The Palestinian Ministry of Education announced on Saturday the results of the secondary schools’ final exam, known as Tawjihi.
Of the nearly 85,000 students who took the exam across Palestine, over 58,000 passed it, with a success rate of 68.12%.
Despite the Israeli military occupation and the hermetic siege on the impoverished Gaza Strip, the Palestinian population remains one of the most educated in the Middle East.
According to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the literacy rate in Palestine – estimated at 96.3 percent – is one of the highest in the region, and the illiteracy rate – 3.7 percent among individuals over the age of 15 – is one of the lowest in the world.
“Palestinians understand that education is their greatest weapon for obtaining their long-denied freedom,” Palestinian journalist and editor of The Palestine Chronicle Ramzy Baroud wrote in a recent article.
“Israel, too, is aware of this truth, knowing that an empowered Palestinian population is far more capable of challenging Israeli dominance than a subdued one; thus the relentless and systematic targeting of the Palestinian educational system,” Baroud added.
(All Photos: Mahmoud Ajjour, The Palestine Chronicle)
