A comparative Analysis of Students of Private and Public SchoolsAnd Impact of Coaching on Public Schools Students: AnAdministrative PerspectiveZareef-Ul-Muani1, Bashir Ahmad21 Deputy Commissioner Buner, Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pakistan,2 District Monitoring Officer Buner, Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa PakistanAbstract:The economic and social development of a country is directly related to its education system. To achieve national goals, a viable education system is the pre-requisite. The system of education in Pakistan has not delivered to the expectation. In Pakistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is ranked third out of four provinces, on basis of educational progress. With the election of government in May, 2013 certain initiatives were taken to improve education by improving infrastructure, human resource, basic facilities and monitoring of education however, less was achieved in quality of education. District Buner which is considered among the backward districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has shown same picture.
In the existing system in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Deputy Commissioner leading District Administration is the supervisory head of the devolved departments. The involvement of Deputy Commissioner in education has far reaching affects on the improvement of education sector in district. However, to find the actual improvement there is need to assess the differences in Private and Public sector.
This paper has compared quality of education in private schools with that of government schools. On the basis of this comparison, an idea for free coaching classes with direct involvement of District Administration was floated and executed. This paper further gives complete procedure of how to conduct coaching classes for students of government schools and its impact on improvement of educational profile of the district.Introduction:Education is considered the only tool for national progress. It makes citizens aware and responsible.
It enhances consciousness of individuals both at national and international level. The ultimate goal is to bring prosperity at all levels including local, national, regional and international. The situation in Pakistan is not upto the standards. It has not performed well since inception. The desired literacy rate is not achieved yet.
Besides this the provinces are also lagging behind in achieving the goals. The case in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is not an exception. The literacy rate is 58%. Not much has been achieved so far. Examining the situation at district level, it was observed that each district is performing differently. In many districts the performance is not praiseworthy for years. District Buner which is lying to the south of Swat, the divisional head quarter of Malakand Division of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, is considered among low performing districts.
It has 846 schools of total. The of level and gender wise detail is as under;Male School Female SchoolsMosque 8 Mosque 0Primary 429 Primary 196Middle 59 Middle 39High 58 High 18H. Sec 24 H.sec 15Total 579 Total 268Table No. 1: Gender and level wise number of schools in BunerThe enrolment gap was found on average of 20%. On the data of IMU, E&SED, Buner all the school were made functional and there was no single non functional school except for the newly sanctioned ones by the mentioned date. The unauthorized absenteeism of teachers was reduced to upto 60 teachers per month on average. Basic facilities were also provided to upto 96% schools.
Administrative visits were enhanced from 22% to 60%. The meeting of District Scrutiny Committee for Education chaired by the Deputy Commissioner played its due role in streamlining all this. None of its students has topped regional board exams in last few years. The result is poor in comparison to the whole of the region in particular, and province in general. The government school children are lagging far behind if compared with the ones with private schools. District education officer has to look after all the matter related to education including establishment, P&D, infrastructure, enrolment and results.
However, in practice quality of education is not monitored properly.In the existing executive setup, Deputy Commissioner leads all the devolved departments in the district. He supervises Education Department beside others. However, the role of District Administration in these departments is not active one.
In district Buner the Deputy Commissioner floated an idea of finding the gaps and differences between private and government sectors in education. For the purpose District Monitoring Officer was assigned the task and Independent Monitoring Unit was engaged in conducting the activity. After the findings of the activity were analyzed it was found that students of government schools need more time and proper guidance and coaching. District Administration planned an activity of free coaching of the students of government schools. It was decided that all the arrangements will be made by the district administration with the assistance of district government and the students will be prepared for upcoming board exams under the direct supervision of the district administration and engaging of all departments. It was a special activity.
