AN INVESTIGATION OF SOCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY IN PRIVATIZED-PUBLIC SCHOOLS UNDER THE PUBLIC PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP PROGRAM: A COMPARATIVE STUDY WITH LOW-PERFORMING PUBLIC SCHOOLS IN DISTRICT GUJRANWALA

Abstract

The study was designed to compare the performance of public schools converted into public-private partnerships with the performance of low performing (LP) public schools in Gujranwala district of Punjab-Pakistan. A sequential exploratory mixed-methods design was used. The population included privatized public schools and low performing primary schools and the sample included 19 privatized public schools under Punjab Education Foundation (PEF) program and 19 low performing public schools. Deliberate purposeful sampling was used to choose schools. Four schools were chosen from Tehsil Wazirabad and four schools from Tehsil Gujranwala (City and Saddar). Data were collected using three instruments: “Scale for Evaluation of School Performance” (SESP) and a checklist to quantitatively assess the physical facilities of basic schools, in addition to interview protocols to qualitatively assess the schools. The validity of the instruments was confirmed by experts, and the content validity ratio (CVR) was calculated for the items of the questionnaire. Forty-one questionnaire items were identified initially and later reduced to 38, with wording adjustments for clarity where necessary. The checklist was adapted from binary options (available, not available) to a three-point scale (not available, insufficient, sufficient). The Content Validity Index (CVI) of the questionnaire was found to be 0.82. Expert feedback process also used to validation qualitative instruments. Alongside the intervention a data collection was undertaken to provide a complete evaluation. This research is therefore crucial for understanding the relative performance of privatized and under-performing public schools, and the role of public-private partnerships in delivering better educational outcomes