Private Schools In Pakistan Research Articles

P036 INFLUENCE OF FOOD ENVIRONMENT IN AND AROUND SCHOOLS ON FOOD CHOICES AND PRACTICES OF STUDENTS: A MIXED METHODS STUDY – ANTICIPATORY FINDINGS

Background: The health behaviors of adolescents are significantly influenced by their living environments, with schools serving as crucial settings for promoting healthy behaviors. The school food environment, encompassing areas where food is provided and consumed within and around schools, plays a key role in shaping adolescents’ dietary choices. However, there is a notable scarcity of evidence regarding the school food environment in Pakistan. This study aims to examine the school food environment and associated factors, including the availability, accessibility, and affordability of foods within and around schools for adolescents, the facilitators and barriers school vendors face while offering healthy food options, and the perspective of policymakers on the role of food environments. Objectives: • To assess the school lunchtime food practice and sources of adolescents in schools in Karachi • To explore facilitators and barriers to offering healthier food options to adolescents through school vendors both within and outside school premises • To explore the perspectives of adolescents regarding the food choices available to them Methods: A mixed methods concurrent study design i.e. a cross-sectional study, interpretive descriptive qualitative study. Six schools, comprising three government and three private schools from District Central of Karachi, will be recruited. Students from grades 6 and 7 who provide consent and assent will be included, with an anticipated sample size of 430 participants. Descriptive statistics will be utilized to analyze quantitative data and a manual thematic analysis approach will be employed to analyze qualitative data. Results: The anticipated outcome of this study is to understand the school food environment holistically taking into consideration the practices and perspectives of key stakeholders i.e. school-going adolescents, vendors, and policymakers. Conclusion The groundwork done through this research project will help develop evidence-based healthy school food environment programs/interventions that can be feasibly deployed in government and private schools in Pakistan. The research outcomes will foster collaborative efforts among various stakeholders to co-create and implement viable solutions.

Problematising school classifications in Pakistan: the case of English-medium private schools

ABSTRACT This article problematises the widely accepted classification of English-medium private schools in Pakistan which reproduces academic literature along the binaries of elite/non-elite, rich/poor, and English-medium/Urdu-medium. It seeks to expand this classification to acknowledge the existence of middle-tier English-medium private schools which are neither elite nor low-fee. Utilising interdisciplinary evidence to distinguish between elites and a ‘new middle class’, the article strives to highlight the existence of a wide swath of middle-class population in Pakistan which is almost invisible in the academic discourse in the field of education. The article also draws on findings from a case study conducted at an English-medium private school in Karachi, Pakistan, which show that the current binary classification of private schooling does not fit the realities of this school site. The results suggest that English-medium private schools that cater to the new middle class need to be recognised as a separate category. The article incorporates code-switching and translanguaging research to give a glimpse of how students negotiate bilingualism/multilingualism in this resource-rich and literacy-rich school. As such, stepping beyond the binaries will enable scholars to explore how bilingualism/multilingualism affects a cross-section of the population rather than focusing only on lower socioeconomic groups across Pakistan.

Constructing Inclusive Citizenship: Fundamental, Cultural and Religious Rights Narratives in History Textbooks Taught in Elite Schools in Pakistan

Given the crucial role of history education in shaping civic identity, this study investigates citizenship rights perspectives constructed in the history textbooks of elite private schools in Pakistan. Following Gagnon and Pagé’s analytical model, this study adopts a qualitative content analysis to probe fundamental rights, cultural rights, religious rights, and related concepts within textbooks. The findings highlight problematic silences, selective narratives, and externally imposed frameworks on rights issues. Deterministic and politically skewed historical accounts impede the development of critical faculties and introspection, which are essential for engaged democratic citizenship. This study has notable implications for reforming unbalanced curricula and decolonizing history teaching toward the objectives of citizenship education, such as educating future citizens to contribute to a peaceful, just, inclusive, and democratic society in Pakistan. The paper not only presents its findings but also looks at what the findings entail for the development of inclusive citizenship education.

