Public versus Private Secondary Schools: A Qualitative Comparison

The Present study was conducted to compare qualitatively the public and private secondary schools on different variables such as leader’s leadership styles, management practices and physical facilities provided in these schools. Three public and three private schools, were selected as case from Lahore city on the basis of convenience and accessibility. The stakeholders views approach was adopted for case study. The secondary school principals, teachers, students of 9 th and 10 th classes and their parents were identified as stakeholders of these schools. Interview protocol for each stakeholder, observation and document analysis were used as instruments of data collection. Sixteen interviews were conducted for each case which included the Principal of school, five teachers, five students of 9 th and 10 th class and five parents of these students. In this way 96 interviews were conducted for these cases including 48 interviews from public school and 48 from private schools. The school management / leadership, practices of heads, implementation of departmental policies, teaching learning environment and discipline in schools, lesson planning, available facilities, co-curricular activities and future developmental plans etc were explored in different interview protocols from each stakeholder. Data were analyzed by using qualitative analysis methods. It was found that, the public schools have better facilities , spacious buildings, highly qualified staff and people oriented management styles as compared to private schools. The heads and teachers of private schools desired to shift in public schools. It is recommended that Government should bound the private sector to provide infrastructure and facilities to the students similar to the pubic schools.