The new school year in Palestine kicked off on Monday morning with about 1385000 boy and girl students flocking into their classrooms across the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
According to the Palestinian ministry of education 911100 of these students study in 2333 government schools and 134800 others in 484 private schools while 339100 students go to 375 UNRWA schools.
73900 teachers work in these schools with 52 400 of them assigned to government schools.
In a related context the teachers of government schools in the West Bank had announced a few days ago their intention to refrain from attending morning student line-ups in schoolyards due to the Palestinian government’s failure to respond to their demands.
However they decided to freeze their strike today after receiving appeals from parents and civil society organizations in this regard.
The General Union of Palestinian Teachers for its part said it would use other pressure means soon if the government did not respond positively to the teachers’ demands.