Everyday Life Information Seeking

The purpose of this paper is to elaborate the everyday information seeking practices of urban teens and the benefits they get from these practices; moreover, demographic details of participants are also elaborated. In Pakistan many studies have been carried out on information need and seeking behavior of diverse groups, but not a single study has been done so far on everyday information seeking of Pakistani urban teens. This research is a humble endeavor to understand their daily practices that may lead to design systems for fulfilling their everyday information needs. For this purpose, a quantitative study was conducted employing a sample of 1000 urban teen participants who responded to the survey. Cluster sampling was done and the Likert scale was used to assess the written questionnaires, which were analyzed on the statistical software SPSS-21. These teens were from public and private schools of Pakistan. This data was collected by using Google forms. The results indicated that an easy access to teen’s preferred sources would play important role in their lives. It would be helpful for academicians to understand the teens’ ELIS behavior and reasons of their preferred information sources. This study will also be helpful for policy

Going the Extra Mile: A Multisite Case Study of Two Private Schools in Pakistan

This study explored the perceptions of administrators, teachers and students of secondary schools in Karachi-Pakistan regarding the strategies adopted by the schools to exhibit care for the learning of students. This qualitative multisite case study was conducted with schools under the administration and management of Christians and Ismailies. A semi-structured interview guide was used as a tool for data collection purposes. The data were transcribed and coded for the construction of themes. Themes such as teacher preparation and performance, communication with parents, a learning-conducive environment, curricula supporting activities and continuous professional development were constructed from the data analysis. The study findings reveal that schools have adopted various strategies to facilitate and support students' learning. However, the primary focus seems to be on cognitive development, often at the expense of paying adequate attention to physical, social, and emotional development. Hence the study suggests that assumed and expressed needs of students in areas other than the cognitive domain should be considered pivotal by the school for a safe and peaceful society. The study also suggests that the application of care in a practical sense is the need of the times and should be made a systemic reality for all schools in Pakistan.

Textbooks as ‘Neoliberal artifacts’: a critical study of knowledge-making in ELT industry

ABSTRACT The present study examined the traces of neoliberal ideology in O-level English language textbooks taught in elitist private schools in Pakistan that follow the UK-based international educational system administrated by the University of Cambridge under the General Certificate of Education (GCE). Analysis in the study was informed by Fairclough's CDA writings. Moreover, Bourdieu's views on neoliberalism were also considered to shed some light on neoliberal ideology in the textbooks. Findings suggest that several neoliberal themes were evident in the textbooks under scrutiny, including marketization, consumerism, branding, celebrity culture, competition, individualism, self-responsibility and self-entrepreneurship, mobility, new ‘Othering’ strategy and English as a neoliberal skill. Based on the findings, we argue that the global ELT industry that produces teaching materials, including textbooks for the periphery is a major contributor to the neoliberal world order maintained by the local (political) elite in the government(s) e.g. Pakistan in case of the present study. The textbooks prepare learners for a competitive world rather than a world based on cooperation, mutual progress, and happiness. The study thus questions such neoliberal hegemony encoded in the textbooks and argues for critical examination and selection of the materials for contexts where English is taught as a foreign language.

Functional Gastrointestinal Diseases and Dietary Practices among Pakistani Children-A Schools Based Cross-Sectional Study.

Functional gastrointestinal diseases (FGIDs) are an important yet highly under explored area among public health issues. FGIDs' complex etiology makes them of interest along with their prevalence in children steadily increasing, especially in the developing world. We aimed to determine the burden FGIDs pose on school-going children, and to determine its association with the dietary intake patterns in Pakistani children. The study included 385 school-children from public and private schools in Pakistan through multistage random sampling, from March to August 2022. We used the Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ) and Rome IV Criteria for a comprehensive exploration of the issue. Associations between the FGIDs and dietary factors were analyzed using chi-square and Fischer's exact tests in SPSS version 26.0. Females constituted 77.4% (n = 298) of all respondents, while 44.9% (n = 173) of the total reported a family history of gastrointestinal diseases. FFQ analysis showed varying consumption frequencies for different food groups. Functional abdominal pain and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) were the highest reported FGIDs with a prevalence of 38.7% (n = 149) and 24.9% (n = 96), respectively. Statistical associations were found between different FGIDs and gender, age, household income, family members, and dietary variables such as fruit, vegetable, beverage and pulse consumption. FGIDs were found to be associated with a number of socio-demographic and dietary factors which calls for small scale and large scale attention to the issue. Results from the current study and further studies may help develop guidelines to manage these disorders in Pakistan.

