Factors affecting parents' inclination towards private or public primary school a case study of primary school in Seremban / Aiman Alif Mohd Kamal, Nurernie Azwana Azly and Qurratuaini Musa

Education for children is one of the most concerning issues in the society especially among the parents. Recently, the numbers of private school in Malaysia are increasing rapidly. Despite the abundant of public school, demand for private school are still increasing. Therefore, this study aims to determine the most significant factor that affecting parents' decision in selecting private primary school for their children. Moreover, this study also wants to determine whether there is a difference in parents' satisfaction towards school performance between private and public primary school. Multistage sampling technique were used to determine the sample of 342 respondents. The factors included in this study were parent's income, parents' education level, teaching quality, school facilities and quality of education. Logistic regression analysis was used to determine the most significant factor. In addition, the difference in parents' satisfaction were tested using Mann-Whitney test. It was found that parents with a diploma holder (p-value=0.004), parents with a degree holder (p-value=0.002), parents' income (p-value=0.001), and school facilities (p-value=0.000) were significant factors that influence parents' decision. In addition, results found that the most significant factor was parents with a degree. Based on the Mann-Whitney test, there is a significant different of satisfaction between parents that enrol their children to private and public primary school (p-value=0.002). Parents that enrol their children to private primary school are more satisfied with the school performance (median=l48.00) compared to parents that enrol their children to public primary school (median=l36.50). This study will guide parents in selecting the best primary school for their children. Moreover, this study reveal that there are a lot of work for the government to improve parents' satisfaction towards public primary school.