Abstract

There is a rapid increase in demand for education across the country. Consequently, the trend of educating children in private sector schools is expanding. This article provides an overview of the teachers of private and public schools regarding commercialization of education at elementary level. A self-developed questionnaire was followed for data collection. No significant difference was found in the perceptions of both sectors’ teachers regarding positive attitude of parents towards private sector, high socio economic status of private sector students and low and high emphasis of commercialization of education in rural and urban areas respectively. Public school teachers’ views for acceptability of fee structure and promotion of quality of education for commercialization of education are significantly more positive than private school teachers. It is recommended that government should develop proper mechanism to regulate the private sector in the area of fee structure, overall quality of education and affordable for everyone.

Key Words

Commercialization, Elementary level, Quality Education, Private Sector, Perceptions.

Introduction

For the inclusive development of soul, mind and body, to get knowledge from the reliable and accessible resource is necessary. Education is just like an engine which accelerates the progress and growth of any society. It imparts not only knowledge and skills but it also develops attitude and values. It is responsible for creating human capital which raises, stimulates and exaggerate technology improvement and financial development (Ajzen & Madden, 2015). For the promotion of the economy of the country, the major alternative suggested by the economists is a commercialization, entrepreneurship or self-employment which acts just like an engine for the growth of the economic sector, creation of new jobs as well as manipulates adjustment in social perspective. Commercialization is a reliable to create value and increase output not only in our country Pakistan but also in the whole world. 

Education is the central factor for all sections of the society. Legal procedure permitting communities and individuals to choose an institution other than the one attributed by their state while the institutions of choice may be set up by private entity or organized group of families or educationists, these groups receive public funding on a per students basis (Shukla, 2014). Rizvi (2016) pointed out that from the last thirty years the idea of privatization in education has been promoted by the governments all around the world. Furthermore, there are also some educational institutions away from these regular categories such as engineering, technical, vocational, information technology, teacher education, medicine, agriculture, business, law and commerce etc. (Pakistan Education Statistics 2015-16). 

The educational system of Pakistan bases on elementary, secondary and higher education. Education makes basis for social and political advancement and expansion of a state. A workable education system enables nation to get its national goals. Pakistan, as a progressing country, has faced serious problems of education since its origin and that is why the education system is futile to convey according to the aspirations of the nation. There are different factors accountable for this situation. It makes economic development and as a result people become progressive and play possible roles in the national progress. In today’s global age developed countries always bedeviled the suitable pathway of education. Technical, professional, non-profession, practical and business education gives the backbone to nation. If people will be literate, they will be conscious about social issues and problems in the country.  Education enhances the abilities of an individual to reside in an appreciative way in the community. It opens the door of opportunity to individual for better career growth. 

According to Syed (2012), most of the educational institutes are nothing but business enterprises, where the driving force is lust for more money. Many of the schools and higher educational institutes are 'housed' in highly inappropriate premises. The quality of faculty is less than average and often loaded with 'visiting' members. As the visiting faculty has other occupations and preoccupations, it is neither able to devote time nor able to understand the needs of the students. A common person cannot afford to pay even the fee being charged by the private institutions. It is beyond the reach of the lower middle class and the poor cannot even think of getting academic regular degree in the present circumstances. 

Education system in Pakistan has observed a vast development over the years with a growth in a different learner population. The development in schools has also generated a differentiated system distributed approximately into a government, private and, madrasas school system, with numerous differences in the systems. Education is a main provider for the societal and financial growth of any country. It has the authority to bring realistic originality and revolution between Pakistan’s more than 200 million human capitals. Pakistan thus has the duty, to equip its fresh people with awareness, ability, critical thinking and talents so that they can achieve the accurate selections for themselves. Every state plays an accountable role as international citizens. This needs strong and accurate traits and gaps connected to the schooling system and find the techniques to dialogue them. 

Education develops a person's faculties of mind. It blossoms all aspects of one's personality - from moral, spiritual, mental to physical. Now there is a difference between qualified and educated person. A qualified person may be expert in his field of study possessing potential to earn money or hold an executive post in an organization by dint of his expertise, experience, and qualification. But, an educated man is identified by his humanistic approach and moral behavior toward his fellowmen. 

