By Nur Ain Nabilah Rosni & Nur Atiq Maisarah Suhaimi
KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 1 (Bernama) -- With their fingers as pens and the sand beneath them as scratch paper, Palestinian students in Gaza gathered around an internet router to work out mathematical calculations as they sat for their high school examinations.
Gaza University President Prof Hassan AbuJarad said the scene reflected the determination of students and educators to keep education going despite widespread destruction and displacement.
“With these spirits and creative ideas, I’m sure nothing will defeat them,” he said during a live interview from his displacement tent on Bernama TV’s Bernama World programme, ‘Palestine Beyond The Headlines: Keeping Education Alive For A Better Future’.
AbuJarad said about 90 per cent of Palestinian students were living in displacement camps, where many studied and prepared for classes in tents without reliable electricity, water or internet access.
Many families had also been forced to move repeatedly from one camp to another, further disrupting their children’s education, he said.
Despite the conditions, AbuJarad said university lecturers and school teachers had found creative ways to reach students, including turning tents into classrooms and using online platforms and mobile phones.
“We are using tents as classrooms and online platforms to send assignments, tests and exams to our students wherever they are in their refugee tents.
“We go to every camp, we set up educational areas with tent classrooms, we meet our students and we teach them,” he said.
The financial strain has also extended to educators, with AbuJarad saying university lecturers continued teaching despite displacement, limited facilities and, in many cases, without salaries.
“Most Palestinian universities receive no government aid and rely heavily on student fees to pay staff salaries and running costs. We don’t collect fees from the students because they don’t have money and most of their families have lost their income,” he said.
For AbuJarad, keeping education alive was also crucial to Gaza’s future, with students representing the next generation of doctors, engineers, teachers, researchers, artists and other professionals needed to rebuild society.
“But I assure you that we, teachers and students, are determined to continue our education as the only path to our prosperous future, and we are determined to stay deeply rooted in our land,” he said.
-- BERNAMA