In the Eyes of the Beholder: Leaders’ Personality and Courageous Followership

The literature on leadership through the lens of followership does not provide empirical evidence of leaders’ personalities and their perception of subordinates’ courageous followership behaviors. This paper explores the connection between personality and courageous followership. The study sample is 190 school leaders working in the top private schools in Pakistan as regular employees. The responses collected through simple random sampling techniques and Stata 16 software software are used for data analysis. Data analysis indicates that leaders having extraversion, agreeableness, consciousness, and openness to intellectual/imagination personality traits perceive their subordinates’ behaviors as courageous followers, whereas the neuroticism personality trait resulted in a negative perception of courageous followership behaviors among Pakistani school leaders. This paper is prominent research in a new direction of leadership through followership. This study recommends emphasizing the development of positive personality traits in leaders so that they can transform their subordinates into courageous followers, which is an antidote to toxic leadership.

Imperfections in syllabus designing of English course at the primary level of education in Pakistan: an obstacle in attaining language proficiency

The syllabus of English that has been adopted in public and private schools in Pakistan does not meet the criteria to achieve the targets. It has been revised at some point of times, but the problems persist and impede the students' learning performance, but the problems persist and impede the students' learning performance. The syllabus designers have developed it without considering the needs of the students and the instructors' abilities. The researcher has focused on evaluating the imperfection in syllabus designing that hampers learner to learn and instructors to teach. The objectives of this study are understanding, evaluation, and development of syllabus in English language skills. This study has been conducted at the primary school level to understand the learners' problems at an initial level. The selected material for analysis is the textbook of English taught at grade 1 in public schools of Pakistan. The analysis of the contents of the textbook syllabus would enable the researchers to develop a hypothesis to remove all the flaws from the syllabus of English textbooks. The questions of syllabus designing at the initial level, the contents of the syllabus, and to develop a functional-based syllabus have been addressed in this research.

Servant Leadership And Life Satisfaction: The Mediating Role Of Life Goals And Psychological Needs

The objective of this study is to conceptualizethe proposed research framework of the private schools of Pakistan. The primary objective of this research is to test the relationship between servant leadership and life satisfaction with mediating effect of life goals and psychological needs. This study proposed two mediation effects of life goals and psychological needs between servant leadership and life satisfaction. The study has been tested using data collected from 254 respondents of private schools' teaching and administrative staff. The results of the study acknowledge that servant leadership negatively affects life satisfaction. Furthermore, the results acknowledge the significantmediation effect between servant leadership and life satisfaction. The results of the study will help private school leadership to improve leadership practices and give a better understanding of what an employee ultimately wants to achieve and how organizations and leaders will help in these phenomena.

Investigating the Perceptions of Sindhi Parents Towards Additive and Subtractive Bilingualism and Bilingual Education in Sindh, Pakistan

Pakistan is linguistically and culturally diverse country where more than 70 languages are spoken. Primary education in mother tongue is a basic human right of every child and this right has been denied in private education sector of the country. The division of education among private and public sectors have further pulled the tensions and division among the masses. Language in education policies have been not been dealt with serious consideration in the entire history of Pakistan. Further proliferation of private schools in Pakistan has sidelined the role of indigenous languages in educational domain especially at primary schooling. Private schools are teaching through the subtractive bilingualism mode where one language is being preferred over other languages in teaching and learning context . This paper intends to explore perceptions of Sindhi parents towards additive and subtractive bilingualism in private schools at primary schooling and how this one language policy in schools is affecting their children. For this purpose, 16 semi-structured interviews have been conducted through maximum variation sampling. The data is collected from four districts of the Sindh; Dadu, Hyderabad and Qambar & Shahdadkot. The results showed that parents hold different perceptions about additive/subtractive bilingualism. Out of 16 participants, 6 supported additive bilingualism and rest supported subtractive bilingualism. Results showed that parents were curious that English rather than helping create confusion and frustration for children at this very young age. Therefore, additive bilingualism must be supported that it not only facilitates children but also helps them to grasp complex concepts easily. They demanded that Mother tongue teaching must be supported in private schools Keywords: additive bilingualism, subtractive bilingualism, mother tongue education, English language teaching, language in education policy DOI: 10.7176/JLLL/84-03 Publication date: December 31 st 2021

School Health Services (SHS): A need in the context of Pakistan

School Health Services (SHS) are school health programs that promote health in school children. The value of SHS is recognized globally and practices around SHS vary with different regions. Its positive outcomes are already acknowledged by high-income countries, where education ministries are typically involved in cultivating comprehensive School Health Services. Low-income countries remain hesitant to implement SHS, due to various constraints. In Pakistan, SHS have been introduced and restructured several times, but never comprehensively executed. Private schools in Pakistan offer better health programs than public schools but none of the schools follow standardized school health guidelines. This paper aims to analyze the role of SHS in Pakistan and provide several recommendations regarding the establishment of SHS in local schools. The proposed suggestions revolve around establishing model clinics in schools, which would be central to subsequent school-based health programs in Pakistan. If properly designed and equipped, school clinics can support a wide range of health outcomes, from emergency first aid care, to immunizations, to health education. The involvement of ministries and national authorities is encouraged for smooth delivery of SHS and compliance with public health guidelines.

