Index

ABSTRACT

The primary objective of this study is to reconnoiter the impact of private educational institutions on the development of rural areas in Faisalabad, Pakistan. Data is collected with the help of questionnaires from 200 respondents from public and private educational institutes of Faisalabad, Pakistan and the age of respondent’s ranges from 18 – 27 years. The data is analyzed statistically via statistical tests, i.e., independent sample t-test to find the impact of private educational institutions selected in Faisalabad, Pakistan regarding different variables, which are very important in evolving the pastoral area. The impact of private educational institutions on the employment ratio, literacy rate and economic growth of rural area are also analyzed. Results reveal the difference between private and public educational institutions concerning close supervision of students. The results show that private educational institutions play a decisive role in the development of rural areas.

Keywords: Education: Literacy rate; Employment; Economic growth; Rural development.

DOI: 10.20448/815.1.1.13.26

Citation | Muhammad Rizwan; Saba Mahmood; Zeeshan Azad (2018). Impact of Private Educational Institutions on the Development of Rural Areas of Faisalabad, Pakistan. American Journal of Creative Education, 3(1): 13-26.

Copyright: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License

Funding : This study received no specific financial support.

Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

History : Received: 19 February 2018 / Revised: 6 March 2018 / Accepted: 9 March 2018 / Published: 12 March 2018 .

Publisher: Online Science Publishing

1. INTRODUCTION

Edification is obligatory for the personal grooming of individual. Education plays a central role in the rise and fall of nations, especially in the 21st century. It is mainly due to the coming out of global antagonism in education and technology. Information Technology is getting integrated into every core of education. So, there is need to give priority to quality education, particularly, in private schools which are getting mass acceptance nowadays to ensure the sustained progress of the country. Private Institutions play a good role in rural areas they create awareness of education in rural residents. Pakistan is severely off-track in its progress toward the Millennium Development Goals relating to education for all. Pakistan struggles to meet the educational needs of its 132 million people. There are two main types of education systems (public & private) in Pakistan and all over the world. Education is essential for the development of the country, and it makes the people capable, equip them with knowledge and give them the confidence to compete and achieve their mutual goals. Education enhances the literacy rate which helps in productivity of labor and sustainability in economic development. Education has excellent contribution toward the development of rural areas. Being an educated individual is not only have the aptitude to strive the life challenges but also can be having a significant contribution to the development of the country. However, still Pakistan is one of those countries who have a low literacy rate, and almost half of the population has not got the opportunity to attend the school at any level. The Literacy rate in Pakistan is recorded as almost 55% in 2012-13 (Wasti, 2012) . The non-government organization is known as private institutions, as per survey of “The Express Tribune, in 2013.  Private institutions can help in a better way to increase the economic growth in rural areas of Pakistan, but unfortunately, Pakistan is spending just 2.1% of GDP on the education sector, which is the lowest one if we compare this to other countries in the region. Although, Pakistan’s literacy rate has been improved to some extent as from 52% to 60%, from last decade still this literacy rate is insufficient to compete with entire technology world (Editorial, 2013) . This can be improved by induction of private institutions. As compared to government schools, the performance of the students and their level of education are much better in private schools/institutions in rural and urban areas of Pakistan. As per the report of Bokova (2015), Pakistan is sited at 135th position among the developing countries with only 49.9% literate population. The education budget is PKR. 537.60 billion in 2013-14 as compared to PKR. 479.85 billion in 2012-13.  The fund is allocated for education sector by the government of Pakistan is meager, which is only 2% of the total GDP (Wasti, 2012) . Education is a key to building a good future. Education around the globe is considered as the defining feature of economic and social development. It is an endorsement in the constitution of Pakistan to provide free and primary education to all children between the ages of 5-16 years and enhance adult literacy. The system of primary education was intentionally mistreated in the country. Instead of developing the society by free and quality education, the system was hijacked by so-called monsters of democracy and development (Iqbal, 2003) .

