Ref: 23/2022
Date: 06 September 2022
On Tuesday, 06 September 2022, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) held a workshop titled as “Juhr Al-Deek Students’ Right to Education” in the Cultural Center of Gaza Valley Municipality. It was attended by the mayor of Gaza Valley, Director General of Planning at the Ministry of Education, and parents of students in Juhr Al-Deek village. This workshop aimed at guaranteeing the right to education for Juhr Al-Deek students amid their ongoing suffering for not having schools to absorb them, particularly those in preparatory and secondary grades.
Dr. Fadel Al-Muzainy, Head of PCHR’s Economic and Social Rights Unit, opened the workshop and welcomed the participants, pointing out that the workshop aims to achieve respect and protection of the right to education and end the suffering of preparatory and secondary students in Juhr Al-Deek village due to lack of schools near their residences. Al-Muzainy stressed that the right to education is one of the fundamental rights guaranteed by international conventions, especially the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). He highlighted the importance of the right to education as being integral to human dignity and its role in enabling and enhancing all other rights.
Mr. Jaber Abu-Hjeir, Mayor of Gaza Valley, stressed the need to establish a governmental school in Juhr Al-Deek village to absorb male students in the preparatory and secondary grades to end their suffering of going to schools that are 5-8 kilometres away from their homes. Abu-Hjeer said that the municipality is fully willing to provide a plot of land to establish a new school and overcome any impediments on the way to ending the suffering of students, calling upon the ministry to provide all its potentials to build a school as soon as possible.
Mr. Nabeel Shamali, the representative of parents of Juhr Al-Deek student, reviewed the suffering of preparatory and secondary students due to lack of schools in the village because they have to walk for at least 2 hours to go back and forth to remote schools; therefore, this affects their grades. Shamali added that students have to take rugged agricultural roads to reach Abdulraouf Al-Shareef School near the car market in Gaza, Madinat Al-Zahra School, and Al-Bureij UNRWA Schools, noting that many parents chose not to send their children to schools because of the unsafe roads they have to take in summer and winter. He added that schools in nearby al-Bureij refugee camp have not absorbed 30 students for being overcrowded, depriving them of education this year. Shamali called upon the Ministry of Education and UNRWA to provide permanent solutions to ensure that Juhr Al-Deik students enjoy their right to education.
Mr. ‘Enad ‘Abdullah, Director of Planning at the Ministry of Education, presented the Ministry’s vision of developing temporary solutions to end the suffering of Juhr al-Deek students, expressing the Ministry’s willingness to build a new school at the moment the land and the financial means are available. ‘Abdullah presented a temporary proposal that would alleviate the suffering of these students and their parents, as UNRWA will absorb female students from first to ninth grade, while the Ministry of Education will put the male students of all grades in Caesarea Governmental School, and secondary school female students will be temporarily transferred to Wafa Al-Amer School, adding that transportation will be provided in cooperation with the Gaza Valley Municipality. Abdullah concluded that the Ministry intends to work on enhancing and providing satisfactory solutions to alleviate the current suffering of students until they can build a new school and the problem will be radically solved.
At the end of the workshop, the participants called upon the Ministry of Education and UNRWA to assume their responsibilities and meet the educational needs of Juhr Al-Deek village, to establish a new governmental school to end students’ suffering that have been ongoing for years, and to follow up the temporary proposals that were put forward in the workshop in order to reach a radical solution for the suffering of Juhr Al-Deek students and guarantee their right to education.