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West Bank Schools Cut to Three Days as PA Slashes Pay in Deepening Fiscal Crisis

Withheld tax revenues and frozen aid have starved schools of funds, driving lost learning and pushing teachers out.

Schools in the occupied West Bank have had to slash their teaching hours in response to budget cuts
Headmistress Aisha Khatib said her own generation had better educational opportunities
Private tutoring makes up some, but not all of the teaching shortfall for the Hajj twins
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Overview

  • Public schools across the West Bank have reduced instruction from five days to three, disrupting education for roughly 630,000 pupils.
  • Teachers are receiving 60 percent of their salaries and schools are running at under two-thirds capacity as the Palestinian Authority struggles to meet its wage bill.
  • UNRWA, which serves about 48,000 refugee students, reports plunging proficiency in Arabic and math and is weighing a shorter school week because key donors, including the United States under President Donald Trump, paused funding.
  • Israel’s withholding of customs tax transfers since the Gaza war, along with halted work permits and tighter movement controls, has deepened the fiscal squeeze and eroded household income.
  • Military operations and displacement in 2025 left some students missing up to 45 percent of learning days, and several schools face demolition or closure orders, including six UNRWA schools in annexed east Jerusalem.