UNRWA to appoint 750 'permanent' teachers in Gaza over next three years

The  UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) announced that 750 teachers will be appointed on fixed-term contracts in the Israeli-blockaded Gaza Strip over the next three years.

In a press statement sent to The New Arab, the UN agency said its decision will be implemented at the beginning of the new academic year in September 2022. 

“In the first year, we will appoint about 250 teachers, while the rest will be appointed in the next two years,” the agency said, adding that it aims to reduce the percentage of the total workforce of teachers who are working under the day-to-day contracts, as opposed to permanent positions, to 7.5% in Gaza. 

For years, the agency has complained about a shortage of international funding, axing jobs, and warned that it will suspend or reduce its services. 

“We had adopted a mechanism for hiring day-to-day contracts as an austerity measure in Gaza, as this measure was temporarily adopted as a mechanism to control costs with a maximum of 7.5% of the total workforce of teachers,” the agency said. 

However, the agency says, the proportion of daily teachers has grown compared to employees working on fixed contracts, due to the retirement of teachers working on fixed-term contracts who daily teachers have replaced.

“Currently, there are 1,404 teachers working in UNRWA schools in Gaza on day-care contracts, which constitutes 15.44% of the total number of teachers,” the agency said. 

The UN agency added that its administration was concerned about the impact that may be reflected on the quality of education by teachers working on short-term contracts, so it adopted its news decision to ensure the availability of a better educational process in the coastal enclave.

The UNRWA was established by the UN General Assembly in 1949 and was mandated to provide assistance and protection to some 5.6 million Palestinian refugees in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan. 

Under the Trump administration and following lobbying from the Israeli government it faced dramatic cuts to its budget leaving the future of millions of its beneficiaries in the balance.