THE IMPACT OF ADMINISTRATORS ON TEACHER RETENTION AT PRIVATE SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN PAKISTAN

It is a crucial issue to retain highly qualified educators to provide high quality education in private schools. High turnover of educators in private schools has a negative impression on the pupil satisfaction and on their educational progress as well. Retention of educators refers to retaining qualified and efficient teachers in schools for a long time. As recruitment is a complex process for the selection of qualified and competent teachers so, retention of teachers is most crucial and extensive issue for private schools in of Pakistan. The present research study was conducted to explore the impacts of school’s administrations on educators’ retention at the private schools in Pakistan. The descriptive statistics and t-test statistical tools were applied to assess collected data with respect to school’s administrations, their behavior and facilities. The findings of the study based on the Likert Scale indicated that most of teachers were not satisfied with their school’s administration, their behaviors and facilitation. T-test analysis indicated that no significance difference was found between the retention intentions of male and female teachers.

A human rights approach: The right to education in the time of COVID‐19

A human rights approach: The right to education in the time of COVID‐19

Impact of Online Game on Academic Skills of the Child

This study used to assess the impact of online games on the academic skills of the children. This study was specially de-signed for the youngster who served most of their time on online games, so this step towards then to increase knowledge through online games instead of using online games just for entertainment. Especially for this situation when COVID-19 is pandemic and spreading everywhere. During this period, children need Indore entertainment with learning. The purpose of this study is to highlight the issue of the contents of online games and use it for learning purposes too because many re-searchers proved that the most engaging activity of young generation now a day is online gaming. This research conducted through the quantitative method. In this research, we had involved a total of 574 participants as a sample size. The study used data from local public and private schools in Pakistan, and the population for this research was teachers and students. These both are the main source to find information, Total 224 were teachers, out of which 150 are female, and 74 are male teachers their age range from 25 to 40, the rest of the 350 participants are local students include 190 girls and 160 boys. Their ages range 8 to 18 years. To examine this study, two questionnaires designed to collect data from the target popula-tion, the data analysis will be in SPSS, and the result showed that the content of online games needs consideration to im-prove student’s academic skills with entertainment, with reducing culture barrier and lack of focus on national curriculum while designing online games. The school of Pakistan needs to change the learning ways and they all are strongly recommended to use online games in formal education and advice to develop or create online games with educational objectives.

Towards Investigation of Instructional “Hiccups” of ELT Fraternity in EFL classroom

Abstract This paper aims to investigate and understand the causes of instructional “hiccups” of English language teachers at private schools in Pakistan. The questionnaire is the main tool for data collection among English language teachers who were teaching at the secondary level. Due to specific selection criteria, purposive sampling was employed among participants of the study. The findings reveal that English language teachers in private schools at the elementary level were facing teaching difficulties while teaching English textbook courses.

An epidemiological study of prevalence and comorbidity of non-clinical Dyslexia, Dysgraphia and Dyscalculia symptoms in Public and Private Schools of Pakistan.

Objective:Dealing with Dyslexia, Dysgraphia and Dyscalculia symptoms is a major challenge for teachers and school psychologists while addressing students’ issues. The present study was designed to examine the prevalence and comorbidity of specific learning disabilities (SLD) symptoms such as dyslexia, dysgraphia and dyscalculia in public and private schools of Lahore, Pakistan.Methods:This cross-sectional study was conducted in four schools of Lahore from June, 2019 to December 2019. We examined 666 participants (boys= 384, girls= 282) from two public (n=409) and two private (n=257) schools of Lahore with a mean age of 13 years (SD±1.44). Participants were assessed on Learning Disabilities Checklist (LDC) along with a demographic sheet. The data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics (frequencies and percentages) and inferential analyses of Chi Square test of association and Cohen’s Kappa by using SPSS version 24.Results:Findings indicated that 39% participants showed SLD symptoms, 33% dyslexia, 48% dysgraphia and 45% dyscalculia symptoms. Significant co-morbidities were seen, such as 30% for dyslexia and dysgraphia symptoms, dyslexia and dyscalculia 26% and dysgraphia and dyscalculia as 36%. Variations in SLD, dyslexia, dysgraphia and dyscalculia symptoms were also seen across gender and schools with significant higher prevalence in public schools.Conclusion:High prevalence of SLD symptoms and comorbidity in students was found which is alarming, particularly in public sector schools in Pakistan. SLD and dyslexia were higher for boys, whereas girls scored high on dysgraphia and dyscalculia. Therefore, there is great need of introducing screening measure of assessment of SLD and management strategies to deal with these issues.

