THE DEGREE OF READINESS AT GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS TO IMPLEMENT THE OMANI CHILD LAW: A CASE STUDY ON THE PRINCIPALS’ PERSPECTIVES AT SECOND CYCLE SCHOOLS IN SAHAM

Abstract

This case study aimed to reveal the degree of readiness in the second cycle schools at Wilayat Saham; to implement the Omani Child Law, from the school principals’ perspectives. The problem emerged; that 44.5% of students were assaulted during their childhood, of which 48% were beaten, 19% sexually abused, 18% verbally insulted. And that 765 Omani children who were juvenile offenders were aged (9-17) years. An analytical descriptive approach was used, data was collected through a questionnaire, designed in three axes: Laws and Regulations axis, Curriculum axis, and School building axis. The questionnaire was applied to a sample of 17 Male and female principals of a second cycle school in the Wilayat of Saham in the Sultanate of Oman. The findings of the statistical analysis showed that: the axis of laws and regulations got the highest arithmetic mean, while the axis of the building got the lowest arithmetic mean. The findings also showed that the readiness of government schools to implement the Child Law is average, and indicated that there were no statistically significant differences at the level (0.005 ≤α) between the responses of the male and female study sample, as well as the absence of statistically significant differences due to the variable years of experience.