A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF QUALITY ENHANCEMENT MEASURES IN PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SECTORS AT SECONDARY LEVEL IN HAZARA REGION

Abstract

Thesis Title : A comparative study of quality enhancement measures in public and private sectors at secondary level in Hazara region. Quality is an important aspect in education. There are many parameters such as drop-out rate, teacher-student ratio, class-size, physical facilities, educational facilities, hostel facilities, information and communication technology, parents and community participation in children education, monitoring and assessment, homework assignment, students and teachers absence, actual size of classrooms, participation in pre-primary/early childhood education, teacher’s qualification and professional development, administrative and financial autonomy of Principals, coordination between staff and head of schools, competency in English, mathematics and science and reading proficiency in Urdu and English that reflect the quality of education. These were used as bases of comparison for quality enhancement measures in public and private sectors’ institutions. Total sixty four (64) schools were randomly selected, thirty two (32) schools from private sector and thirty two (32) schools from Govt sector. A questionnaire was developed and distributed among the principals of sample schools to collect relevant information. Achievement tests were prepared in the subject of science, English and mathematics to compare the academic achievements of Govt and private schools’ students. Hundred (100) test item for science, hundred (100) for English and fifty (50) test items for mathematics were taken. The tests thus taken were marked and other collected data was analyzed by using different statistical tools, i.e. average (mean), percentage, standard deviation, t-test and correlation. The findings of the study indicated that the performance of private boys and girls schools was better than the performance of the Govt boys and girls School’s in all the three tests and English reading competency while in Urdu reading both type of students were same. Principals of the boys and girls private had more administrative and financial powers as compared to the principals of Govt girls and boy’s schools. Parents of private school students participated actively in their children’s education as compared to the parents of Govt school’s students. All kind of facilities were better in boy’s and girl’s private schools as compared to Govt boys and Govt girl’s schools. Teachers’ academic and professional qualifications were similar in both types of institutions. Results of the achievement tests were highly correlated with the results of examination conducted by BISE.