Factors Affecting Employee Performance: An Investigation on Private School Sector

Employees are valuable assets for any organization, and their productivity should be given due consideration, if an organization aims to meet its strategic goals. This can be done through implementation of effective policies for the most contributing determinants of performance of employees. Therefore, this paper studies the factors that affect employee performance significantly, and gauges their direction being positive or negative. The study is based on the case of education sector, specifically the private schools of Pakistan. The sample is drawn from private schools of Karachi, with respondents selected through Convenience Sampling. A qualitative design with Interpretivist approach and case study research strategy is used and 30 employees at Top, Middle and Lower job levels of schools have been interviewed. The instrument used for collecting the data comprises of semi-structured interview questions, the data then organized, coded and developed into themes for conducting the analysis. From our framework of ten factors, compensation, motivation, leadership, working environment, performance appraisal, job experience, and training are found to have significant and positive impact on work performance, while conflict, job stress, and working hours bear significant negative effect on employee work performance. These factors have varied level of impact through the three job levels. In addition to the established framework, eleven new factors were also identified while conducting the interviews and their effect through each employment level was gauged. Conclusively, several recommendations are drawn for the organizations to ensure maximum effectiveness and efficiency of their employees.

Quality management principles and school quality

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to test the relationship of process approach (PA), customer focus approach (CFA) and school quality with the moderation of professional certification of school principal to fill the gap of quality management practices in private schools.Design/methodology/approachStudy applied quantitative design with the sample of 401 principals of private schools. Questionnaires were adapted from different studies, and pilot study was carried out. Confirmatory factor analysis was done along with structural equation modeling.FindingsResults indicate that the process approach has a significant effect on functional quality and academic quality of schools. Customer focus approach medicates the relationship of process approach and functional quality. The study found no evidence of the relationship of moderation of professional certification of school principal with process approach, functional quality and academic quality.Practical implicationsStudy contributed through the generation of new dimensions of school quality, putting professional degree of school principal as a moderator and by providing basis to understand the implementation of quality management system in schools. The outcomes of study will guide school managers to implement the process management approach to improve the school quality.Originality/valueOriginality of the study is defined in three ways; first, it is first study that examines the relationship of process approach, customer focus approach and school quality with the moderation of professional certification of principal. Second, it chooses “single” schools that have not been subject of any quantitative research exclusively. Third, it is a first attempt to examine the working of private schools in Pakistan with respect to quality management principles.

Educational Planning and Human Resource Management: A Study of Public and Private Schools in Pakistan

Planning and management of curriculum and human resources in schools is precisely liable and precarious in nature. The present study addressed the matter while exploring the practices of educational planning and human resource management in public and private primary level schools in Punjab, Pakistan. The case studies of two public and private schools in Rawalpindi District of Punjab Province were conducted by interviewing the mangers and principles of private and public school respectively. The participant observations were also taken to substantiate the information provided by the respondents. The schools were selected on the basis of their reputation and high enrollment of the students. The findings of the study elaborated the differences in public and private schools with respect to educational planning and managing human resource. The public schools followed the standard curriculum designed by the Punjab text book board which is universal for all the public schools. The teachers are mostly on permanent position and experienced. Whereas in the private schools, international level curriculum is followed this differs from school to school. Every private school has their own curriculum which they followed according to the standard of the school. The manager of the school generally decides the nature of the curriculum and recruitment of the teacher on its own will and interests. The medium of instruction is English in private schools, while public school used both national and international language. As far as teacher competence is concern, the public school teachers are more experienced as compare to private schools as they are working at the same school for a longer time period due to which better able to manage various task in the school and also take part in educational planning. On the other hand, in private school, fresh and most of the time untrained young females are hired. For these employees, professional development and retention is very important for the managers. Selecting and recruiting new teacher is very tedious job as well as it also affects the student’s performances and achievements. It is indicated that the owner of the private school was in continues struggle and in apprehension of hiring, and retaining their staff by providing them extra bonuses and facilities at school, such as leaves, time flexibility, and reward etc.