Parental Decisions Private vs Public Schools

Contents

PART A: INTRODUCTION 2

Statement of the problem 2

Research questions 2

Objectives 3

Scope of the study 3

PART B: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY. 3

PART C: TESTING OF THE DATA COLLECTION METHOD 10

PART D: DATA ANALYSIS 10

PART E: REFLECTION 11

PART F: VALIDITY AND CREDIBILITY 11

References 13

PART A: INTRODUCTION

Quality of education is important for any parent. Stakeholders should thus consider the various factors that affect the quality of education in schools. Parents choose to take their children to private schools instead of public schools as private schools offer quality education. Every year, the government allocates a significant amount of money to public schools yet parents are still dissatisfied with the services offered in these schools (Yaney, 1997). The high rates of private school enrolments therefore proves that the public education sector is failing especially in terms of quality. It falls to the stakeholders in the public education sector to identify the discrepancies in this field and finding solutions.

The stakeholders should take a more active role in this sector and identify areas that, from the parents’ perspective, these schools fall short. They should also identify what has motivated parents to enroll their children in expensive private schools. This paper, using various qualitative and quantitative methods such as descriptive research, seeks to gather the relevant data in an attempt to gather better insight about the situation. The paper will also highlight whether the parent-school, academic factors or availability affects a parents decision when choosing schools. The information will be sourced from a list of schools obtained from the education sector annually. A comparison shall then be made between an equal number of private and public schools.

It is important to also identify why despite receiving significant amounts of revenue yearly, public schools still do not offer quality education. The findings hope to prove that classroom management is a factor that greatly affects the quality of education. Consequently, the school climate and the relationship between the school and the parents are also major factors that affect the quality of education. Lastly, what can the stakeholders in the public education sector do to improve the situation in order to promote and encourage parents to enroll their children in public schools?

This paper is pilot research to enable us to acquire the right data collection method. It is imperative that with the sensitivity of the issue, the most appropriate data collection method be chosen taking into consideration all the requirements and due diligence.

Statement of the problem

Generally, private schools are preferred over public schools. This is majorly due to lack of enough facilities and competent staff. Most state-owned schools are underfunded and as such, parents prefer private schools as they offer convenience while maintaining quality especially in academic performance. The research study will try to prove the hypothesis that private schools are preferred to public schools with emphasis on the reasons behind the disparity.

Research questions

The main research question will be:

What lies behind the motivation by parents’ to see to it that their children join private schools, instead of public schools?

The sub-questions will be:

Is the decision by parents to ensure that their children join private schools directed by academic factors?

Is the decision by parents to see to it that their children join private schools directed by parent-school relationship?

Objectives

To ascertain whether parents prefer private schools, over public schools.

To find out the reason as to why parents prefer private schools over public schools.

Scope of the study

Twenty participants volunteered for the pilot study to test the collection and analysis method. The participants are random parents selected from the neighborhood. The questionnaire will be administered to the two participants and they will give a commentators feedback at the end of the pilot study. It is imperative to note that the pilot study will be conducted as if it were the real research undertaking. The aim of the pilot study happens to be the identification of the robustness of the data collection method and the accuracy and validity of the exercise.

PART B: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY.

The total sample size used for the pilot study was 20 parents from a population of 500 parents. The margin of error was given as 4.13. A sample size of 8 Parents who take their children to public school and 12 parents who take their children to private school. In this pilot study, stratified method of data sampling was used.

The standard instrument used for data collection in the pilot study was questionnaires. The major data collected through questionnaires was whether generally the parents preferred private school to public school and what were the advantages of private to public school. In addition the questions will also seek to understand the reasons behind parents preferring private to public schools. The major survey questions assessed areas such as physical facilities and infrastructure, staff competence and quality, academic performance and cost effectiveness.

In addition, to alienate the possibility of other factors being the reason for the preference, control questions such as ethnicity and religion were asked.

A combination of Likert scale, and multiple-choice questions were used in order to ease the process of transcription and consequent analysis. Rating and scale questions were used to survey the preference of private schools to public schools. The five-point scale measured how strongly they disagree and how strongly the respondents agree with the set questions. The types of scales used in the questionnaire were nominal, ordinal and interval scales. (F, Black, Babin, & Al, 2019)

The questionnaire is as shown below.

Demographics

1. In which area do you reside?

2. How old are you?

Under 25 years

25-29 years

30-39 years

40-49 years

50 years and above

3. What is you level of education?

Diploma

Bachelor

Degree

Master’s Degree

Doctorate

Others

4. What position do you hold in your place of work?

Part time

Non-management

Junior management

Middle management

Senior management

5. What is your current income (on a monthly basis)?

Below 2,500.00

Above 7,500.00

6 Which ethnic group do you belong to?

White

Mixed

Black

Indian or Asian

7. Do you belong to any religion? Yes No If yes which one?

Catholic

Protestant

Spiritualist

African Religions

8. Do you have a family?

Yes

No

9. If yes, how many members of the family do you have?

Above 4

10. Is your child male or female?

Male

Female

11. If they are more than on please list the gender for each of the children.

Section B

School preference

1 Has any of you (parents) attended private school?

Mother

Father

Both

2. Do you think you had the say on the school to take your kid?

Strongly Disagree

Disagree

Neutral

Agree

Strongly Agree

3. Do you think your child had the say on which school to go?

Strongly Disagree

Disagree

Neutral

Agree

Strongly Agree

4. Which of the mentioned below describes your child's fees?

Fully paying

Scholarship

Shared or assisted paying

5. If you had to pay full fees, would you still consider private school?

Strongly Disagree

Disagree

Neutral

Agree

Strongly Agree

6. How did you arrive at your decision on which kind of school to enroll your child to?

Peers and Colleagues

Academic performance list

School alumni and prospectus

7. Has your child always attended private school?

Yes

No

8. The following table indicates some of the main reasons as to why parents preferred private school over public school. Please tick the most agreeable box according to your scenario.

The choices are Agree, Neutral and disagree.

Agree

Neutral

Disagree

Your child has friends who attend the same school

Quality infrastructure and facilities

Good teaching staff

Prominent alumni or alumnus

A particular subject is available

Professional and good child welfare management

The school has transportation services in your area

Equality in opportunity allocation

Variety of sports available

Dissatisfaction with state schools

Better career prospects

The school has a religious affiliation

Sufficiently equipped school

Homogeneous gender schooling

Ethnicity and equal allocation to all ethnic groups

Discipline

Caters for special needs

The happiness of your child

Wide Range of curriculum subjects

PART C: TESTING OF THE DATA COLLECTION METHOD

After giving out the questionnaires for the pilot phase, we now look at the robustness and effectiveness of our method of data collection. To gauge our method, we will give out a participant feedback form. (F, Black, Babin, & Al, 2019). This feedback form will act as a pivot point for the changes the research is going to make in the main data collection phase. The participant form is as shown in the appendix. In addition, a letter of consent and a letter of invitation were issued to the participants before the survey in a bid to comply with the set guidelines with regard to consent and data protection. The invitation letter is as shown below.

Letter of Invitation

Dear Invitee,

My name is ……. and I’m a student at the University of ……… undertaking a course in ………….. I hereby kindly request you to take part in a research study that I wish to conduct a research on the preference of private schools to public or state schools. The aim is to identify whether there is a reason behind the apparent preference of private schools to public schools and if yes, determine the reason or reasons behind this preference. The study involves completing basic demographic survey and a set of work-related questions. Participation is voluntary and you have the choice to participate or decline participation.