Education under fire: How students and professors of Ghazan are studying and studying in a war area

Before she starts her lessons for today, Aseel Alwan goes to the kitchen to make coffee, and put a kettle on an open flame to boil the water that is in a mug with instant coffee. After that, she makes her way to her bedroom, where she begins to search daily for an internet connection – a long request in her family’s home in Gaza City.

The 21 -year -old is working on the Bachelor of English Literature at Al -Aqsa University. It is among the thousands of university students in Gaza in an attempt to continue their studies despite the ongoing war.

The colors and her family are among the few lucky people whose homes still exist. They refused to leave Gaza City to the south, because they say their safety is in danger, regardless of their location in the tape.

Ahmed Junina, a professor of English literature in colors, says that enrollment in the university has decreased “significantly.” Almost a year and a half after the start of the fighting, most universities in Gaza, including Al -Aqsa, have been destroyed, and studies have stopped about 88,000 students throughout the pocket, according to Palestinian education officials.

“I think this is not unexpected,” Junina said.

He made an effort to stay in contact with his students throughout the war and estimated that nearly 90 percent of them were displaced while taking online courses.

Even colors, whose home is still, was sometimes forced to leave due to nearby attacks. Although she has so far been able to return, all this has affected. She and her family once thought were temporary, and it became a daily conflict as they try to go to their lives while universities, schools and even hospitals are bombed.

“It is frankly, frankly, the vision of the university that you will go to for years is crushing on the ground is not an easy thing at all,” colors told the CBC News Freelance Mohamde El Saify.

“It is like years and years of knowledge and hope … the future is eliminated.”

Find connection

For this reason, Junina, who was previously a visiting professor at Laval University in Montreal, made his task to continue supporting 600 students currently studying through three courses.

He says the work “is driven by personal and collective responsibility more than the structure or institutional requirements.”

This is often done without appropriate compensation – Junina says it is currently making about 30 percent of what it is used to, and the payment can be irregular.

“Many of us continue to teach and support students not because we are compensating properly, but because we believe that education must continue and we must support students even during the war.”

The colors are grateful for the opportunity to continue its studies, but it is often overwhelmed by fear and uncertainty and says what she endured and others is something that the student should not pass. “

She says access to the Internet is the biggest challenge she faced to continue her education.

“The Internet was either very weak or completely cut,” she said, noting that during a single displacement period, she had to walk 45 minutes to find a good and stable sign.

“It was not even a really place. You had to stand in the middle of the street and try to do your thing.”

Although she is now returning home, Alwan is usually studied in a café near the building because it contains the Internet better. But last Friday, a week after heavy shelling, I decided that it would be the same as working from home.

Before you can start her training courses for today, you need to log in to the Internet. To do this, she goes to the window in her room where the signal is stronger. There, it uses its phone to wipe the fast response code that downloads the application and gives it a number to enter. This system allows her to obtain more stable contact.

Once you call, playing a sound note from Junina. It is one of the many messages that will be a lesson today.

Lessons with the voice message

The professor says that war changed his life significantly.

“Now, instead of coming to your university, your semester, meet your students personally, change my daily routine.”

Junina is now studying mostly from home, sitting on an office with a laptop and his school book. He keeps his WhatsApp and Telegram accounts open on his phone where he records lectures. Sometimes, his records picked the sounds of drones at the distance, which is a constant reminder of the war.

When it finishes the registration, the file presses so that it is easier to download and send an audio observation to its students. Then he pulls another lesson on the laptop.

Since the electricity is always reliable, when it is time to charge its devices, it makes its way to an internet café, and walks in the past of the rubble. In the ruins of the residential buildings, companies and universities one day, plants grow through Cinder blocks.

When Junina reaches the cafe, a large space open with rows of offices occupied by people wearing headphones, it takes a seat and pulls the laptop to continue its work.

Sometimes his students meet here because they need a stable internet connection to complete the tests and competitions sent through the time ties.

Junina feels that the war forced universities to expand online learning and adapt to the current situation, but it is believed to be something that he will eventually benefit.

“I imagine a future in which the platforms continue online for some time to complete the education face to face,” he said. “Because even if the war ends or stopped tomorrow, I don’t think students will be ready to resume personal education immediately.”

Meanwhile, there are many students like Alwan, who devote their studies.

She is still unwanted due to her circumstances and says she plans to complete her studies and apply for a study scholarship abroad.

“My only motivation is that I believe that education is a powerful tool and a weapon against this occupation.”