Despite the political context and the large number of young people in schools, the literacy rate in the Occupied Territories of Palestinian East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip is quite high: 93.5% of the boys and 98.6% of the girls complete primary and elementary school. On the other hand, only 51% continue in secondary school (the same percentage of boys and girls).

Palestinians value education as a privileged way to achieve a better future, and educated Palestinians have provided the Gulf States, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan with qualified personnel for the development of all sectors of their economy since the 1950s.

Schooling is obligatory until the age of 16. There are 4 divisions: nursery school for the youngest children (4-5 years); primary and elementary schools (6-16 years); secondary education (16-18), with three tracks: vocational, science, and arts; the final secondary school diploma, the tawjihi is the equivalent of GCE or baccalaureate.

Until the PA took on the organisation of the schools, beyond the public, private and UNRWA school systems, the curricula in Palestinian schools were a patchwork that reflected the physical division of Palestine: a Jordanian curriculum in the West Bank, an Egyptian curriculum in the Gaza Strip, an Israeli curriculum in Jerusalem public schools and Jordanian curriculum in Jerusalem private schools, all subject to Israeli approval. The creation of Palestinian textbooks by the PA Ministry of Education in collaboration with educational associations at least establishes the same programme for all Palestinian schools.

Amongst the problems facing the Palestinian education system is the ever increasing number of students: the number of school children per class is relatively high - 38.9 students on average per class. In UNRWA schools, the average is 44.3 (50 in the Gaza Strip); 39 as stated in government schools and 25.7 in private schools. Since its creation, UNRWA has been in charge of the education to tawjihi standard of all Palestinian refugees in Palestine and the countries of the Palestinian Diaspora. UNRWA runs almost every second school in the Gaza Strip, and one in ten of the schools in the West Bank. With limited resources at their disposal (very basic equipment), schools in refugee camps are faced with too many pupils and insufficient buildings, which force them to operate most of the time on two or sometimes three shifts.