The spread of computers is still limited in Palestine, which reflects high illiteracy rates in this field in the Palestinian society. There is a feeling at the official level that there is not enough use of computers as it has been expressed by "the press conference on the national Initiative to Increase the use of computers in the Palestinian society" (September 20, 1999). During the conference, the Director of the Central Body of Census called for the following: to increase the spread of computers in rural areas, to oblige all Kindergartens to use the computer as a tool of entertainment and teaching, to develop a series of relevant methodological activities and to provide each school with a computer laboratory by the year 2000. He called upon a national initiative to empower 20% of Palestinian households to acquire a computer and to eliminate the illiteracy of 33% of students in terms of using the computer and its applications. He also called upon the creation of the National Network for Education through the use of computers and scientific exchange, and to link all the schools within the suggested network; in addition, he said that some of the private sector professions should acquire computer skills, to give the opportunity to 10% of households to have access to Internet by the year 2005. This invitation in itself expresses the concern about this unchanging situation while the gap is still getting deeper between Palestinian society and the permanently industrializing societies.

The ratio of Pupils enrolment increased greatly at the beginning of 1994. This quantitative development shows the sustainable growth in the enrolment ratio of pupils in basic school-age, since the provision of education for new generations of pupils (natural increase and the return of thousands of Palestinians from the diaspora with the creation of the National Palestinian Authority)

"The survey on services in the West Bank and Gaza strip – health and basic education services" shows that about 73% of households think that the provided basic education services are "good" or "very good" (in the West Bank 67%, in Gaza strip 81%). It shows also a difference between the type of schools frequented by students whose parents are not refugees. Whereas half of the refugees students go to the Agency’s schools, the other half frequents public schools. As for non-refugees students, they often go to public schools. The quality of the school, especially the levels of competence among teachers, the availability of appropriate teaching materials and facilities (88%) and financial considerations, play a major role in parents preferences to a school or another. There is a feeling among households in general, that the Agency’s schools were much better in the sixties and seventies, but this has changed because of the political situation.

According to the same survey, guidance services are provided for students in less than half of the schools, and guidance services in public schools are better than those in other schools (one careers adviser for 1835 students). There are parents’ Boards and Teacher’s Boards in 91% of the schools (98% in public schools, 85% in the Agency’s Schools and 60% in other schools). 37% of the public schools, 48% of the Agency’s scand 100% of civil schools participate in specified development programs.

Alike the results related to pre-school education shown by this survey, there are doubts about the accuracy of the results shown by the survey about basic education, the reasons being as mentioned above, the methodology adopted by this survey and the fact that the parents do rarely visit the schools and thus they know very little about the situation there and cannot distinguish between a good or a bad school.

There is no difference in enrolment rates between one region and another in Palestine, since they are almost similar in all the Provinces. In 1997/98, enrolment rates in high grades started to decrease. This rate reached 64,3% in the 10^th grade of basic education 61,4% in the West Bank and 69,7% in the Gaza strip. Then in the secondary stage it reached its minimum levels in the 12^th grade since it reached 54,3%, with 46,1% in the West Bank and 53,7% in the Gaza Strip.

Female enrolment ratio exceeds male enrolment ratio in all the grades of basic education (1–10) in the West Bank as well as in the Gaza Strip. The average female enrolment ratio exceeds male enrolment in both cycles in the West Bank and in Gaza Strip. Female enrolment ratio is 88,2% and male enrolment ratio is 86,9% (1997/1998). On the other hand, Male enrolment ratio exceeds that of females only in the 2^nd grade of secondary education.

3-3 Teaching staff – human resources

1. Employment of educational personnel and teaching skills of teachers.

The Ministry employed about 6700 teachers in secondary cycle, which increased the number of public school teachers in the West Bank by 49,5% and by 64,6% in the Gaza Strip.

The Ministry gave a special interest to employing university graduates (80%) and the others hold an intermediate school diploma. It gave also opportunities for special cases like political and social cases and for poor and needy households (3% for ex- political prisoners, 2% for social cases, 2% for injured people, thus a total of 12% of the jobs), and the recruitment system does not distinguish between male and female teachers, since there is a need to be met.

For purposes of the assessment, educational personnel in schools has been classified by teachers, administrators, technicians and employees. The teachers are those who instruct pupils during school hours regardless of the number of their activities within and outside the classroom. The administrators undertake an administrative activity; they include head teachers, assistants, secretaries, librarians, accountants, clinical personnel etc…

The head teacher gives regular courses to students sometimes, and he is attributed a teaching or educational position according to the number of hours he teaches from the whole quota and he is classified as half administrator, half teacher if he teaches for half the hours of the quota. The technicians are physicians, nurses, and advisors and others. Support personnel include security personnel, transportation workers etc… and finally the supervisors.

