More than 800 Palestinian teachers have been martyred, and over 3,300 have been injured to varying degrees, while more than 170 others have been arrested under harsh conditions since the start of the aggression on Gaza, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Education and Higher Education. The ministry said in a statement today on the occasion of World Teachers’ Day: “This year’s World Teachers’ Day comes under the slogan: ‘Supporting Teachers: 60 Years of Protecting the Profession, Improving Conditions, and Shaping Our Future,’ carrying historical symbolism, reflecting sixty years of humanity’s struggle to protect the teaching profession and improve teachers’ conditions.” The statement added: “At a time when the world reflects on this slogan to assess the challenges and strategies to elevate the educational mission, the Palestinian teacher stands at the heart of the field, demonstrating the most remarkable examples of steadfastness and dedication to their mission, and fighting a real battle for existence to protect the right to education under the harshest conditions of aggression and systematic targeting.” The ministry pointed out “the daily struggles of teachers, which are multiplied due to field persecution and increasing restrictions on freedom of movement through hundreds of occupation checkpoints.
She expressed ‘her great pride in the pioneering role embodied by the teachers of Gaza,’ considering it ‘an occasion to extend thanks and appreciation to our teachers, and to the teachers of Gaza who were not deterred by the rubble, the bombings, or the displacement from the tents from fulfilling their duty’.
