School Violence Combat and Treatment Strategies

In cooperation with the psychosocial counseling program in the municipality of Nablus, and funded by the UNPF, the children’s library in the PWWSD – Nablus conduced  a workshop on school violence and its consequences. The participants agreed to join efforts in order to develop the strategies needed to combat this phenomenon. They stated that there is a need to activate the parents’ council, as well as the role of the counselors, to bridge the gap between those and the students.  The participants also recommended reconsidering the process of education, as it is supposed to be creative and motivational, and not informative only.

Over 100 academics and representatives of educational institutions, as well as parents attended the workshop, which aimed to shed light on the violence phenomenon in schools and address the potential means to combat it. Mrs. Samar Hawash moderated the session, as she took off by presenting a number of statistics regarding school violence and its principle factors. 

Dr. Alia Alassali, from Al-Najah National University, talked about the role of the curriculum in combating violence and promoting gender equality. She stressed the need to utilize the Palestinian curriculum as a strategic means of positive change in society (the content, the methods, the goals, the activities, and the evaluation parameters). In addition, she focused on the curriculum’s roles in motivating creativity, changing the stereotypical images portrayed about women, and positively discriminating with special-needs children. 

Mrs. Hakima Jaber talked about school violence within the social context, including domestic violence, and moral harassment. She put the responsibility on the institutions and the families to track this phenomenon and treat it with the appropriate educational methods. She also introduced different forms of violence including verbal, physical, psychological and sexual abuse.

On his behalf, lutenant Ashraf Motlaq talked about the different police divisions that operate on children’s safety, like the family unit, and the juvenile department. He confirmed the police’s willingness to cooperate with governmental and non-governmental organizations, in order to combat this phenomenon. He also presented the applied measures the police take to fight school violence, as well as the means for prevention and treatment.

Engineer Anan Ghazzal spoke about the role of the municipality of Nablus in honoring education, through allocating budgets to build schools according to the international standards. He also talked about the different services the municipality provides, and stressed the role of the family in promoting tolerance and civil peace.