The current study is targeted for rural areas of Faisalabad, Pakistan, where Pakistan has inherited a weak system of education. Since its independence, no significant changes have been brought about in the overall education system generally and primary education particularly. As a result, the country stands in the lowest rank regarding literacy rate in the region. Pakistan has less than 50% literacy rate (Ahmad et al., 2013) . It is studied that the developed countries, like America’, are spending per capita on exxducation much higher than they spent in past. Day by day increment in the percentage for the betterment of education standards (Deller and Rudnicki, 1993) .

The private institutions and their education level vary country to country, as in some parts of the world, Private education institutions work very efficiently, but in some parts, people prefer public sector education.  However, both sectors have equal responsibility for teaching children (Lynd, 2007) .

1.1. Problem Statement

Since the public institutions fail to provide the necessary education due to lack of policies, funds, and monitoring. The main reason behind the failure of public sectors education can be insufficient school buildings and non-availability of the permanent teaching staff. Therefore, to fill in the gap the private institutions took the initiative in Pakistan to create a second choice for people to get a quality education.  Street to street opened private institutions play an active role by providing the necessary education in almost every district in Pakistan including Faisalabad, Pakistan. The private education institutions targeted the particular rural areas to increase literacy rate. As mentioned above the fund's allocation particular for education sector by the government of Pakistan is only 2% of GDP, which is very low. As Pakistan is the developing country with lots of illiterate people, with a conservative mindset, they will not allow their girls to attend the school and get educated. So, in particular, that the woman education is lagging behind because of the cultural reason. The educational system of the country is divided into different mediums based on the segment of the society, which needs to be coherent.

1.2. Research Question

The main aim of the study is to investigate and somehow answer following research question: Is there any relationship between private education institution and rural development?

1.3. Objectives of the Study

The primary objective but not limited to explore:

1. The overall impact of education on rural development
2. Specifically, examine the role of private sector education in the rural development of Faisalabad, Pakistan.

1.4. The significance of the Study

Different leadership styles prevail in the educational sectors of Pakistan,The significance of this particular research is, to assess that how much the private education is impacting on the rural development and how much the social awareness can be created and developed. There are also many benefits that are difficult to calculate;

1. Higher welfare through greater knowledge
2. Contribution to the culture
3. Encouragement for policy debates
4. Improved international relations through the provision of higher education

2. LITERATURE REVIEW

The author(s) in Rana and Karamat (2003) observed that Pakistan remains a country where most education plans and policies have failed to make any significant contribution to increasing literacy. There exists gender difference in child’s schooling. It has a more significant effect on boy’s schooling and does not matter in girl’s schooling. Mother’s education exerts a much stronger effect on increasing school enrolment. Children from households with a large number of children up to 15 years are less likely to go to school. As per the report of NEC (Lynd, 2007) there are 31% of students registered in Private education institutions those they acquire primary education in urban areas of Pakistan. Private institutions have more enrollments instead of public schools 51 % to 49% respectively, but the situation of rural area is entirely different as more than 80% students attend the public sector school. The author(s) in Moulton (2001) has described in his study that the poverty can be alleviated through rural education and can also improve the farming methods, better funds utilization and ultimately improving the productivity. The author(s) in Alderman (2001) described that due to high demand for private schools, the government should provide the subsidy for cost sharing and high achievement with co-operation. Which in turn, produces the substantial development of education sector with an increase in private schools, and ultimately more and more students will get enrolled. Another aspect is, with an increase in private schools more employment opportunities will be created for fresh graduates (Tahir et al., 2013) . The author(s) in Niazi and Mace (2006) presented the results of rural private primary schools in India which were taken from a nationally-representative survey which was conducted in 2003. It indicates that the 28% of the population of rural India has registered to fee-charging private schools in villages. The study raised a question, why private sector proliferates due to the poor public school performance. The main reason can be because of the government negligence towards providing education facility in cities only, not in villages. That can be one of the main reason for the increase of private schools as compared to public schools.

