A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF CLASSROOM CLIMATE IN PUBLIC AND PRIVATE PRIMARY SCHOOLS OF KARACHI
Keywords:
Classroom Climate, Public & Private Schools, Comparative Analysis, Primary Education & Educational Equity, Teacher Perceptions & KarachiAbstract
Classroom climate is a significant factor of the quality of education, which has a profound impact on the student engagement, academic success and socio-emotional maturity. In Karachi, whereby the primary education is divided into resource-disparate segments such as the state and the privately-run sectors, it is assumed that the learning conditions in the privately-run sectors are superior. A structured teacher questionnaire was used to measure four dimensions of classroom climate, such as Student Relations and Cooperation, Classroom Environment, Work Habits and Task Completion, and Teacher Student Relations on 68 primary school teachers (35 public, 33 private) in the South and East districts of Karachi to collect the data.
The statistical analysis of the results and independent samples t-tests had a striking result that no significant differences are fund between the public and the private school in the overall classroom climate (t(66) = 0.52, p=0.605) or any of the dimensions. Both industries showed a mediocre positive climate with an average of between 3.29 and 3.68 out of 5 points. Work Habits dimension gained the highest rating in the two sectors and Teacher-Student Relations was the weakest area across the board.
These findings conflict with the account of the private school superiority in psycho-social learning conditions and indicate that classroom climate, as per the experience of teachers, is incredibly homogenous among educational sectors of Karachi. The conclusion is that the quality improvement efforts should go beyond the dichotomy of the public and the private and address the issue of enhancing the teacher-student relationships. The results provide evidence-based information to policymakers, school administrators and teacher educators on the need to create equitable and positive learning contexts among all primary students in Karachi.
Downloads
References
A Dime a Day: The Possibilities and Limits of Private Schooling in Pakistan | Comparative Education Review: Vol 52, No 3. (n.d.). Retrieved January 4, 2026, from https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/588796?journalCode=cer
Wang, M.-T., Degol, J. L., & Henry, D. A. (2019). An integrative development-in-sociocultural-context model for children’s engagement in learning. American Psychologist, 74(9), 1086–1102. https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0000522
Kline, Rex B. “Book Review: Psychometric Theory (3rd Ed.).” Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment 17, no. 3 (1999): 275–80. https://doi.org/10.1177/073428299901700307.
Reyes, Maria R., Marc A. Brackett, Susan E. Rivers, Mark White, and Peter Salovey. “Classroom Emotional Climate, Student Engagement, and Academic Achievement.” Journal of Educational Psychology 104, no. 3 (2012): 700–712. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0027268.
Fraser, Barry J. “Classroom Learning Environments: Retrospect, Context and Prospect.” In Second International Handbook of Science Education, edited by Barry J. Fraser, Kenneth Tobin, and Campbell J. McRobbie. Springer Netherlands, 2012. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-9041-7_79.
Emmer, Edmund T., and Laura M. Stough. “Classroom Management: A Critical Part of Educational Psychology, With Implications for Teacher Education.” Educational Psychologist 36, no. 2 (2001): 103–12. https://doi.org/10.1207/S15326985EP3602_.
Rafique, Muhammad Imran. Comparative Analysis of Education Quality in Public and Private Primary Schools: A Case Study of District Mansehra. n.d.
Field, Andy. Discovering Statistics Using IBM SPSS Statistics. 5th edition. SAGE Edge. SAGE, 2018.
Hamre, Bridget K., and Robert C. Pianta. “Early Teacher–Child Relationships and the Trajectory of Children’s School Outcomes through Eighth Grade.” Child Development 72, no. 2 (2001): 625–38. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8624.00301.
Hamre, Bridget K., and Robert C. Pianta. “Early Teacher–Child Relationships and the Trajectory of Children’s School Outcomes through Eighth Grade.” Child Development 72, no. 2 (2001): 625–38. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8624.00301.
Halai, Anjum. “Equality or Equity: Gender Awareness Issues in Secondary Schools in Pakistan.” International Journal of Educational Development 31, no. 1 (2011): 44–49. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijedudev.2010.06.012.
Moos, Rudolf H. “Evaluating Classroom Learning Environments.” Studies in Educational Evaluation 6, no. 3 (1980): 239–52. https://doi.org/10.1016/0191-491X(80)90027-9.
Emmer, Edmund T., and Edward J. Sabornie, eds. Handbook of Classroom Management. Second edition. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2015. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203074114.
Creswell, John W. Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches. 3. ed., [Nachdr.]. SAGE Publ, 20.
Zullig, Keith J., Tommy M. Koopman, Jon M. Patton, and Valerie A. Ubbes. “School Climate: Historical Review, Instrument Development, and School Assessment.” Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment 28, no. 2 (2010): 139–52. https://doi.org/10.1177/0734282909344205.
Lubienski, Christopher A, and Sarah Theule Lubienski. The Public School Advantage. n.d.
Aslam, Monazza. “The Relative Effectiveness of Government and Private Schools in Pakistan: Are Girls Worse Off?” Education Economics 17, no. 3 (2009): 329–54. https://doi.org/10.1080/09645290903142635.
“The Teacher Classroom Climate Scale (TCCS): Development and Validation of a New Instrument for Use in Primary School.” Journal of Educational & Psychological Research 5, no. 1 (2023). https://doi.org/10.33140/JEPR.05.01.06.
Hattie, John. Visible Learning. 0 ed. Routledge, 2008. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203887332.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 PAKISTAN ISLAMICUS (An International Journal of Islamic & Social Sciences)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
