Marking two years since the brutal Israeli assault that killed more than 2,200 Palestinians, #GazaLives tells the stories of Palestinians from Gaza, in their own words.
My name is Hazem and I’m 23 years old.
Israel’s siege severely impacts education in the Gaza Strip. Education requires an environment that stimulates children to innovate in different areas.
However, in Gaza, most families cannot provide a decent life to their children because of their economic hardship.
This deprives many competent students of the chance to enroll in education and they drop out since they cannot afford the cost of university education.
Students may live far from their universities and cannot afford tuition and transportation. Consequently, they cannot attend their lectures and end up with low educational attainment.
Other problems include frequent power cuts. This jeopardises education since some specialisations require electricity for Internet access. Under such circumstances they cannot study properly and their creativity is hindered.
Universities in Gaza lack resources and cannot, for instance, provide some specialisations that require electronic devices.
In addition to this, many highly qualified graduates cannot find good jobs. The number of graduates keeps increasing every year despite the lack of solutions for their employment.
They end up in low-paid jobs or volunteer with different organisations.
Some register in specialised courses to develop the skills that increase their employability.
However, even with all this effort, they cannot find jobs, because of the siege imposed by Israel.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author.