The author(s) in Lynd (2007) described the education system briefly in Pakistan. His study focused on the primary education system and is also scrutinized at the capacity and contribution toward the education of Public and private institutions. It also briefly mentioned about school administration, their quality of work and their devotion. The study has covered the school facilities, teaching aid, training modules and management planning.  The author discussed that Pakistan is progressing poorly towards the Millennium Development Goals relating to providing the education for all. The literacy rate of 52 percent needs to be improved, and the government should take bold initiatives, and private schools need to fill in the literacy gap in Pakistan since the mid-1990s. A typical private school in a village of Pakistan charges PKR. 1,000 ($18) per year—less than the average daily wage of an unskilled laborer (Tahir et al., 2013) . Educational management is the responsibility of both federal and provisional governments, and both governments to delegate power to the district governments for implementation and organization. Many actions plan conserved education in their respective communities and relevant districts (Nasir and Nazli, 2000) . It has been observed that the contribution of female’s education is higher in an urban area as compared to the rural areas.  It is observed that more than 50% of the females drop out because of the low quality of instruction and the reality that schools are not comprehensive of groups they serve. The proportion of females is dreadfully lower, particularly for specific parts of Pakistan, for example, in Sindh and Baluchistan, where the ratio for female literacy is 23% and 16% respectively (Lynd, 2007) .

However, the author(s) in Memon (2007) stated that education plays a vital role in the society and there is a close relationship between education and development. The educational institutions help to improve the economic, political, social and cultural life of the nation. Considering the gigantic problems of education in Pakistan, the researcher selected this topic for research. The author(s) in Aithal and Shubhrajyotsna (2016) discussed that the conventional education system at primary education level is parallel to brick and mortar type business system, where a student gets a systematic education from schools. Still, the conventional education system has many shortcomings, and many improvements are projected in future days. Teachers’ job satisfaction is of ultimate significance and direct impact on students’ academic achievement and their future career. The author(s) in Basilius and Anak (2017) studied about indorses pro-poor growth and education system in Pakistan. The investment in education is necessary for the development of nations. On one side, education helps to increase economic growth, and on the other side, it helps to reduce poverty by increasing the productivity (Afzal et al., 2012) . The author(s) in Hameed-Ur-Rehman and Sewani (2013) studied local and global trends of education policies implemented in Pakistan. There is a need to improve the policies to assimilate the global policies into local settings. The author(s) in Majoka and Khan (2017) focused on policy methods and four major educational systems in the country: Higher Education, Secondary Education, Primary Education, and Technical and Vocational Education since 1947. In this study, major problems are highlighted in the way of policy-making and its implementation at the different levels of Education in Pakistan. The author(s) in Khuwaja et al. (2005) studied key factor and highlighted rural education Pakistan. The mediating programs should focus on family education with extra effort to reduce poverty. A better understanding is required to direct health promotion activities, maternal education and father’s occupation.  The author(s) in Chaudhry and Rahman (2009) explored the core impact of gender inequality in education on rural poverty in Pakistan. It shows that gender inequality in education has an opposing impact on rural poverty. Female literacy is essential for poverty alleviation. So to achieve gender equity, there is a need to increase the public expenditures. There is a devotion needed to develop education and other restructure facilities deprived of gender biases.

Moreover, the author(s) in Harold et al. (2001) discussed that Illiteracy rests a significant obstruction to economic development in numerous countries and actively support an increased role for private delivery of schooling services to poor households in developing countries. Deviation in school attributes, proximity, and fees across neighborhoods is used to identify factors which affect whether poor households either send their children to a government school, private school, or no school. The author(s) in Amjad (2012) stated that the educational landscape of Pakistan has gone through numerous transformations in the past two decades. Enrollment level has been on the rising. The changes in the education sector that have been pickings blank space in Pakistan have created an environment with numerous opportunities as well as challenges in full term of insurance ontogenesis. The analysis at the district level, direction on Lahore and Peshawar. The study provides an in-depth review of the learning levels of children going to the private schoolhouse of Lahore and Peshawar in comparison to the event of authorities schooling, without control for differences. It will help shed light on the learning outcomes of the children studying in the private schools, as well as on the correlation between the quality of private schools with that of the public schools in the same vicinity, where the quality of government schools are kept as the benchmark by the private sector.

2.1. Hypothesis

H0: Public and Private Education sector has a significant impact on the Economic growth.
H0: Private Intuitions have a significant impact on increasing the literacy rate?
H0: Private Educational Institutions have a significant impact on the development of the rural areas.