. The manifest aim was to make the students academically strong, individually groomed and socially responsible and latent aim was to raise the educational profile of district Buner and develop an atmosphere of competition in education. Objectives:This paper is about the role of administration and its affect on education in a district. In this paper it has been concluded that how district administration can efficiently get involved beyond the scope of its responsibilities in bringing revolutionary developments to the district profile of education by utilizing education and other offices. The paper is aimed at finding the difference in level of students of private and public schools by comparing them.
It further helped in finding the factors where government schools children are unable to compete with the private school children. Another important objective of the paper is to share the idea of executing free coaching classes in government schools. This paper also provides a complete guideline to other districts for administrative involvement in education sector.
It tells how this coaching helped improve school children of government schools. It will also help to know its impact on improving district profile of education. Importantly, it will provide a complete literature from inception of idea of free coaching classes under the district administration, its development and implementation till finalization. It will also help districts to uplift educational sector, bring awareness in society, appreciate hardworking students, engage local and teacher community to raise for education and the effective role which District Administration could play in bringing a district backward in education at par with main or metropolitan cities. It will provide a complete guideline including appendices, time tables, cost, mechanism etc.
regarding replication and execution of free coaching classes under the auspices of District Administration for other districts in the province and across the country. Methodology:4.1 Comparative Analysis of Private and Public Schools Students:The purpose of the comparative analysis of private and public schools’ students was to know where the government schools stand in comparison to private schools. In accordance with the initiative of the Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, District Administrative facilities were provided to maximum schools, teachers were recruited through NTS and were made available through monitoring. Absenteeism was reduced.
At this moment it was advisable to check whether it has affected the performance of the school or otherwise. Secondly, it was also important to note the actual position at this moment which is the beginning of improvement in schools.4.1.1.
Procedure AdoptedThe first step was to select a sample which does actual representation of the schools. It was decided to take a number of student which is not too high to be unmanageable and not too low to mis-represent the actual sample. For this purpose, a total of 50 students were decided to be examined. Top twenty five (25) students from Government schools who got first 25 positions in BISE Exams were selected from the BISE Gazette. They were informed through District Education Officer, Buner. To select students from private schools, the Private Education Network was contacted.
They provided list top 25 students at district level from different private schools. They were informed through PEN. 4.
1.2. Setting of PapersThe paper was set up through teachers who were masters or highly qualified than masters in their subjects.
The paper consisted of 60 MCQs each having one mark and short questions of 40 marks. The following subjects were included in the test: Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Maths and English. Total time was 2 hours. 4.
1.3. Conducting ExaminationThe venue selected was Abdul Wali Khan University Conference Hall.
Different officers from administration and education office monitored and supervised the exam.4.1.4. Marking of paperPapers were marked in the office of District Monitoring Officer, Buner under his supervision by the bench identified.
The staff marking papers comprised highly qualified teachers both from government and private schools. Each teacher was to check his subject in each paper. Therefore, one section was checked by one teacher in each paper reducing chances of biasness.
4.2 Arrangement of Coaching Classes and Its Impacts on EducationThe second part of this paper is composed of the coaching classes arranged by the district administration for students of government schools. It was a huge project in which 282 students were selected, lodged, board and tuitioned through competent staff in a proper environment providing all facilities.
Detail methodology adapted was as follow;4.2.1. Idea of Free Coaching Classes for Government StudentsThe ides of free coaching classes was floated by the Deputy Commissioner Buner, the first author of this paper.
His concern and focus on education was genuine. It was believed that there is brain drain from government to private schools. Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has taken certain initiatives to improve government schools. Some initiatives included establishment of IMU, E;SED which monitors and provide real time data for policy decision, provision of funds to improve basic facilities, recruitment of teachers through NTS and enrolment campaigns. District Administration Buner was successful on several fronts in functionalizing non functional schools and taking actions against absenteeism which improved the availability of teachers. It was then desired to help the student of government schools academically by improving the quality of education for them. The initiative was taken by Deputy Commissioner Buner which was executed successfully.4.
