Cairo – Ma’an – Minister of Education and Higher Education Dr. Amjad Barham concluded a four-day visit to the Arab Republic of Egypt, which focused on following up on the conditions of Gaza school and university students in Egypt, and coordinating with UN agencies to enhance interventions that would implement the recovery plan due to the suspension of the educational process in the Strip since October 7.
During the visit, Barham and the accompanying delegation participated in the emergency meeting of the Council of Educational Affairs for the Children of Palestine, which was held at the headquarters of the League of Arab States, in the presence of the Assistant Secretary-General for Palestine and the Occupied Arab Territories, Ambassador Dr. Saeed Abu Ali. Barham gave a detailed presentation on the reality of education in Palestine and in Gaza in particular, in light of the targeting of the educational system and its components, including infrastructure, students and teachers. He reviewed the most prominent features of the ministry’s plan for recovery and saving the school year, calling on the participants to make every possible effort to provide possible support for this plan.
On the sidelines of the visit, Barham held a series of meetings with representatives of the United Nations, UN agencies and dignitaries; the most prominent of which was the meeting with the Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations and the Head of the Education Sector at the UNICEF Office in Cairo.
He also visited two educational camps for Palestinian students in Egypt, in preparation for completing the proposal to open educational centers for Palestinian students in Egypt. He discussed with the Palestinian Ambassador to Egypt and the Department of Cultural and Educational Affairs at the embassy the possible mechanisms to be adopted to coordinate with Egyptian government agencies in this regard. He also began his visit by inspecting the secondary school examination halls for Gaza students in Egypt.
The visit included a meeting with the heads and representatives of Gaza universities, and a meeting with Palestinian teachers who left the Gaza Strip for Egypt. Barham discussed with them the ministry’s plan to deal with the educational reality in Gaza, stressing the ministry’s imminent start of implementing special interventions for primary school students and secondary school students who were deprived of taking the secondary school exam this year, pointing out the ministry’s intention to enable students to take the exam before the end of next December according to a special plan whose details will be announced soon.
Barham discussed with the Director of Education at the UNRWA General Headquarters (Amman), Dr. Julia DecomEducation developments in light of the ongoing aggression and mechanisms for saving education in UNRWA schools after the aggression stops, and ensuring the provision of all the components that would serve students and permanent coordination with the agency in the mechanisms for relief and resuming the educational process in the Gaza Strip.
SourceMaan News Agency
