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 fastened on cellphone 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.
1000’s of scholars, who had endured months of stress, sleepless nights and fragile hope, had the examination leads to their fingers that will decide whether or not and the place they may proceed their schooling.
However hundreds of others – these in Gaza – had been sitting of their tents and ruined properties 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 one more 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 large desires. The deep frustration I felt didn’t fade – it settled in my thoughts and stayed. All I may take into consideration was how all my sacrifices, tears, and relentless effort throughout a full yr of finding out underneath 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 college, 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 stuffed with notebooks and examine 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 educational calendar, with all its necessary dates, has been changed by a grim schedule of air strikes, displacement, and lack of mates and family members.
Amid this devastation, the Schooling Ministry has struggled to maintain an academic course of going. Wanting to provide Gaza’s youngsters and youth hope, it has undertaken varied initiatives to attempt to hold college students motivated. Makeshift colleges 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 had 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 tough actuality and the collapse of every little thing round me, believing this was my probability 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 a web-based examination for July for college kids born in 2005 who had both failed their tawjihi or missed a few of its exams; they had been alleged to have achieved this examination in December 2023. Some 1,500 college students had been in a position to take the checks on-line.
This gave me a little bit of hope that my flip would additionally come, however that rapidly pale. The Ministry of Schooling hasn’t given us any updates on the method, and it seems 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?
You must 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 are able to pursue our schooling within the subject we want and acquire 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 practically each door, schooling is ready to hold a number of doorways nonetheless open.
That’s why we rejoice it like a nationwide vacation; the day tawjihi outcomes are launched seems like a 3rd Eid for Palestinians. It provides households hope, brings pleasure to complete neighbourhoods, and retains alive the dream of a greater future.
Over the numerous 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 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 contemplate your utility except you present your ultimate diploma.”
At the moment, despair and helplessness are usually 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 results transcend the bodily. Starvation fogs the mind, dulls reminiscence and crushes motivation. It turns into practically inconceivable to focus, not to mention examine for a life-changing examination just like the tawjihi. How can I put together for a very powerful 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 world wide 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 just isn’t buried underneath the rubble of conflict.
We aren’t asking for a lot. Giving us an opportunity to complete our secondary schooling in Gaza is not only 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 replicate Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.