All learning activities facilitate and support student learning called teaching skills. Teachers established the quality of the classroom and build friendly relationship among students. Teaching skills impact good to improve students’ performance. Education helps to develop curiosity, imagination and self-regulation. There is a number of teaching skills that all educators should have. In addition to being knowledgeable in your area to expertise and having the ability to plan and execute to plans, successful teachers also need to possess extra personal assistances. Abilities play a dominant role to realizing reliable, revolution-ambitious financial development and public attachment (OECD, 2017). Education is the procedure of developing and training the powers, authority and promotion of productivity of any country. The introducing of term commercialization had both positive and negative effect on education process. Commercialization could not be possible without privatization. Nowadays education providers earn money than providing quality education (Borgohain, 2016). Now education has become business in the hands of private businessman and has become a source of collecting money than spreading quality education to individuals. Privatization and commercialization of educational system is a very corrupted step having low quality faculty in educational set up. The implementation of privatization of educational institutes was a wrong decision or policy for disadvantaged people and commercialization produces poor human resource (Rathod, 2018). Qadeer (2015) pointed out that enhanced trend of entrepreneurship in education and growing entrepreneurial process that collaborate with the industry and motivate the policymaker which strengthen the development in Pakistan. 

The process of commercialization of higher education put forward merits in Europe and United States but this activity has affronted the Chinese with advanced social tribulations and applications due to population size, channels of governance, demography and socio-economic channels (Rehman, Gill, Khan & Karim, 2014). Gbadegeshin (2017) indicated that “plan is always a plan” and that plan would change during the spin-off creation process. Commercialization involves six channels of entrepreneurial actions leading to sources of innovations, classification of innovation, market capacity, protection, advancement, and deployment (Datta, Reed & Jessup, 2013). 

Pellikka and Malinen (2014) showed that business models create operative commercialization process which assists individuals to plan the active delivery system through the research and development process phases. Practically and theoretically, commercialization of academics and industry relationship is considered as vital important challenge. Academic products are not fulfilling the requirements of the consumer, lack of interaction and linkage with the local and worldwide market. Formulation of appropriate rules and regulations system and updating evaluation system linked through business mode (Noor, Ismail & Arif, 2014). 

According to newspaper article once upon a time the government used to prepare five-year plans and come up with supporting policies. Now the policy makers prepare only annual plans, which are also prepared without taking into account ground realities. The key factor responsible for lack of interest of teachers in teaching has been poor remuneration. Though, the teachers are responsible to groom the upcoming generation, its remuneration is very low. Therefore, in order to meet the ends they have to indulge in other activities, the best being providing private tuition at handsome charges. 

Durrani (2005) describes the prevailing situation in a rather strange way. He says: "The world believes that resources are scarce but Quran says resources are in abundance. It is knowledge which tells us about resources and also the ways to use these resources. Pakistan's irony is that we know about these resources and also the ways to exploit these resources but we simply do not wish to use these. Our main problem is that our thinking has become morbid, which does not allow us to make the right decisions. In fact our thinking has derailed and unless it is put on track the country cannot develop."

The second item on Khan (2005) agenda is awareness about values and standards. He is of the view that unless people are told about right and wrong, they cannot behave in the right manner. Once they get complete comprehension about right and wrong they would automatically start following the rules and the laws. Supremacy of law will also curtail the discretionary powers enjoyed by the few. These discretionary powers are the real root cause of malice. Two separate sets of laws for the elite and the commoners result is wide-scale corruption and corruption proliferates corruptions. Therefore, one often complains about absence of supremacy of law in the country.

Governments in Pakistan whole heartedly ‘encouraged’ and ‘supported’ the private sector, including financial support to their educational institutions and providing land for their campuses etc.  It is need of this era to keep pace with modernization, new technological and economic challenges. But Private sector of education needs proper supervision of government as there is need to regulate fee structure strictly. According to Rizvi (2005), Pakistan cannot afford to treat education like a business. During the last decade, especially after the generous policies of the Higher Education Commission allowing setting up of degree awarding institutions in the private sector, imparting of education has emerged as a lucrative business. Due to appalling standard of state education system, this business is flourishing throughout the country.

However, what is becoming more worrying in recent years is the cost of private schooling in Pakistan. Any private school that provides decent education in Pakistan is charging tuition fee that is beyond the budget of an average upper middle class professional - unless, of course, one assumes every Pakistani to be corrupt and making side income. The government's lack of commitment to education, which is one of the primary responsibilities of a civilized state, has much to do with it.

There is a need for making genuine efforts to realize how an average Pakistani will get access to good quality primary and secondary education. Such an analysis will highlight the need to invest in the state education system plus the importance of regulating the private education sector. Above all, such an analysis will highlight the need for investigating why the rise of these private school chains has led to the drop in the quality of education in the government schools.