2.2. Preparatory meetings:A series of consultative meetings was held with various stakeholders including all the Assistant ; Additional Assistant Commissioners, District Education Officer (Male), District Education Officer (Female), Principals of various educational institutions, District Social Welfare Officer and all the 04 Tehsil Municipal OfficersDuring the consultative session, it was unanimously decided prior to the commencement of SSC examination to hold free coaching classes for the distinguished student (both male and female) of class 9th; 10 from all the government high schools of the district for the period of one month. The main goal of the concept of free coaching was to enable the student of public sector educational institutions to compete with the student hailing from private sector education institutions, to encourage them to improve their academic skills, enhance social ; religious values and groom in a manner to infuse patriotism into their blood.4.2.3. Arrangements of Finances:For any special initiative, funding is always a major concern.
The District Administrative Buner lacked the required funds for the launching of Free Coaching Classes. For the purpose, the District Council Buner was approached which appreciated the idea of the Deputy Commissioner Buner regarding Free Coaching Classes by passing a unanimous resolution. Accordingly, a meeting of the District Development Committee under the chairmanship the District Nazim Buner was held on 13-01-2017 which approved the scheme namely.
“Pre SSC Exam Coaching Classes under the Head of ZWAAN BUNER” under District ADP 2015-16 to the Executing Agency i.e. District Sport Officer.4.2.4.
Logistic Arrangements:District Education Officer was given the task to identify schools which could be used as hostel to accommodate a desired number of students. For the purpose, GCMHS Daggar was identified for boys and GGHS Anghapur for girls. The fund released were utilized for making these hostels worth living. The class rooms were converted into hostel rooms. Rooms were made carpeted, heaters were installed as Buner is winter zone, arrangements for water, electricity, washrooms, chairs, study material, sports items, kitchen and mess utensils and all other requirements were fulfilled.
4.2.5. HR Management:Best teachers were identified in the district through District Education Officer.
They were hired to teach the students and conduct regular classes. Some staff was placed on reserve in case of need. Similarly class IV were also made available from education department for different duties.4.
2.6. Students Selection and admission:List of top male students in class 9th of Government Schools was finalized on based of 3rd quarter exam 2017. Their name, school name, marks and position was noted. For class 10th, top students of Government schools were selected on basis of SSC Annual Exam 2017 conducted by BISE Swat. They were enlisted in the same way as mentioned above. Each list was verified by District Education Officer. The same procedure was followed for female students.
An admission form was designed to be filled by these students having their basic information along with undertaking from students regarding following the rules (Appendix).Rules and regulations were prepared for students to be followed during their stay (Appendix).The number of students male students who were provided with coaching were 226 and female were 60.
Brief is as under;Male Female Centre Teachers Students Centre Teachers StudentsGovt .Centennial Model High School Daggar 20 226 Govt. Girls Higher Secondary School Anghapur 8 60Table No. 2: Gender wise venue, number of students and teachers 4.2.7. Facilities provided during Activity:It was the responsibility of Administration to provide lodging, boarding and food.
Times for study, food, play and prayers were scheduled. The Student were provided with 24/7 boarding facility in 24 and 08 rooms for male and female respectively. For the provision of electricity and heating facilities, generators as well as gas-cylinders were provided round the clock. The availability of warm water round the clock, electric geezers were installed in the hostel. The students were provided free breakfast, lunch, dinner and tea.
A food menu was prepared having breakfast, brunch, lunch, dinner and tea in the night. Different food items were provided each day to have variety in it. Various sports activities were also arranged for the students. Everything was made as per set time table and arrangements were made to make students follow it giving a lesson of discipline, punctuality and time management.
4.2.8.
Documentation of activities:Both daily and weekly time tables were prepared. The time tables were subject based as well as teachers based. Attendance of teaching staff was maintained. The attendance sheets were maintained. Record of all the students and their details was kept.
