Gaza Secondary Exams Scheduled in Tents Amid Widespread School Damage

Gaza students will sit the Tawjihi secondary school exams from 20 June to 8 July in tents, partially destroyed buildings and displacement centres. The Palestinian Ministry of Education has opened registration for students who completed 11th grade this year and for those who missed exams in 2023, 2024 and 2025.

8% of educational facilities in Gaza now require complete reconstruction or major rehabilitation. More than 740 schools are entirely out of service while hundreds more have been converted into shelters for displaced people. Mohammed Hamdan, director of education in central Gaza, said preparations were being made under conditions he had never encountered before.

"We are working hard to provide the bare minimum of school furniture so that students can at least sit on a chair while taking their exams, in addition to securing some essential stationery and preparing exam halls at the minimum level needed to meet students' needs," he said.

Central Gaza alone hosts roughly one-third of the territory's secondary school students.

Louay Ballour, a teacher at Fathi al-Balawi School in central Gaza, said the situation was the worst he had seen. "Almost everything has been destroyed, yet we are trying by every possible means to continue the educational process, even inside tents, even if students have to sit on the ground during lessons," Ballour told Euronews.

Mohammed Kamal, who moved from Jabalia in northern Gaza to Al-Bureij, said students now receive only three or four lessons instead of the six they used to have daily. Hassan al-Sawafiri, who moved from northern Gaza to the south in pursuit of continued schooling, said he and others lost two academic years and are trying to make up for what they missed.

At least 411 teachers had been killed according to OCHA figures from August 2024. A November 2025 UNESCO assessment found that more than 1,100 higher education workers had been killed, detained or injured since the war began in October 2023.