Teaching 200 Children in Displacement Camps: How I Turn Displacement Tents into Schools

Before the war, I worked as an English language teacher at a kindergarten in the Gaza Strip. In the evenings, I gave private lessons to students at my own educational centre beneath my house. I had been working since university, but during this war, I lost my job. My house and educational centre were bombed, and the school where I worked was destroyed. I lost everything in this war, but I’ve been able to turn my family’s displacement tent into a small school for teaching displaced children. My name is Ikram Talaat Ahmed. I am 29 years old. This is the story of our great loss caused by the Israeli occupation during their war on the Gaza Strip, and my resistance to the occupation through education.

I live with my family in the Bureij refugee camp in the middle of the Gaza Strip. Several years ago, I obtained a bachelor’s degree in English language. I lived a happy, quiet life with my husband, Ramy Al-Batran, and my children, Celine, six, and Ibrahim, four. I got a job at the Ibn Khaldoun Model School and also opened my own educational centre in my house. I loved teaching very much; it’s the noblest profession on earth. I spent most of my time teaching children until the war broke out. I’ve lost everything during these nearly eight tough months.

I worked as an English language teacher for children at the Ibn Khaldoun Model School kindergarten. I was very happy with my job. I love children and my profession very much. The greatest joy I’ve ever had in my life was working in teaching and educating children.
After years of teaching, I managed to open my own educational centre beneath my house in the Bureij refugee camp and named it the Noor Educational Center. I spent long hours giving private lessons to students from kindergarten to the preparatory stage. I was happy with the success of my private work and my ability to develop my educational project.
After the Israeli forces invaded the camps of the central governorate of the Gaza Strip, my family and I fled to the city of Deir al-Balah, where we set up a tent in the displacement camps

We have been living there since January 2024. Israeli forces invaded the Bureij camp for about a month, and after their withdrawal, my husband returned to check our house, only to find it completely destroyed, along with my educational centre.

I learned from the news that the Israeli forces had destroyed the Ibn Khaldoun Model School where I worked. During this oppressive war on the Gaza Strip, I lost both of my jobs. Four teachers who used to work with me at the Noor Center were killed. But I have not lost my love for work and my love for teaching children.

After spending about a month in the displacement tents in Deir al-Balah, and learning that the occupation had destroyed my house and educational centre, I decided to resume teaching. My husband and I agreed to turn the tent we live in into a small school for teaching. The number of displaced students in the shelter camp is very large, and the students spend their time without benefit, as all aspects of life have been completely halted since the beginning of the war in the Gaza Strip.

My educational initiative began by teaching the children living near my tent. The idea was greatly accepted, admired, and encouraged by all the residents in the camp. I teach children from first grade to sixth grade. The number of students has reached over 200, and we receive new students every day who want to learn.

My educational tent initiative expanded, and four teachers volunteered to work with me in the tent. They are teacher Iman Basal, an English language teacher; teacher Hanin Al-Zareai, an Arabic language teacher; and teacher Dina Al-Zareai, a teacher for the preparatory stage, who supervises coordinating lessons at the educational tent.

I named the educational tent ‘Noor Educational Center’ because I want the educational centre that was destroyed by the occupation to continue, and I want our children to see the light and have a bright future. Palestinians continue their dedication to education in this harsh war. We try to revive the spirit of studying and education in the hearts and minds of our children despite the intense and continuous Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip for the past nearly eight months.

We face many challenges in teaching children at the educational tent. The biggest challenge is the narrow space of the tent, which is only three meters wide and seven meters long, not enough to accommodate the more than 200 students who spend several hours inside it every day for study and education.

We also face difficulty during daily lessons due to the high temperatures, the spread of insects, and the lack of necessary items such as pens, notebooks, and a whiteboard. Some students sit in the sand due to the lack of chairs and desks.

The students’ enthusiasm for learning is very high. We started teaching the children of the displacement camp where we live, and then began teaching children from neighbouring displacement camps. We in the Gaza Strip love education very much, and all parents care about educating their children, as the Gaza Strip is considered one of the most educated areas in the world.

We noticed a significant decrease in the students’ level of comprehension compared to before the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip. In the first few months, we found it difficult to establish students’ academic foundations, such as reading simple words and pronouncing letters. Over time, there has been significant improvement in the students. However, the difficult conditions of the war and the environment in which we live affect the students’ mental abilities. This is the biggest obstacle in our work.

I dream of the war ending soon and us returning to our normal lives before this war started. I hope to go back to my hobbies, like reading books. I wish for the Israeli massacres against us to stop, and for students to return to their schools. The war has caused all the students in Gaza to lose an entire academic year from their lives. We should now be preparing for end-of-year exams, but the war started at the beginning of the school year. We are nearing the end of the academic year, yet the Israeli war on Gaza continues.

My big dream is to rebuild my Noor Educational Center, to rebuild the Ibn Khaldoun School where I worked for several years, and to reopen all the schools. I hope that the Palestinian Ministry of Education will find a way to compensate the students for this academic year, and that we can find a way to save their academic year so that they do not lose it completely. But this requires an immediate cessation of the war and finding alternative shelter centres for the over a million and a half displaced people all over the Gaza Strip who are currently crowded into schools.

I have fulfilled my duty towards my Palestinian people. I am a teacher, and it is my duty to educate children and ensure the emergence of an educated, cultured generation capable of uplifting our homeland. I continued my work during the war with courage, and I ensured that Gaza remains, as everyone knows it, a hub for knowledge and scholars. The occupation destroyed dozens of schools and universities during its war, and all the remaining schools have been turned into shelter centres. The schools will need significant rehabilitation to be available for teaching students again after the war ends. Our students also need extensive psychological rehabilitation to overcome the significant and dangerous effects of the war they are suffering from.

We need everyone’s cooperation and the convergence of all energies and capabilities to save the academic year. I hope that my educational tent initiative can be supported and receive stationery and basic school supplies. My dream is for the war to end soon, and for us to return to teaching our children in schools and educational centres that are suitable for them, designed for children’s education with the familiar academic atmosphere our students were used to before the war. Teachers are messengers of knowledge and education. We continue our educational mission despite all the great risks surrounding us, with confidence that the war will end and the educational success in the Gaza Strip will continue.