Gaza’s education system remains largely dysfunctional, with hundreds of thousands of school-age children lacking meaningful access to education, according to data collected by the Humanitarian Forum on Gaza, an organization of Israeli civil society experts and NGOs, in August 2026.
The group said 772,042 school-age children are currently outside the formal education system. Of those, 338,722 are expected to receive no form of education, while 433,301 are participating in temporary learning spaces, operating at roughly 600 locations across the Gaza Strip.
More than 93 percent of schools in Gaza have been severely damaged or destroyed, the forum said. It estimated that about 180,000 children aged 9 and 10 have never attended school regularly.
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A school in Gaza’s Nuseirat in 2025. Credit: Eyad Baba/AFP
A school in Gaza’s Nuseirat in 2025. Credit: Eyad Baba/AFP
The forum attributed Gaza’s slow education infrastructure recovery partly to restrictions on aid and construction materials, which have forced children into inadequate temporary learning spaces.
The forum also raised concerns that some organizations permitted by Israel to operate in Gaza lack established experience implementing similar educational initiatives.