Since the teachers themselves lay down the course outline, set the examination papers, and assess the scripts, they are at liberty to cover that much of the course which they can do comfortably and conveniently in a leisurely style, and to restrict the examination to those topics only which they had discussed in the class room. That part of the course, which, for one reason or the other, is excluded from the examination. What quality can be produced under these circumstances may be any body's guess. 







Objectives of the Study

1. To examine the perception of teachers regarding the acceptability of fee structure for commercialization of education.

2. To investigate the perceptions of teachers about the different factors of quality of education fulfilled through commercialization of education. 

3. To check out the teachers’ perceptions about positive attitude of parents towards the commercialization of education.

4. To find out the opinion of teachers about the socio-economic status of student of private sector schools.

5. To explore the perceptions of teachers about the emphasis of commercialization of education in rural and urban area.




Hypotheses of Study 

H01: There is no significant difference between the perceptions of public and private sector teachers about the fee structure acceptable for commercialization of education.

H02: There is no significant difference between the perceptions of public and private school teachers about the commercialization of education for promotion of quality of education.

H03: There is no significant difference between the perceptions of public and private school teachers about the positive attitude of parents towards private sector schools.

H04: There is no significant difference between the perceptions of teachers of both sectors regarding the high socio-economic status of private school students. 

H 05: There is no significant difference between the perceptions of teachers of both sectors regarding the emphasis of commercialization of education in rural area.

H 06: There is no significant difference between the perceptions of teachers of both sectors regarding the emphasis of commercialization of education in urban area.

H 07: There is no significant difference between the overall viewpoints of teachers regarding commercialization of education.

Research Methodology

Punjab is the biggest province of Pakistan with reference to population. The province is further divided into nine divisions. Lahore is the biggest division of Punjab and the district Lahore is one of the districts of the division Lahore. The present study was carried out in district Lahore. All the teachers of private and public sector elementary schools of district Lahore constituted the population of this study. 

A sample of 40 schools (20 private and 20 government sectors) of district Lahore was selected through Stratified Random sampling technique. Among the selected schools, 10 teachers were randomly selected from each school. A self-developed questionnaire was followed. The statements of the instrument targeted the aspects involved in the commercialization of education. The participants were asked to respond to the statements rated by “Strongly agree”, “Agree”, “Undecided”, “Disagree” and “Strongly disagree”. The content validity was assured by experts and educationists working in the field of elementary education and with the help of supervisor. The reliability of questionnaire was 0.847 measured through SPSS (Version 22.0) on pilot testing. Data analysis was done through mean and standard deviation, and inferential statistical t- test were used for further analysis through SPSS. The questionnaire was administered personally by the researchers. The returning rate of the research instrument was found to be 100%.

Data Analysis and Interpretation of Data

Table 1. Commercialization of Education According to Public and Private Elementary School Teachers

Statement	Category	N	Mean	SD	t-value	P value
Acceptability of Fee Structure of Commercialization	Public	200	3.35	1.145	7.258	0 .001
	Private	200	1.83	0.675
Commercialization of Education Promotes the Quality of Education	Public	200	3.45	0.932	2.467	0.016
	Private	200	2.93	0.971
Positive Attitude of Parents towards Private Sector Schools	Public	200	3.75	0.899	-0.975	0.333
	Private	200	3.93	0.694
High Socio- Economic Status of Students of Private Sector	Public	200	3.30	0.883	-1.633	0.106
	Private	200	3.62	0.897
Low Emphasis of Commercialization of Education in Rural Area	Public	200	3.93	0.797	0.808	0.421
	Private	200	3.78	0.862
High Emphasis of Commercialization of Education in Urban Area	Public	200	4.07	0.616	- 0.857	0.394
	Private	200	4.20	0.687
Perception Differences between the Teachers Regarding the Commercialization of Education	Public	200	76.68	6.669	5.364	0.001
	Private	200	67.50	8.518

 

Hypothesis H_01.

Results of t-test i.e. P= .001 at ? = 0.05 confirms the statistically significant difference between public and private school teachers regarding the acceptability of fee structure, so it can be inferred that acceptability of fee structure for commercialization in public school teachers was more than private school teachers.

 

Hypothesis H_02.

The results of the category of promotion of quality education is P= 0.016 at ?= 0.05 which infer that public school teachers have more positive perceptions about promotion of quality of education through commercialization as compared to private school teachers.

 

Hypothesis H_03.

Results in the above table regarding teachers perceptions about positive attitude of parents towards private sector teachers demonstrate that P= 0.333 at ? = 0.05, hence it is conferred that perceptions of both sector teachers are similar.

