EDUCATIONAL FACILITIES AND ACADEMIC ENVIRONMENT: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN MURREE, PAKISTAN

Abstract

The research study examines the Educational Facilities and Academic Environment: A Comparative Analysis on Quality of Education in Public and Private Secondary Schools in Murree, Pakistan. In Pakistan, both private and public schools are providing quality education to children, however, the quality of education is better in public schools as compared to the private schools. For the research, the Cognitive Development Theory was applied, which stated that children educational process and their mental development is based on the overall quality of the content and educational materials, which provided by the schools and children are availing from schools. The quantitative research approach was chosen and design a descriptive study. The students were interview from the class of 8th to 10th. Face to face interviews have been done and the selection of respondents was through the purposive sampling techniques was adopted. The closed-ended questionnaires were used, and the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used as a data analysis tool. The sample of the study was one hundred and fifty (150) , were equal from public [N= 75] and private [N=75] schools. The descriptive (percentages, freq uencies, and graphs) and inferential (One-Sample 't' lest) statistics were applied. Findings of the research showed that students from private schools were more satisfied with their education. The findings were divided into three major sections, where the first section consisted of the socio-demographic profile, the second was the facilities in schools, third was the co-curricular activities and final sectors was the classroom or academic practices. The majority of the facilities have existed in private schools and the extra-cocurricular activities were performed in Govt schools. The classroom practices were better performed in private schools as compared to public schools. The inferential statistics (one-samp le t-test) also showed that there is a statistically significant difference existed between private and public schools. There must be proper monitoring and evaluation system on Govt schools and parents must view eyes on the public schools. Similarly, private schools also expend the ir extracurricu lar activities, where both academic and non-academic activities are important for the social, psychological, and cognitive development of children