The estimated number of children less than 18 years old mid 2016 is about 2,207,535 children in Palestine, representing about 45.8% of the population, the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) said on Sunday.
It said that among those children there are 1,127,283 males and 1,080,252 females, adding that the number of male children in the West Bank totaled 650,709 and the number of female children totaled 624,320. Meanwhile, in the Gaza Strip, the number of males totaled about 476,574 while the number of females amounted to 455,932.
PCBS said, according to WAFA, that whereas children constituted 49.6% of the population of the Gaza Strip, they represented 43.4% of the total population of the West Bank.
400 children are still in Israeli jails
According to the Defense for Children International Palestine (DCIP), data indicated that 2,634 children were detained during the year 2015, in addition to 1,260 children being detained during the first four months of the year 2016. 400 children, other than those who entered youth stage during their stay in Israeli jails, are still in prison .
31 children killed by Israeli forces
According to DCIP records, 31 children were killed by Israeli forces during the 2015, whereas 32 children were killed during the first ten months of 2016.
Forced displacement of children
About 2,500 citizens lost their homes, as they were subject to the demolition policy of the Israeli occupation. During the first half of the year 2016, 279 homes and housing units were demolished, in addition to the demolition of 341 establishments.
About four thousand orphaned children only are covered by social sponsorship in the West Bank
The number of the sponsored children by the UAE Red Crescent in the occupied West Bank reached 3,967 children, and the highest number of sponsored children was in the Hebron governorate, as it reached 1,095. In another aspect, the number of children who were referred to “behavior control units” in the West Bank totaled 1,481 children, while the number of children who were admitted to the Dar Al-Amal Institution for Rehabilitation and Protection (Ministry of Social Development) was 160 children, in 2015.
Children in the labor market
4.5% of the total number of children aged 10-17 years were working with or without pay in 2015; 5.7% in the West Bank and 2.8% in the Gaza Strip. The number of male children engaged in work was higher than working females, as follows: 8.5% of male children compared to 0.4% of female children.
The proportion of children attending school and also engaged in child labor was 2.3% (2.8% in West Bank and 1.4% in Gaza Strip).
In 2015, the average of daily wage for working children aged 10-17 years reached 48.7 New Israeli Shekels (NIS), and the weekly working hours were 44.4.
Drop-out rate from elementary school higher among males
The number of students for 2015/2016 academic year in Palestine reached to about 1.193 million students (1.053 million in the elementary level and 140 thousands in the secondary level), while the number of children enrolled in kindergarten, in the same academic year, arrived at about 141 thousand boys and girls.
The drop-out rate from elementary school for the 2014/2015 academic year was 1.5% among male children, compared to 1.1% among females. In the secondary level, the rate was 2.1% of males compared to 1.8% of females.
Failure rate at elementary schools, during 2014/2015, was 1.2% of males and 0.9% of females. At the secondary level, the rate was 0.4% of males and 0.3% of females.
(Edited for the IMEMC by chris @ imemc.org)
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