On July 27, the Palestinian Ministry of Schooling launched the outcomes of the secondary schooling certificates exams, also referred to as 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 fingers that will decide whether or not and the place they may proceed their schooling.
However 1000’s of others – these in Gaza – had been sitting of their tents and ruined houses in despair. I’m one among them. That is the second 12 months I, together with 31,000 different Palestinians born in 2006, was unable to take the tawjihi. For an additional 12 months, we have now 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 12 months, 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 might take into consideration was how all my sacrifices, tears, and relentless effort throughout a full 12 months of finding out beneath troublesome circumstances had been for nothing.
This 12 months, 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 examine supplies – now carries important paperwork and a change of garments, at all times packed and prepared in case we’re pressured to flee our house once more. The educational calendar, with all its vital 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 varied initiatives to attempt to hold college students motivated. Makeshift colleges have been organised wherever doable, whereas some college college students have been capable of proceed their schooling on-line.
For us, the tawjihi college students, efforts had been repeatedly made to arrange our exams. Final 12 months, the ministry introduced it might conduct the exams in February. I saved finding out, regardless of the cruel actuality and the collapse of all the things 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 situations. Then, in June, the ministry scheduled an internet 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 imagined to have completed this examination in December 2023. Some 1,500 college students had been capable of take the exams 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 battle 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 a minimum of the subsequent 5 years. It determines whether or not we are able to pursue our schooling within the area we want and acquire admission to prime universities.
However past lecturers, tawjihi carries a a lot deeper cultural and emotional weight. It isn’t simply an academic part – 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 just a few doorways nonetheless open.
That’s why we have a good time it like a nationwide vacation; the day tawjihi outcomes are launched seems like a 3rd Eid for Palestinians. It provides households hope, brings delight 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 medication 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 battle. 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 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 vitality nearly nonexistent. The results transcend the bodily. Starvation fogs the mind, dulls reminiscence and crushes motivation. It turns into practically not possible to focus, not to mention examine for a life-changing examination just like the tawjihi. How can I put together for an important 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 instructional authorities and worldwide establishments to step in and implement speedy options to make sure our proper to schooling will not be buried beneath the rubble of battle.
We’re not 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 creator’s personal and don’t essentially replicate Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.