleepless nights and fragile hope, had the examination ends in their palms that might decide whether or not and the place they might proceed their schooling.
However hundreds of others – these in Gaza – have been sitting of their tents and ruined properties in despair. I’m one among them. That is the second yr I, together with 31,000 different Palestinians born in 2006, was unable to take the tawjihi. For an additional yr, we now have been stripped of our proper to proceed our schooling and of the hope to construct a future past the ruins. Now, we’re joined by nearly 40,000 college students born in 2007, who’re additionally caught on this dreadful limbo.
Final yr, when the tawjihi outcomes have been introduced, I used to be huddled in entrance of a crackling hearth close to a tattered tent, far too small to carry my large desires. The deep frustration I felt didn’t fade – it settled in my thoughts and stayed. All I might take into consideration was how all my sacrifices, tears, and relentless effort throughout a full yr of finding out below troublesome circumstances had been for nothing.
This yr, it feels even worse. Not solely are my desires of schooling crushed, now I wrestle to maintain myself and my household alive, as Gaza is ravenous to demise.
In these two years, I’ve watched our schooling system destroyed, classroom by classroom. My faculty, Shohada al-Nusierat, as soon as a spot of studying and desires, first grew to become a shelter housing displaced households after which a goal for Israeli bombing. My schoolbag – as soon as crammed with notebooks and examine supplies – now carries important paperwork and a change of garments, all the time packed and prepared in case we’re compelled to flee our house once more. The tutorial calendar, with all its necessary dates, has been changed by a grim schedule of air strikes, displacement, and lack of pals and family members.
Amid this devastation, the Schooling Ministry has struggled to maintain an academic course of going. Wanting to present Gaza’s youngsters and youth hope, it has undertaken varied initiatives to attempt to preserve college students motivated. Makeshift faculties have been organised wherever attainable, whereas some college college students have been in a position to proceed their schooling on-line.
For us, the tawjihi college students, efforts have been repeatedly made to arrange our exams. Final yr, the ministry introduced it will conduct the exams in February. I stored finding out, regardless of the cruel actuality and the collapse of every thing round me, believing this was my probability to maneuver ahead.
February handed, and nothing occurred. The ministry then introduced that the exams can be held in April. However as soon as once more, they have been postponed as a result of unsafe situations. Then, in June, the ministry scheduled a web based examination for July for college students born in 2005 who had both failed their tawjihi or missed a few of its exams; they have been imagined to have accomplished this examination in December 2023. Some 1,500 college students have been in a position to take the assessments on-line.
This gave me a little bit of hope that my flip would additionally come, however that shortly light. The Ministry of Schooling hasn’t given us any updates on the method, and it looks like we’ve been fully forgotten within the shadow of struggle and hunger.
Some readers might ask themselves, why amid a genocide are Palestinians so preoccupied with an examination?
You need to perceive, tawjihi is a milestone in each Palestinian’s life – a decisive second that shapes future paths for at the very least the following 5 years. It determines whether or not we are able to pursue our schooling within the subject we need and achieve admission to high universities.
However past teachers, tawjihi carries a a lot deeper cultural and emotional weight. It’s not simply an academic section – it’s a part of our id, an emblem of perseverance. In a spot the place the occupation closes almost each door, schooling is ready to preserve a number of doorways nonetheless open.
That’s why we have fun it like a nationwide vacation; the day tawjihi outcomes are launched looks like a 3rd Eid for Palestinians. It offers households hope, brings pleasure to complete neighbourhoods, and retains alive the dream of a greater future.
Over the various months I waited for the tawjihi, I held on to my dream to check medication at a prestigious college overseas. I stored making use of for scholarships and sending emails to universities throughout the US, the UK and Europe, hoping for particular consideration as a pupil affected by struggle. I pleaded with college directors to waive the tawjihi certificates requirement.
However the responses have been painfully constant: “Sadly, we can not think about your utility except you present your last diploma.”
At present, despair and helplessness will not be the one undesirable guests I’ve. Starvation is one other one. The hunger has destroyed not solely my physique but in addition my psychological well being.
Most days, we handle to have one meal. We survive totally on canned beans, dry bread, or rice with none greens or protein. Our our bodies are weak, our faces pale, and our power nearly nonexistent. The consequences transcend the bodily. Starvation fogs the mind, dulls reminiscence and crushes motivation. It turns into almost unattainable to focus, not to mention examine for a life-changing examination just like the tawjihi. How can I put together for crucial examination of my life when my abdomen is empty and my thoughts clouded by fatigue and fear?
It feels as if my youth has been stolen earlier than my eyes, and I can do nothing however watch. Whereas my friends around the globe are constructing their futures, I stay caught in a spot of overwhelming ache and loss.
As a tawjihi pupil trapped in a warzone, I urgently name on academic authorities and worldwide establishments to step in and implement instant options to make sure our proper to schooling just isn’t buried below the rubble of struggle.
We’re not asking for a lot. Giving us an opportunity to complete our secondary schooling in Gaza isn’t just a matter of logistics, however a matter of justice and future survival.
The views expressed on this article are the writer’s personal and don’t essentially mirror Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.