Detail, CNIC number and phone numbers of the teachers were also recorded. Correspondence made in this regard was properly documented. 4.2.9.
Pre-coaching assessment:Pre coaching assessment of both the class 9th and 10th were carried out of the students. Papers were set and exam was conducted under supervision of District Education Officer. Result was prepared and authenticated by District Education Officer.
4.2.10.
Supervision:Whole activity was supervised by the district administration. Focal person was notified for the purpose. However, the occasion was frequently visited by a number of dignitaries of the district including Provincial Ministers for the Auqaf Mr. Habib-ur-Reham Khan,MNA Mr. Sher Akbar Khan, MPAs, District Nazim Buner, District Naib Nazim Buner, District ; Tehsil Councilors as well as educationists. Resutls and Analysis: Graph No.
1Marks Obtained by Government School Students Graph No. 2Marks obtained by students of Private Schools Comparative analysis of the students of government and private schools was carried out as per mechanism described in methodology. As per the trend, the results were as per expectations. It may be noted that one student of government school was absent. The following observations were noted after analyzing the data:1. The topper of private school got 81 marks which were 17 marks more than the topper of government school student (64 marks).2. First 9 positions out of total 49 were obtained by students of private schools.
3. Lowest marks of private student were 34 while that of government school was 14.4. All private students passed the test by obtaining more than 33 marks, however, in contrast 9 government schools’ students failed the test.5. 88% government school students got marks less than 50 while in case of private students 20% got less than half.6.
Trending marks in case of private school were in the range of 61-70 while in case of government students it were in range of 31-40.7. Beside the content, it was observed that the private students were also weak in overall performance in paper. The method of attempting paper was not refined in comparison to private schools. Furthermore, cleanliness, calligraphy, highlighting and other bordering and lining was not done by many government students in comparison with private schools.
It was also noted that the private school students were good in management of time while the government schools were not. To sum up, the overall performance of the government school students was very poor in comparison to the private schools.All the above findings were utilized for improvement of the students during coaching. Graph No.
3: Class 9th AssessmentA proper mechanism was planned before executing the coaching classes. It was decided to know the step wise progress of the students with time. For the purpose, tests were conducted from a sample of 17 students at different intervals of the activity.The first test was conducted before starting the coaching classes. Weekly tests were conducted and at the completion of the coaching, last test was given.After analyzing the data, the following points were deduced;i. In the pre coaching assessment 3 (17.6 %) students got less than 30 marks.
However, from first test k8on wards all the students improved from 30 marks and no student except one in 3rd test got such low marks.ii. The number of students who got marks in the range of 41-50 reduced in tests after coaching in comparison to the pre coaching assessment. The reason was that many students got shifted to higher range of marks i.e. 51-60, 61-70 etc.
iii. There was no student in range of 51-60 marks in the first test. However, in tests to come after coaching this was the most achieved range of marks as can be seen 8, 5, 8, 6, 4 and 5 students (total 36 times) got marks in range of 51-60 in 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and final test respectively.iv. No student got 70 or above marks in the pre assessment test.
However, 1,1,1, 3,3 and 2 (total 10 times ) students got marks 70 or more marks in 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and final test respectively.v. It may also be noted that no student improved to range of 90-100 except one in 1st test.vi. All the above analysis shows that the students got overall improvement. Most of the students shifted from low marks to higher marks. However, no top marks in range of 90 or above were achieved by any student on average.
5 (41.6%) students got more than 50 % marks before coaching activity while in contrast 11 (64.7%) students got more than 50% marks after coaching. Most achieved range after coaching was 51-70 marks.
Graph No. 4: Class 10th Assessment Same mechanism was adapted for class 10th assessment. Pre-coaching tests were given and weekly tests were also given. This time the sample consisted of 16 students.After analyzing the data, the following points were deduced;i. In the pre coaching assessment 1 (6.2%) student got less than 30 marks while 5 (31.
