Overview
- Families and teachers have set up makeshift tent schools in Gaza’s “yellow zone” near Israeli forces where children are exposed to sniper fire, and pupils are told to lie flat when shots ring out.
- UNICEF reports that 98% of Gaza’s schools are damaged and 88% need major rehabilitation or rebuilding, with about 638,000 school-aged children and 70,000 kindergarteners missing two full academic years.
- UNICEF and partners run 109 temporary learning centres for 135,000 students and are preparing a Back to Learning campaign targeting 200,000 children, but entry of learning materials remains largely blocked since October 2023.
- Field teams have observed serious developmental setbacks, including speech difficulties in roughly a quarter of assessed children, highlighting the need for psychosocial support alongside basic schooling.
- A Cambridge study warns of a potential “lost” generation, estimating up to five years of cumulative learning loss since 2020 and noting that funding and Israel’s restrictions on educational supplies have sharply limited recovery efforts.