On July 27, the Palestinian Ministry of Training 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 strain, sleepless nights and fragile hope, had the examination leads to their fingers that might decide whether or not and the place they might proceed their schooling.
However hundreds of others – these in Gaza – had been sitting of their tents and ruined houses in despair. I’m one in every of 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’ve 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 had been introduced, I used to be huddled in entrance of a crackling fireplace close to a tattered tent, far too small to carry my massive 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 learning below tough 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 loss of life.
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 full of notebooks and research supplies – now carries important paperwork and a change of garments, at all times packed and prepared in case we’re compelled to flee our dwelling once more. The tutorial calendar, with all its vital dates, has been changed by a grim schedule of air strikes, displacement, and lack of pals and family members.
Amid this devastation, the Training Ministry has struggled to maintain an academic course of going. Wanting to present Gaza’s kids and youth hope, it has undertaken numerous initiatives to attempt to maintain college students motivated. Makeshift faculties have been organised wherever doable, whereas some college college students have been in a position to proceed their schooling on-line.
For us, the tawjihi college students, efforts had been repeatedly made to arrange our exams. Final yr, the ministry introduced it might conduct the exams in February. I saved learning, regardless of the tough actuality and the collapse of every thing round me, believing this was my likelihood to maneuver ahead.
February handed, and nothing occurred. The ministry then introduced that the exams could be held in April. However as soon as once more, they had been postponed because of the unsafe circumstances. Then, in June, the ministry scheduled an internet examination for July for college students born in 2005 who had both failed their tawjihi or missed a few of its exams; they had been presupposed to have accomplished this examination in December 2023. Some 1,500 college students had 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 rapidly light. The Ministry of Training hasn’t given us any updates on the method, and it looks like we’ve been fully forgotten within the shadow of conflict and hunger.
Some readers might ask themselves, why amid a genocide are Palestinians so preoccupied with an examination?
It’s important to perceive, tawjihi is a milestone in each Palestinian’s life – a decisive second that shapes future paths for at the least the following 5 years. It determines whether or not we will pursue our schooling within the area we need and achieve admission to high universities.
However past lecturers, tawjihi carries a a lot deeper cultural and emotional weight. It’s not simply an academic section – it’s a part of our id, a logo of perseverance. In a spot the place the occupation closes practically each door, schooling is ready to maintain a number of doorways nonetheless open.
That’s why we rejoice it like a nationwide vacation; the day tawjihi outcomes are launched looks like a 3rd Eid for Palestinians. It provides households hope, brings satisfaction 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 drugs at a prestigious college overseas. I saved making use of for scholarships and sending emails to universities throughout the USA, the UK and Europe, hoping for particular consideration as a scholar affected by conflict. I pleaded with college directors to waive the tawjihi certificates requirement.
However the responses had been painfully constant: “Sadly, we can’t think about your utility except you present your last diploma.”
At present, despair and helplessness usually are not 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 practically inconceivable to focus, not to mention research 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 all over the world are constructing their futures, I stay caught in a spot of overwhelming ache and loss.
As a tawjihi scholar trapped in a warzone, I urgently name on academic authorities and worldwide establishments to step in and implement quick options to make sure our proper to schooling shouldn’t be buried below the rubble of conflict.
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 creator’s personal and don’t essentially replicate Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.
