Young Gaza student achieves 97.9% on exams despite war and famine

A Palestinian student, Bara’a al-Jarjawi, has scored 97.9% in Gaza’s General Secondary Examination, while taking most of her school notes on the cutout cardboard pieces of the aid packages she and her family received during the Gaza war. Abdallah Alattar, a Palestinian journalist in Gaza who spoke with al-Jarjawi, said the youngster’s family was unable to buy school supplies because of poverty and inflation, leaving al-Jarjawi with no option but to use the cardboard as makeshift notebooks to complete her lessons. “I studied on these [sheets] after every other option was exhausted,” al-Jarjawi said, adding that she managed the feat despite “the war, famine and the difficult circumstances we’re living through”.