The level of skilled teachers improved a lot especially in public schools. The teaching staff includes now university graduates from all the specialties that have been distributed to all the administrations and to all the school cycles without any discrimination. It’s worth noting that the Ministry aims at improving the skills of all the cadre members, to the bachelor degree, and to encourage those who are less skilled to join universities in order to get a first university degree. The final objective of the Ministry is to get the cadre members to have a bachelor degree from all the specialties and to do away gradually with less skilled people. The Ministry is currently in a traditional period that will finally lead to refusing the applicants who don’t have at least a bachelor degree. In addition, the Ministry wants to reach another objective, which is to impose as a condition for recruitment, a teaching degree in the future. The following table shows the improvement of teachers’ skills in the secondary cycle. 

Source: Educational census book / different issues

* The increase in recruiting secondary school graduates between 1996 – 1999 is due to the appointment of people with special cases (released prisoners, special social cases etc…)

0. Differences in totals are due to approximate calculations

The table above shows a decrease in the number of baccalaureate graduates and less in the Palestinian Educational Personnel from 4,1% of total teachers in 1994/1995 to 2,7% in 1998/1999; the decrease in the number of holders of intermediate school diploma from 58,2% to 46,6% for the same period. On the other hand, the number of bachelor’s degree holders and more, increased by 104,7% and their number increased from 37,7% in 1994/95 to 51,5% of the total teachers.

The Ministry employed a limited number of intermediate school diploma holders despite the availability of a sufficient number of Baccalaureate graduates since it wanted to have a capacity for a part of the society’s school graduates. In 1998/1999 they represented 50,8% of the total teachers in public schools, 62,4% in the Agency’s schools and 34,1% in civil schools.

Some teachers are being discharged from some of their courses (six courses) to be able to work in schools’ Libraries and Laboratories.

There are 16 Educational and teaching directorates related to the Ministry, with 13 in the West Bank and 3 in the Gaza Strip. The table (58) shows the number of public educational personnel, regardless of their functions.

Table (58)

Source: 1) Education database / General Administration for Planning and Education Development – Ministry of Education

2) Education database / General Administration for Administrative Affairs – Ministry of Education

In order to improve the quality of teaching, the Ministry is training the educational personnel in order to rebuild their capacities before introducing new curricula programs in the year 2000. The General Administration for Educational training and capacity building in the Ministry established a comprehensive plan for the training and capacity building of the personnel. The task of stopping deterioration coincided with that of educational training and capacity building. The Administstarted to organize training sessions in all the Palestinian regions; the table (59) presents information about some sessions and some participants.

Source: Education Database / General Administration for Educational training and capacity building.

The sessions in which teachers and head teachers from the educational personnel participated tackled various topics. There were 41 topics that covered all the educational, administrative and technical aspects. Many training sessions have been organized for other personnel from general directorates, which are not mentioned in the table, especially in the fields of planning, development, curricula programs, and educational guidance.

The Ministry gave a special interest to the training of schools’ head teachers. Training sessions have been organized for them about issues like administration, communication and interaction, as well as individuals’ management and psychological guidance. The Ministry focused on getting the school to acquire a self-planning capacity. The Ministry focused on skills like the improvement of teaching, as well as the physical environment of the school; in addition to strengthening the relationships between the members of the educational staff, and improving the educational leadership. In other words, the Ministry is seeking to plant the seeds of decentralization within the framework of this plan.

Physics, chemistry and biology teachers come after the schools’ head teachers in these training sessions. Having said so, all teachers of the first grade in complementary education have been trained, and accordingly, complementary education has been introduced in about 200 schools. There was an emphasis on getting the schools to acquire a self-planning capacity. The number of participating schools represented half the Palestinian schools. Then comes the training of class teachers.

Source: 1) Educational census book / different issues

2) Education database in the West Bank and Gaza Strip – a series of reports about the current situation (n"5)

* Differences are due to approximate calculations.

The employment of new teachers didn’t decrease the ratio of Students to one teacher, it remained almost constant because of the overcrowdedness of classrooms due to the increase of new entrants, which had a negative effect on education.

The teachers in basic and secondary schools are distributed as class teachers (from 1^st to 4^th grade) and basic or secondary cycle teachers or basic and secondary teacher together. Teachers teach in female schools, male schools as well as in mixed schools without any gender discrimination. In spite of this, there is still a need for teachers for 1-4 grades, to help the Ministry implement its plan in putting competent teachers in this educational cycle. The number of teachers in the secondary cycle increased by 42,9% in all schools. The number of teachers in public schools increased by 53,3%, by 27,4% in the civil sector, and by 21,1% in the Agency’s schools for the same period. 79,2% of teachers teach in basic education, 13,9% are in basic and secondary education and the 6,9% left, teach only in the secondary cycle.