GAZAN STUDENTS BEGIN NEW SCHOOL YEAR DESPITE CHALLENGES

By Saleh Jadallah

GAZA STRIP, Sept 5 (Bernama) -- About 460,000 Palestinian students flocked
to their schools here Sunday, to begin a new year amidst unsteady conditions,
mainly affected by the historic conflict with Israel.

Most Gaza schools operate on a two-shift system due to the limited number
of educational facilities in the narrow enclave.

Stricken by the Israeli blockade imposed on Gaza since 2006, parents exert
tremendous effort to satisfy the school needs of their children.

The new school year opens days after the end of Muslim Eid Al-Fitr in which
people's expenses soar up by two or three times the normal amounts.

In the coastal territory where the rate of unemployment is estimated at 45
per cent, the impoverished students save their Eid's financial gifts to buy
satchels, stationery and school uniforms.

Schoolboy Hamoda Khwalda, 13, saved the money collected from his uncles and
aunts so he could buy a new satchel.

"It is unpleasant to go to school with an old school bag. Some of my
classmates
bought new ones, so I want to be like them," he said.

Shyma Khader, a Grade 10 student, whose family house was destroyed during
Israel's three-week offensive in Gaza in 2008-2009, noted her academic average
was the worst ever during that period.

"Without a good atmosphere, success is hard to attain. All my books and
notebooks were torn under the rubble. I pray this will not happen again," she
said.

Sameer Al-Agha, another student whose Al-Fadeela school was completely
destroyed in an Israeli air strike in 2009, is concerned that Israel might
destroy his newly-rebuilt school.

Sameer and his classmates still remember the times that they spent together
while studying inside tents under scorching heat and heavy rain for a year.

"We pray to Allah to protect our school. Israelis do not want us to be
educated," he said.

In an attempt to improve the educational system, the United Nations Relief
and Work Agency (UNRWA) which runs more than 220 schools in the barricaded Gaza
announced that five schools would be opened in a month to accommodate more
students living in three refugee camps -- Rafah, Khan Younis and Nusierat.

It said 100 schools would be inaugurated in the next three years.

UNRWA media adviser Adnan Abu Hasna said 220,000 students had registered at
the aid agency's schools this year.

-- BERNAMA