On July 27, the Palestinian Ministry of Schooling launched the outcomes of the secondary training certificates exams, also called tawjihi. Like yearly, households sat collectively, eyes mounted 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 ends in their arms that might decide whether or not and the place they may proceed their training.
However hundreds of others – these in Gaza – had been sitting of their tents and ruined houses in despair. I’m considered one 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 have now been stripped of our proper to proceed our training and of the hope to construct a future past the ruins. Now, we’re joined by virtually 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 goals. 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 underneath troublesome circumstances had been for nothing.
This yr, it feels even worse. Not solely are my goals of training crushed, now I battle to maintain myself and my household alive, as Gaza is ravenous to demise.
In these two years, I’ve watched our training system destroyed, classroom by classroom. My college, Shohada al-Nusierat, as soon as a spot of studying and goals, 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, all the time packed and prepared in case we’re pressured to flee our residence once more. The educational calendar, with all its essential dates, has been changed by a grim schedule of air strikes, displacement, and lack of associates 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 numerous initiatives to attempt to maintain college students motivated. Makeshift colleges have been organised wherever potential, whereas some college college students have been in a position to proceed their training 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 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 had been postponed because of the unsafe circumstances. 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 had been alleged to have achieved 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 pale. The Ministry of Schooling hasn’t given us any updates on the method, and it looks like we’ve been utterly 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 must perceive, tawjihi is a milestone in each Palestinian’s life – a decisive second that shapes future paths for at the very least the subsequent 5 years. It determines whether or not we will pursue our training 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, a logo of perseverance. In a spot the place the occupation closes practically each door, training is ready to maintain just a few 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 provides households hope, brings delight to total 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 america, 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 had been painfully constant: “Sadly, we can’t think about your utility until you present your last diploma.”
At this time, despair and helplessness aren’t 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 virtually nonexistent. The consequences transcend the bodily. Starvation fogs the mind, dulls reminiscence and crushes motivation. It turns into practically unimaginable 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 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 speedy options to make sure our proper to training just isn’t buried underneath the rubble of struggle.
We aren’t asking for a lot. Giving us an opportunity to complete our secondary training 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.
