School Students' Crises in Northern Governorates of Palestine from Principals' and Onel' Point of View

This study aimed at identifying crises facing school students, in Palestine’s northern governorates, from the principals’ and the educational counselors’ point of view. To identify these crises, the researcher raised the following questions. - What is the state of crises encountering school students in Palestine’s northern governorates according to principals and educational counselors? - What is the role of experience, gender, place of living, marital status, job, academic qualifications, specialization, and school variables in principals’ and educational counsellors’ assessment of crises facing students? - Are there any statistically significant differences among domains of crises facing school students in Palestine’s northern governorate? To answer these questions, the researcher developed a 60- item questionnaire tackling five domains: educational, social, psychological, health, and physical. The subjects of the study were school principals and counsellors of both sexes working in Palestine’s northern governorates: Tulkarm, Nablus, Jenin, Saltit, and Qalqilya. The total population of the study was 511 principals and counsellors. The questionnaire was administered to a randomly chosen sample (55% of study population). The sample comprised of28l principals and counsellors. The questionnaire was completed in the second semester. Findings : Using arithmetic means, the study revealed the degree of crisis incidence each of the five domains in the study The social domain occupied the first place. The total value of the dimension was of high incidence (50,1%) while the educational dimension took second place. The total degree of incidence was low (49.6%). The psychological and health dimensions occupied the third place; the total degree of incidence was also low (47%). The physical dimension occupied the fourth place and the total degree of incidence was low (42%). The total degree of crisis incidence, among school students in Palestine northern governorates, on all the dimensions, was low. It amounted to 47.2%. Results of T-Test revealed that there were no statistically significant differences in principals’ and counsellors’ assessment of crises facing school students, on all dimensions and their total value, which may be attributed to sex variable. T-Test also revealed that the c0unsellors’ assessment of crises was higher than the principals’. The unmarried people’s assessment was higher than the married people’s on the social dimension. It was found that there were no differences, which may be attributed to marital status variable on psychological, educational, health and physical dimensions and the total degree of the five dimensions. On the educational dimension, the evaluation of the holders of B.A. degrees and higher was higher than those evaluations of those holding less than B.A. It was found, however, that there were no differences on psychological, social, health, physical and total degree of dimensions, which may be attributed to academic qualification variable. Furthermore, the ANOVA results revealed that there were differences on the educational dimension, which may be attributed to experience variable. The study showed that there were differences among those having less than five years of experience and those having 5-10, and more than 10-15 and more years of experience in favor of those who had less than five years. Other comparisons had no statistical significance. On psychological, social, physical health and total degree of dimensions, it was found that there were no statistically significant differences, which may be attributed to experience variable. Results showed that there were no statistically significant differences, on the educational domain, which may be attributed to school variable, and between primary schools and secondary schools in favor of both primary and secondary schools. No statistically significant differences were found between primary and secondary schools and among secondary and primary schools. On the psychological, social, physical and total degree of domains no statistically significant differences were found which may be attributed to school variable. By using Repeated MANOVA, the results of statistical analysis revealed that there were differences between the psychological domain, on one hand, and the social, educational and health domains in favor of social, educational and health domains. On the other hand, differences were also found between the psychological domain and the physical domain in favor of the former domain. The study also revealed differences between the educational domain, on one hand, and the physical and health domains, on the other hand, in favor of the educational domain. Differences were also found between the health domain and the physical domain in favor of the health domain. However, no differences were found between the social and educational domains. In the light of these findings, the researcher has arrived at a number of recommendations. The most important of these are the following: - Asking educational counseling departments in the directorates of education to provide family counseling and to intervene directly with the family during crises. - Using new educational techniques in schools to convey information to students to help them buttress the sense of belonging to all aspects of the educational process in the school. - Developing a system of exams that is characterized by flexibility and objectivity n the academic evaluation of students.