 

Hypothesis H_04.

Results regarding perceptions of public and private school teachers’ about high socio-economic status of students of private sector (P= 0.106 at ?=0.05 ) indicated that there is no significant difference between the perceptions of the teachers of both sectors.

Hypothesis H_05.

No significant difference was found between the perceptions of stakeholders regarding the low emphasis of commercialization of education in rural area (P= 0.421 at ?= 0.05).

 

Hypothesis H_06.

Results from the above table show that there is no significant difference between the perceptions of stakeholders regarding the high emphasis of commercialization of education in urban area (P=0.394 at ?=0.05).

 

Hypothesis H_07.

Overall result of perception difference between teachers is P=0.001 at ?= 0.05. Therefore it conferred that public school teachers are more likely to promote commercialization of education as private school teachers.

Discussion and Conclusion

On the basis of findings, we conclude that public schools teachers have accepted the fee structure for commercialization of education as compared to private school teachers. Public school teachers also have positive perceptions about quality of education.  In the opinion of teachers, the private sector of education maintains standards in working environment, infrastructure, meritocracy and teaching methodologies educational ethics, communication skills which are the factors of quality education. Perceived positive behavior of parents towards commercialization of education also points out that they provide quality of education. Working of private and government sector at the same platform promotes the education greatly. By working together, standard curriculum can be made. By sharing experiences and funding education for all can be reachable. Commercialization of education helps in the promotion of economic development and also support in enhancing the literacy rate. It also provides job opportunities. So commercialization of education should keep balance between profitable business and quality of education. Globalization introduced a new trend in the field of education and showed a positive correlation with the social development (Hayat, Anwar, Iqbal & Sher, 2019). 

The opinion of stake holders points towards the necessity of proper supervision of commercialization of education. Ichilov, (2012) also concluded that education policies and practices formulated through involvement of business are not necessarily in the best interest of the society. Rabidas (2014) explained that some well-known political leaders and businessmen running institutes with full support of government and behave like industrialists. This attitude is only of making money than quality education provision to the learners. Many poor parents find difficulty in affording and fail in getting quality education. 

Starting a new business normally involves; a concept of business or plan including the production  and  technology; public to reinforce the working, including all work force employees; processes by which the service will be distributed or technology may be grown and a lot of earnings to bear the growth of  plan from the point that it initiates earnings. Commercialization is a great deal rather than the generation of a business plan. It is a type of thinking and contemporary styles to find the solution of problems and create value for the firm. An entrepreneur acquire an inner fuel and endurance power to drive passionate actions and the highest energy helps to eclipse and overcome the various challenges and when any problem arises, it infuses power and strength to continue achieving goals. In this regard necessary elements are prepared to accept purposeful risks in the shape of justice and time: the capability to originate an impressive business organization; the unique skill to collect useful resources; and important talent to grooming complete plan of business; the perception to distinguish opportunities wherever people feels uncertainty and disruption (Kuratko & Hodgetts, 2004). 

The tough competition between the different groups of private sector of education indicates that commercialization of education is profitable business. This also indicates that commercialization of education made the education a market commodity. In a study conducted by Twebaze (2015) most of the respondents have accused the commercialization of education for the growing proliferation of private educational institutions at all levels of the country. While this is partly due to increasing demand of education which public sector could not meet independently in many respects. Joseph and Priya (2017) commented that education system has become corrupt due to commercialization of education and it also becomes a social crime which refers to behaviours and taboos that are socially acceptable but illegal by law. Working of private and government sectors at same platform can be fruitful. By working together will enhance the educational process.  It will promote the educational field. By sharing the experience, finance they can boost the education and can make the standard education approachable to social strata.

By finding the opinions of teachers show that commercialization of education is low in rural areas and high in urban areas. Overall result shows that there is difference between the opinions of teachers of both government and private sector about the commercialization of education but both sectors agreed at some facets of commercialization of education. 

Recommendations

• The high socio-economic status of students of commercialization indicates that government should intervene to regulate the fee structure of commercialization of education to make the fee affordable for everyone. Authorities should keep a check on emphasis of commercialization of education in both rural and urban areas. 

• Different surveys should be conducted about the multiple attitudes of parents towards the commercialization of education. So that through studies impact of commercialization of education can be comprehended. 

• Authorities should monitor the quality of education of commercialization of education so all factors of quality of education either tangible or intangible should not be ignored. 

• There is a tough competition between the different educational groups of private sectors. Authorities should monitor these groups so that quality of education, fee structure and students and employees should not be affected. 

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