2.2. Theoretical Framework

Figure-1. Theoretical Framework

The conceptual framework represents factors influencing the development of rural areas. By definition, it is considered that dependent variables are always affected by the independent variable. In figure 1 denotes independent variable (IV) as the development of the rural area and dependent variable (DV) private educational institutions. The dependent variable private education institutions are classified into three factors; employment, economic growth and literacy rate which helps to find out the impact of private institutes on the overall development of rural areas.

3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

In the current descriptive research, primary data is collected by using questionnaire, with target audience are students, teachers, and administration of the schools. Two groups were involved in this study; one group was from Private schools and the other one from the Public schools. The administrators were taken from the randomly selected private and public schools. In this research, the primary focus is on rural areas of Faisalabad, Pakistan so in this context data was collected from private and public educational institutes of Faisalabad, Pakistan. A convenience sampling technique is used for this research. Development of rural areas was taken as dependent variable while private educational institutions, were taken as independent variables.

3.1. Model

We developed following model for private schools in Faisalabad, Pakistan.

Yd = βo + β1X1+β2X2 +β3X3+ μ                      (1)

Where Yd measures the development in rural areas, X is a vector of variables assumed to determine development, β is the corresponding vector of coefficients to be estimated, and μ is an error term.

The model is unable to explain 98 % variations independent variables as R2 takes the value 0.02 in Private sector setup of educational institutions in Faisalabad, Pakistan. The value changes to 0.01 along with adjustments. The mean effect of included variables is reflected by the intercept of the model which takes the value 1.8 insignificantly. The variable X1 which is employment has adverse and significant but the low effect on the target variable, i.e., 0.011. The second variable of the model literacy rate has an insignificant effect on the development of rural areas, i.e., 0.02. The model also shows that economic growth also causes an insignificant effect on the rural area development, i.e., 0.03. The regression statistics of private educational institutions are shown in table 2 (a, b & c) respectively.

Table-2(a). Regression statistics for model

a. Predictors: (Constant), Q4 (Pr_Eco), Q1(Pr_emp), Q2(Pr_Lit)

Table-2(b). Anova ^a

a. Dependent Variable: Types
b. Predictors: (Constant), Q 4 (Pr_Eco), Q 1(Pr_emp), Q 2(Pr_Lit)

Table 2(c). Coefficients ^a

 a. Dependent Variable: Types

4.DATA ANALYSIS AND RESULTS

To study the impact of private education institutions in rural areas of Faisalabad, Pakistan, we got the results through a questionnaire in rural areas of Faisalabad, Pakistan. Our primary purpose was to find out the impact of private education institutions on the development of rural areas. We made a questionnaire to find the impact of private institutions in rural areas of Faisalabad, Pakistan by applying statistical analysis to test the hypothesis.

Table-3. Statistics

a. Multiple modes exist. The smallest value is shown

Table-4. Gender

H0: Private educational institutions have a significant impact on economic growth.

The output table shows that sample size is 21 & 179 for private and public sector educational institutions respectively. The mean output is 2.48 and 3.17 respectively. The group statistics show the difference between mean is 0.69. The results indicate that there is a significant impact of private educational institutions on economic growth in rural areas, t (198) = .035, p = .391. That is, the average of responses for private educational institutions (M = 2.48, SD = 1.601) is significantly different from that of public educational institutions (M = 3.17, SD = 1.402).

Table-5. Group Statistics

Table-6. Independent Samples Test

H0: Private institutions have a significant impact on literacy rate in rural areas

The output table shows that sample size is 21 & 179 for private and public sector educational institutions respectively. The mean output is 2.38 and 3.03 respectively. The group statistics show the difference between mean is 0.65. The results indicate that there is a significant impact of Private educational institutions on employment rate in rural areas, t (198) = .099, p = .947. That is, the average of responses for Private educational institutions (M = 2.38, SD = 1.717) is significantly different from that of Public educational institutions (M = 3.03, SD = 1.691).

Table-7. Group Statistics

Table-8. Independent Samples Test

H0: There is a significant impact of Private Educational institutions on Employment in rural areas.

