The Impact of Part-Time Employment on the Academic Performance of Government Secondary School Students in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

Abstract

The study was designed to inspect the impact of part-time employment on the academic performance of government secondary school students in district Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The core objectives of the study were to look into its causes, impact and to find out the number of students doing part-time employment. This descriptive study aimed to investigate the impact of part-time employment on the academic performance of students at secondary level. It was conducted in 106 high and higher secondary schools of district Peshawar. The part-time employed 378 students and concerned 320 teachers were taken from those schools as sample. Questionnaires comprising fifty two questions were designed to get the opinions of both teachers and students. The data was tabulated, analyzed and interpreted. The collected data was examined with the help of the software SPSS version16 by using percentages, Phi and Cramer’s V. The analysis of data revealed that fathers of the part-time employed students were doing blue collar jobs; some of them were, either jobless, died, or ill. Most of the students started their paid part-time employment at adolescence as apprentices with only one day leave in a week for fulfillment of their economic needs and for continuation of their studies. Students believed that they felt tired, and was absent minded during classes as well as they remained absent from their classes, and the major cause of all of them was part-time employment. Most of the students had no time for completing easily their class room assignments and for participating in cocurricular activities. Majority of the teachers responded that poverty was the main cause of doing part-time employment at secondary level; it developed sense of deprivation, carelessness and inferiority complex etc. in students. Majority of the teachers suggested as alternatives that government should provide funds, introduce new institutes for providing vocational/technical trainings and philanthropist of the society should be involved to help such students. A number of recommendations were made to improve the current situation.