Gaza children return to school after years without formal education

In Gaza City, the sound of children learning can be heard once again.

The tents that now serve as classrooms are noisy and a little chaotic but lively. Some teachers point to boards covered in English letters; others invite pupils to come forward and write basic Arabic words.

It is nowhere near a normal school day. But after the Israel-Hamas ceasefire in October, it’s a start.

After two years of war, the hum of lessons and chatter of classmates resonates around the ruins of what was once Lulwa Abdel Wahab al-Qatami School, in the Tel al-Hawa neighbourhood in the south-western part of Gaza City.

It was hit in January 2024, and for months afterwards, its grounds served as a shelter for displaced families. Today, it is again a place of learning – albeit in a more basic form.

Walking in a straight line, their small arms resting on each other’s shoulders, pupils smile as they head into the makeshift classrooms.

For many, this is the first return to routine and education since the war began.

According to Unicef, more than 97% of schools in Gaza were damaged or destroyed during the war. The IDF has made repeated claims that Hamas uses civilian infrastructure including schools to carry out operations but has rarely provided solid evidence.

Of the Strip’s 658,000 school-aged children, most have had no formal education for nearly two years. During that time, many learned first-hand how hunger, displacement and death can shape their young lives. Now, something rare is emerging: a fragile glimpse of the childhoods they once knew.

Fourteen-year-old Naeem al-Asmaar used to attend this school before it was destroyed. He lost his mother in an Israeli air strike during the war.

“It was the hardest thing I’ve ever been through,” he says quietly.

Although he was displaced for months, Naeem’s home in Gaza City survived. After the ceasefire, he returned with his family.

“I missed being in school a lot,” Naeem said adding that the difference is stark.

“Before the war, school was in real classrooms,”

“Now it’s tents. We only study four subjects. There isn’t enough space. The education is not the same – but being here matters. School fills all my time and I really needed that.”

Rital Alaa Harb, a ninth-grade student who once studied here too, wants to become a dentist.

“Displacement affected my education completely,” she says. “There was no time to study. No schools. I missed my friends so much – and I miss my old school.”

The makeshift school is run by Unicef and brings together children from the original Lulwa school and others displaced by the war.

It does not teach the full Palestinian curriculum – only the basics: Arabic, English, mathematics and science.

The principal, Dr Mohammed Saeed Schheiber, has worked in education for 24 years. He took over management of the site in mid-November.

“We started with determination,” he said, “to compensate students for what they lost.”

The school currently serves 1,100 boys and girls, operating in three shifts a day – with boys attending on alternating days from girls. There are just 24 teachers.

“Before the war,” Dr Schheiber says, “our students learned in fully equipped schools – science labs, computer labs, internet access, educational resources. All of that is gone.”

There is no electricity here. No internet. And many children are struggling with trauma.

More than 100 students at the school lost one or both parents, had their homes destroyed, or witnessed killings during the war. In total, Dr Schheiber says, every student has been affected – directly or indirectly.

A counsellor now runs psychological support sessions, trying to help children process what they have endured.

Despite the effort, demand far exceeds capacity.

“We have more than a thousand students here already,” Dr Schheiber says. “But only six classrooms per shift. There is a large displacement camp next to the school – families from northern and eastern Gaza. Many children want to enrol. We simply cannot take them.”

For parents, the return to school brings relief as well as anxiety.

Huda Bassam al-Dasouki, a mother of five displaced from southern Rimal, says education has become an overwhelming challenge.

“It’s not that education doesn’t exist,” she says. “It’s that it’s extremely difficult.”

Even before the war, schools struggled with shortages, she says. Now, basic supplies are unaffordable or unavailable.

“A notebook that cost one shekel ($0.31; £0.23) before the war now costs five,” she says. “I have five children.”

Some children, she says, have fallen four years behind, including time lost during the Covid pandemic.

“My son can’t read. He can’t write. He doesn’t know how to copy from the board,” she says.

Unicef says the situation is made worse by restrictions on aid supplies entering Gaza.

Standing outside one of the school tents, Jonathan Crickx, a Unicef spokesman, points to what is missing.

“Paper, notebooks, pens, erasers, rulers… we’ve been asking for a long time that these supplies can enter the Gaza Strip and they haven’t been allowed in. It’s the same for mental health and psychosocial recreative kits – toy kits that can be used to do mental health activities and recreational activities with the children,” he says.

An Israeli security official referred us to the prime minister’s office, which did not respond to the BBC’s questions.

Israel says it is meeting its obligations under the ceasefire deal with Hamas and facilitating increased aid deliveries. The UN and multiple aid agencies dispute that, accusing Israel of continuing to restrict access to essential supplies.

Despite the ceasefire, Israel’s bombardment of Gaza continues – with almost daily strikes – in response to what it says are Hamas violations of the deal. Still, the children keep coming.

For Kholoud Habib, a teacher at the school, that determination is telling.

“Education is our foundation,” she says. “As Palestinians, it is our capital.

“We lose homes. We lose money. We lose everything,” she adds. “But knowledge – knowledge is the one investment we can still give our children.”