2%) got marks from 31-40. Similar trend was observed in class 10th assessment but this time more improvement was observed i.e., from first test onwards all the students improved and no student got less than 30 marks however only few obtained in the range of 31-40.ii.
Unlike class 9th assessment, some students got higher marks even in pre-coaching assessment as can be seen that 2 students got above 60 marks and one student above 70 marks.iii. No student got above 80 marks in assessment however, the graph showed that after coaching started the most achieved marks were in the range of 80-90. iv. Surprisingly, the students also achieved top score i.e. in the range of 91-100 as can be seen in 2nd, 4th and 5th test where the number of students achieving this range of marks are 4, 6 and 5 respectively which is appreciable.
v. The number of students obtaining marks below 40 were reducing gradually till the last test which have no single students with marks less than 40.vi. All the above analysis shows that the improvement was prominent. Students improved a lot from lower marks to higher. It was also observed that the low marks students were reduced to nil gradually. Importantly, there were students who achieved top score in the range of 91-100.
The most trending range of marks was 81-90 followed by 91-100.vii. It was also obvious that the student of class 10 were showed better results in comparison to class 9th. Their showed fast progress in improving marks. They were also successful in touching higher marks (91-100) unlike class 9th. This may be because of the exposure of class 10th to board exams in class 9th. Recommendations:The following recommendations are made in light of the experience gained from the coaching activity;1.
Provincial Government may make a decision to do free coaching activity in all the districts once an year before the board exams which will help improve education at district, regional and national level.2. Government should allocate sufficient budget for doing such activity.
3. Government should take steps on improvement of quality of education now. After providing infrastructure, basic facilities, teaching and non teaching staff it is necessary to ascertain what is transferred to the children in terms of curricular and co-curricular subjects.4. District Administration shall be involved directly in the activity to get the maximum out of it.5.
Focus shall be made on training of teachers for developing their capacity and polishing their techniques of teaching to ensure high quality of education. 6. A mechanism to evaluate curriculum shall be adapted and the progress made in curriculum throughout the year in school shall be followed and monitored.
7. For conducting coaching classes minimum number shall be selected. As a proposal it would be appropriate to select top 25 students for class 9th and 10th each from girls and boys.8. The duration shall be from minimum 45 days to two months for such activities. Less time is not affective in case students’ improvement while more time is not feasible financially and administratively.
9. Students of the same level shall be selected. In case some students are very intelligent and other poor academically, it is hard to teach them uniformity. In such cases thought the poor improves a lot but the intelligent ones suffer.10.
Student shall be given proper guidance in studying techniques, attempting papers, time management and learning methods.11. As seen in government school children, their writing is very poor and in most cases hardly readable. Therefore, focus shall be made on calligraphy and writing as well.12. District Education Officer shall take active part through its staff to ensure the subject is taught completely before exams and the quality of teaching is high.13. Motivated students perform well as against those with less interest.
Therefore, students should be motivate and given a sense of competition in education.14. Awareness in society and specially involvement of parents of the students plays a productive role in achieving the desired quality education.
Acknowledgement:This was a huge and tremendous task which involved a number of offices and departments. First of all we convey thanks to District Nazim and his District Council for provision of finances and giving approval to this idea which was not known or applied before. We also appreciate all the Assistant Commissioners of District Buner especially Ishtiaq Ahmad AACR Buner, Dr. Azmat AAC Gagra focal person, Engr. Aman Coordinator Zwan Buner and Shahid Khan Chief Warden for their supervision and making management of the activity.
We also acknowledge to the District Education Officer, his team and all the teachers community for their active involvement and due cooperation and assistance. We also praise the role of Independent Monitoring Unit, Elementary ; Secondary Education Department for monitoring coaching. We also commend Private Education Network for their cooperation and assistance in conducting comparative analysis of private and public schools. Lastly, all the students and their parents are also appreciated for their trust and confidence in District Administration.
