REASONS FOR DECREASING STUDENT NUMBERS IN JERUSALEM'S OLD CITY SCHOOLS: DAR AL-AYTAM ISLAMIC SECONDARY SCHOOL AS A MODEL
This study aimed to identify the reasons for the decrease Student numbers in the schools of the Old City of Jerusalem, and also aimed to identify suggested solutions for it. The importance of this study lies in the status of the Holy City, its religious significance, and the political conditions that the city is exposed to, as well as the Israeli violations of the education process in general in Jerusalem, and in the Old City in particular. This study was limited to Dar Al-Aytam Islamic Secondary School as a model. It is one of the schools affiliated with the Palestinian Ministry of Education in Jerusalem, which operates under the umbrella of the Public Endowment Department, which is supervised by the Jordanian government, to study the causes of this problem. To achieve the objectives of this study, the researchers adopted the qualitative research methodology in the "case study" style, which relies on a detailed description of the case through the use of multiple tools to collect data for this type of study, which namely interviews, and included (Officials in the Directorate of Education, principals of the school over different years, School teachers, educational counselor, representative of the local community) and the analysis of documents and papers, to answer a number of main questions from the point of view of its participants, namely: What are the reasons that led to the decrease in the number of students in the school during the past ten years?? How do you see a solution to the problem of low student numbers in the school? This qualitative study reached a set of Themes, namely: The procedures and policy of the occupation in Jerusalem, the quality of education provided in the school, the school’s reputation in its societal setting, parents’ concerns and apprehensions, child labor, and the lack of Clarity of vision and procedures of the Directorate of Education.
Keywords: The Old City, The Judaization of Jerusalem, Waqf Schools.