THE ROLE OF SCHOOL FACILITIES IN ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF STUDENTS

Abstract

Education is the process of socialization that enhances the ability of the individuals to help them survive peacefully and productively in the society. In Pakistan, both public and private sector schools are working hard in the provision of quality education. Private schools strive to perform well as compared to the public sector schools and started to claim that they have better school facilities and academic performances of their students are also better. Their claims of providing quality education has become a debatable topic for educationalists and social scientists across the country. Keeping in view the same context, the current study was conducted in Tehsil Batkhela of District Malakand in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP). The aim of this research was to compare the facilities in public and private schools with reference to the provision of quality education. Through multi-stage cluster sampling two public and two private schools were randomly selected at secondary levels. From each school, 25 students were selected in both 9th and 10th class. Three dimensional data were collected; (a) form the administration of the schools about available facilities (b) from selected samples regarding their family background and (c) surprise tests were also conducted to measure the educational performances of sampled students. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were applied. The results showed that facilities of the public schools were the same or somewhat better but the educational performances of private schools were better. Further, it was found that schools’ facilities were not having a major role in better educational performances of students rather the role of family background and engagement in tuition after school hours were found as responsible factors. Keywords: Education, public and private schools, facilities in school, quality education, academic performance