The output table shows that sample size is 21 & 179 for private and public sector educational institutions respectively. The mean output is 2.24 and 2.64.respectively.The group statistics show the difference between mean is 0.4. The results indicate that there is a significant impact of Private educational institutions on employment rate in rural areas, t (198) = .333, p = .66. That is, the average of responses for Private educational institutions (M = 2.24, SD = 1.814) is significantly different from that of Public educational institutions (M = 2.64, SD = 1.804).

Table-9. Group Statistics

Table-10. Independent Samples Test

Figure-2. Employment in rural areas

Figure 2 shows the results for the creation of employment opportunities by private education in rural areas. 30% strongly agree, 8% somewhat agree, 6% neither agree nor disagree, 52% strongly disagree, 4% somewhat disagree.

Figure-3. Increase in literacy rate

Figure 3 shows the results of the increase in literacy rate due to private institutions in rural areas. 34% strongly agree, 6% somewhat agree, 16% neither agree nor disagree, 34% strongly disagree, 10% somewhat disagree.

Figure-4. Easy education

Figure 4 shows the results for the impact of informal education by a private education institution. 24% strongly agree, 14% somewhat agree, 24% neither agree nor disagree, 26% strongly disagree, 12% somewhat disagree.

Figure-5. Economic growth

Figure 5 shows the results of the impact of economic growth increase due to the private institutions. 24% strongly agree, 18% somewhat agree, 20% neutral neither agree nor disagree, 18% strongly disagree, 20% somewhat disagree.

Figure-6. Education vs. Business

Figure 6 shows the results for the question “Are private education institution imparting education or they are doing business?” 16% strongly agree, 26% somewhat agree, 24% neither agree nor disagree, 14% strongly disagree, 20% somewhat disagree.

Figure-7. Role of Public vs. Private institutions

Figure 7 shows the results for the question “Do the private education institution play a more significant role than public education institution?”. 16% strongly agree, 22% somewhat agree, 34% neither agree nor disagree, 20% strongly disagree, 8% somewhat disagree.

Figure-8. Create awareness

Figure 8 shows the results for the question “Do the private institutions create awareness among the people?” 18% strongly agree, 8% somewhat agree, 28% neither agree nor disagree, 26% strongly disagree, 12% somewhat disagree.

Figure-9. Public vs Private education system

Figure 9 shows the results for the question “What people think about the private and public education system, which one is better?” 24% strongly agree, 14% somewhat agree, 24% neither agree nor disagree, 26% strongly disagree, 12% somewhat disagree.

5.CONCLUSION

This study tells us private education institutions play a vital role in the development of rural areas of Pakistan because the education creates awareness in people and interest for education and the current study reflects a positive relationship between education and rural development. Unfortunately, Pakistan’s standing on this front has historically been weak in the context of public sector's spending on education. Education is the cause of increase literacy rate without increasing the increasing literacy we cannot compete with other nations all over the world. Private education institutions have a positive impact on employment. With the increase in the number of private educational institutions, the new employment opportunities are created for the fresh graduates. Unfortunately, due to lack of attention from the government, the development of rural areas is considered to be unsatisfactory. In the lights of the current study, it is suggested that government should give proper attention on the public and private education sector in the rural areas which will ultimately increase the literacy rate, personal growth, and development of rural areas.

6. FUTURE RESEARCH & RECOMMENDATIONS

The present study mainly focused on the education sector of Faisalabad, Pakistan. It has targeted only rural area of Islamabad. This study can be extended to Rawalpindi and other cities of Pakistan. In future research, the comparison between public and private education sector can be considered in future
The study has identified some factors responsible for lower schooling in the rural areas.

1. The government needs to make some policies that primarily focus on the rural areas.
2. Pakistan needs to increase the percentage of education in GDP, as it is deficient as compared to Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and India.
3. Private institutions have a monopoly in rural areas in providing education at real rate cost, so it is challenging for villagers to pay a high fee for their children. Due to high fees, many children cannot get their education then they reject the education and are forced to do the job on a low wage. Due to this phenomena child labor is increasing in the society and in return becomes the cause of the increase in illiteracy rate.
4. Rural development is necessary for Pakistan because most people live in rural areas. Raising educational levels of the adult members of the household and increasing public awareness can have a significant positive impact on the rural development.

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