UN chief denies plans to transfer Gaza education system to UNESCO

The United Nations has categorically denied reports that it plans to transfer the education system in the Gaza Strip from the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) to UNESCO.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres made the denial in response to a private message from former UNRWA official Khalil Al-Halabi, who asked about reports that the agency’s education programme in Gaza would be transferred to UNESCO.

Al-Halabi told Quds Press: “A report about the United Nations’ intention to transfer UNRWA’s education programme to UNESCO raised serious concerns for me. I therefore contacted Guterres through his personal email, as I have done before, to ask about the matter. He replied with an outright denial, saying, ‘Absolutely not.’”

Al-Halabi added: “No institution, whatever it may be, can manage the education system in Gaza other than UNRWA, given its extensive experience in this field for more than 70 years.”

Al-Halabi, 72, held several senior positions at UNRWA before his retirement, including deputy head of the Education Programme, director of school education, head of the northern Gaza area and adviser to the agency’s director of operations in the Gaza Strip.

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