The Global Campaign for Education calls for considering April 23rd as a Global Day of Solidarity for the Protection of Education in Gaza Strip
The activities and events of the Global Action Week for Education 2024 (GAWE 2024) in Palestine will kick off on the 22nd of April 2024. This week, which is annually organized in most countries around the world, including Palestine, serves as a unique opportunity to shed light on issues and challenges related to enhancing the quality of education in those countries. This year, amidst the significant challenges and disasters facing the education sector in Palestine, the Palestinian Education Coalition has decided to focus on the situation of education in Gaza during this week and its various activities. Taking into account the opportunity for this sector in Gaza and the rest of the Palestinian territories to benefit from the concept of "transformative education," as transformative education has become fundamental to achieving the goals of the 4th Sustainable Development Goal.
The Global Campaign for Education had issued a statement calling for global solidarity with education in Gaza this year and also called for an immediate cessation of hostilities in Gaza and an immediate provision of water, food, and medicine to the Gaza Strip without conditions. The campaign also called on donors to reconsider funding for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA). Additionally, the Global Campaign for Education urged all parties to commit to the principle that educational space must be available to learners and called for the safe return of Palestinians to the northern areas of the Gaza Strip. The campaign is holding global consultations to determine the nature of the intervention to assist students and teachers in the Gaza Strip. This year's Global Action Week 2024 (GAWE 2024) will center on the theme of Transformative Education: Believing it derives for social justice, sustainable development, and individual and collective freedom. Education should be a significant contributor to peace, as a way to build values, knowledge, attitudes, skills and behaviours to live in harmony with oneself, with others and the environment
The Global Campaign for Education had called for April 23rd to be considered a global day of solidarity for the protection of education in the Gaza Strip. In response to this decision, the Palestinian Education Coalition, in partnership with the Ministry of Education, decided that April 23rd would be the national day of action to support the education sector in Gaza. Therefore, the Palestinian Education Coalition calls on all educational institutions, educational personnel, students, activists, and media channels in the targeted areas and at the national level to participate in the activities of this week, knowing that the coalition will publish the program of the week later today.