English abstract provided by author:
Subjects such as leadership, student leaders, leadership theories and styles as well as the identification of leaders were described by way of a literary study. A total of 164 criteria for the identification of student council members were defined. These criteria, were divided into the following constructs: personality traits, character traits, cognitive abilities and skills. The construct personality traits was subdivided into dimensions. The 164 criteria were reduced to 86 by means of a factor analysis and used in the questionnaire for the empirical research
The questionnaire research to determine the views of the peer groups (Standard 9 pupils) and top management of schools regarding the criteria for the identification of student council members was done at eight secondary schools in Namibia
The results were processed by computer. It appears that criteria which could be classified under the construct character traits were evaluated as being the most important for the identification of student council members in these specific secondary schools. The construct personality traits, however, appeared to be nearly as important, while cognitive abilities and skills were placed third and fourth respectively