Students in Gaza face near insurmountable barriers to university education, explains Suheil Tarazi, programme manager for the British Council in Gaza, in this audio interview. Persistent conflict, buildings destroyed by bombing, a lack of funding and equipment, a student body traumatised by years of violence and war, and the world’s lowest employment rate are just some of the devastating conditions students and teachers experience each day. 

July 8 marks a year since the beginning of the seven-week war that left nearly 2,200 people dead — over 2,100 of them Palestinians in Gaza. Like many Gazans, Tarazi says, a huge number of students and lecturers lost their homes and family members in the 2014 conflict, adding to those already traumatised and displaced.

Against this backdrop, Tarazi says scholarships to study abroad can be lifelines for students, with many going on to return home to help develop universities in Gaza. 

The interview was recorded on 2 June at the British Council’s Going Global 2015 conference on international education in London, United Kingdom.

http://www.scidev.net/global/education/multimedia/education-lifelines-palestinian-students-gaza.html

Photo credit: UN Photo/Shareef Sarhan

Education lifelines for Palestinian students in Gaza

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