Build back better: How education spaces keep hope alive in Gaza

This article stems from a recent conversation between Fabio Nascimbeni, Senior Human Capital Development Expert at the European Training Foundation (ETF), and Julia Dicum, Director of Education at UNRWA. Their discussion examined how learning continues in Gaza despite extreme constraints, and how educators are sustaining a sense of normalcy, skills development, and hope for the future. The exchange also builds on insights from the ETF’s recent update on the situation, which provides essential context for understanding the scale of disruption affecting young people and their learning pathways.

In Gaza today, the traditional idea of a learning space has vanished. Furniture is gone, playgrounds are covered in rubble, and essential supplies remain extremely limited due to access constraints. Yet, amidst the blackout of electricity and the scarcity of food, families and children are asking one persistent question:

“When can we go back?”

Education in Gaza is no longer just about grades; it is a matter of survival. Here is how Palestinian educators and UNRWA are working to keep learning alive in an unprecedented emergency context.

1. A Hunger for Normalcy

Julia Dicum, Director of Education at UNRWA, notes a reality often overlooked by the outside world: families in Gaza prioritise education above almost everything else. Whether it is an earthquake or a crisis, the first sign of hope for a community is the return of their children to a learning environment. Palestine Refugees have been demanding education for more than 75 years now, and UNRWA has been mandated by the UN General Assembly to provide it in the refugee camps around the middle-east. 

However, the challenge is immense. Dr. Dicum notes that children in Gaza have lost the equivalent of five years of schooling. Between the COVID-19 pandemic and continuous instability, a child finishing primary school today has had only one consistent year of in-person learning in the last half-decade.

2. Healing Minds Before Textbooks

You cannot teach a child who is terrified. Recognising this, UNRWA, following international good practices, started its intervention providing Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS). Before October 2023, the agency already managed a massive Mental Health and Psychosocial Support Programme, with the support of hundreds of Schools Counselors and Counselors Assistants, all UNRWA education centers in Gaza offered mental health services. UNRWA used to manage 288 schools and 2 TVET centers in the Strip, covering practically half of the student’s population. 

Since the crisis escalated, shelters have doubled as spaces for psychological relief. Counselors are working tirelessly to provide support, understanding that "brains need healing" before they can focus on math or science. As Dr. Dicum notes, there are few specialists in this type of trauma worldwide, making this work critical. In all the education in emergencies programme, the very first step is provide Psychosocial Support, a sense of normalcy, and opportunity for children be children and socialized while playing and doing different activities under the supervision of professionals 

3. Basic learning skills 

In August 2024, listening to the demands of families and children who were eager to return to school, UNRWA began providing basic education activities in Temporary Learning Spaces. The agency scaled up its existing Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) activities—which had been running in shelters since October 2023—to include a few hours a day of basic learning skills in English, Math, Arabic, and Science, for thousands of children every day and following the existing curriculum. Later that year, the UNRWA Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) team also decided to resume activities to support adolescents and youth in finishing their programs, for those students registered in the programmes to ensure they can finalize their programmes.

With physical facilities largely inaccessible and the limited existing spaces, the learning space has moved to the cloud:

• 300,000 children have enrolled in UNRWA’s online distance education program.

• 80,000 university students applied for online enrollment in a single week when permitted by the Palestinian government.

It is a fragile system. Most Gazans rely on eSIMs for connection, on internet tents, and students often use WhatsApp to download worksheets, working alone or with friends before reconnecting to ask their teachers questions. It isn't ideal, but virtual tests show that students are following the programmes and learning. To make this possible, UNRWA reviewed the existing curriculum following accelerated learning principles, re-prioritizing content to ensure children could follow full subjects online with very limited supervision and connectivity. The in-person learning activities in the TLS continued, and complement the distance education progamme.

The TVET instructors followed the same path in a much more complex field. The two UNRWA TVET centers in Gaza, once the pride of the Agency, have been heavily damaged. Due to their dimensions, both centers were repurposed at some point as shelters and warehouses, but the conflict didn’t spare them from destruction. One of the centers, the Khan Younis Training Center (KYTC), was eventually partially repaired and repurposed as the main UNRWA office and warehouse in the Gaza Strip to respond to humanitarian needs. However, space was allocated for education, including TVET.

In 2024, Instructors managed to reconnect with their trainees; finding that while some students had been killed in the conflict and others managed to flee the strip, most remained inside Gaza and were excited to continue their skills training paths. The instructors reviewed the curriculum and worked together, thinking "outside the box" to ensure students could continue acquiring the required skills. Some instructors used YouTube videos to support their students, while others used online sessions and other resources. Despite the odds, they managed to reconnect and continue supporting their students even under regular shelling.

4. Skills for Recovery and Rebuilding

Education isn't just for children. For young adults, Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) is the bridge to skilled employment and to dignity.

Experts warn that specific skills are needed to eventually clear rubble, repair infrastructure, and restore energy. The level of destruction of civilian infrastructure in Gaza is practically total in most of the strip, the needs for reconstruction very difficult to assess, as many restrictions are still in place. To answer this demand, UNRWA continues offering technical education. The demand is overwhelming: when UNRWA opened applications for its two TVET centers, they received over 5,000 applications.

As Fabio Nascimbeni from the European Training Foundation (ETF) puts it, the goal is not just to train workers, but to heal people: “We don’t want very good carpenters in Palestine if they’ve had a disastrous childhood. We want happy, peaceful citizens who are also good carpenters”.

5. The Thread of Hope

For decades, UNRWA has offered a solid education system in the Gaza Strip, as well as in the West Bank, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, serving as a critical lifeline since 1948. This education is high-quality because it is unique: the program is fully accredited by host governments, allowing for a seamless transition to higher education and recognized qualifications that lead to employment in a variety of skills-based sectors.

The core of this success is the staff and their dedication. Unlike many other emergency providers, UNRWA employs thousands of professional educators, not just volunteers. These teachers and instructors are highly trained, which makes them adaptable to even the most difficult circumstances imaginable.

Since the beginning of the war in October 2023, these professionals have been on the frontlines. They shifted immediately to provide mental health and psychosocial support in shelters, and they continue to support their communities today by adapting to digital tools like WhatsApp to keep classrooms open despite the destruction. The legacy of this system is undeniable: 2.8 million graduates of UNRWA institutions have gone on to become doctors, engineers, entrepreneurs, and teachers, contributing to societies worldwide.

As Nascimbeni reminds us: “Education is not about employment in five years. It’s about tomorrow”. In the shattered streets of Gaza, children clutching notebooks are holding onto a lifeline.