Analysis of Private School Teacher’s Survey

Purpose of the Study:

The purpose of the current study was to understand the education scenario at secondary level
in private schools in metropolitan cities like Delhi. This study was conducted by addressing
few questions regarding; background of teachers, their preparedness level for this profession,
challenges they face, their opinion about students and education system in India.
Specifically, this study aimed to meet the following objectives:
1. To find out why teaching was chosen as a career and preparedness level of teachers.
2. To understand the enriching part & challenges of their job.
3. To investigate how inclusive is their teaching methodology.
4. To know teacher’s opinion on education system in the country and improvements
recommended.
Sample size: Six, including four female and two male teachers.
Location for data collection: Amity International School, Mayur Vihar, New Delhi
Research Design:
Face to face interviews were conducted during school working hours with six teachers as per
their convenience. The entire atmosphere of discussion was kept informal and comfortable.
All respondents were willing to talk and share their experiences, opinions and suggestions.
Sampling Technique:
The purposive sampling technique was utilised for the study. It is a technique in which
researcher selects the participants based on personal judgement about the sample size that will
truly reflect the population.
Instruments:
For gathering information, we prepared a questionnaire comprising of both open ended and
closed ended questions. The questions were framed to find out demographics, respondent’s
experience, knowledge, ideas and recommendations. In addition to questions, field notes were
also written by researchers. The researchers also observed the expressions and body language
of respondents. Respondents were made comfortable and ample amount of time was given to
express themselves.
Participants:
The information for this study was drawn from six participants out which four are females and
two are males. Five participants are teaching students of secondary level i.e. class XI and XII.
One female participant is teaching to students with learning disability for all classes. She has
been teaching for eight years. Among the six participants the lowest teaching experience is 3
years and maximum 25 years.
Data Analysis:
While analysing the data researchers were unbiased and non-judgemental. The field notes were
studied line-by-line, then broad themes were formed. The interpretations were discussed among
researchers.
Findings:
While talking to respondents it was found that there is mix of; the reasons for joining the
teaching profession, their experiences with students, their opinion about education system of
India, and their suggestions and recommendations. So, when the field notes were analysed
following broad themes emerged.
Theme 1: “Choosing teaching as a career and preparedness level”
During conversation it was found that out of six respondents, for four teachers teaching was
preferred professional choice. One female respondent joined teaching because she found that
its easy to maintain work-life balance. Surprisingly one male respondent was earlier a
businessman and initially teaching was his hobby, then gradually he started enjoying teaching
so much that he closed his business and became a full-time teacher. It was found that out of six
only two respondents have done additional teaching course.
Theme 2: “Enriching part of job”
Two respondents said they feel satisfied when they see their students are performing very well.
One of the female respondents who teaches students with learning disabilities said:
“I feel very happy and satisfied that my students are excelling in their lives. One of my student
is doing PhD in USA and other is also settled abroad.”
One respondent said he feels enriched because every day his experience is new because of
different students and academic and non-academic work he does. One female respondent feels
satisfied because according to her school management is very cooperative and she can maintain
balance between her career and personal life.
Theme 3: “Challenges of teaching job”
Three respondents said, that, for them challenge is changing behaviour of students. Students of
current generation are less obedient, they are irregular in class, they do as per their own choice,
are lazy and disrespectful. One respondent said:
“I feel students are highly vulnerable because of so much exposure to IT and social media.
Now students are more aware and have knowledge, their learning is not confined to class
room.”
Another respondent’s response was:
“I find teaching challenging when I have to bring down my emotional level to that of students.
Students don’t trust the competence and integrity of CBSE (a high level governing body for
secondary education) because recently an exam test paper of class XII was leaked.”
One respondent faced challenges while dealing with parents of students, because they are
highly demanding, and they don’t understand that it is not always teacher’s fault, a student can
also have his or her own problems at personal level. Now a day’s students are depressed
because of their personal problems.
The respondent who teaches students with learning disabilities said:
“It becomes challenging to find out what problem a child with learning disability faces both in
academics and in social front while being among other students”
Theme 4: “Inclusiveness in approach and methodology”
Three respondents told that they pay equal attention to weak and intelligent students. As per
requirement extra classes are conducted and students are encouraged to meet teachers even
after school hours are over. They believe their school is providing best education and other
facilities as compared to other schools. One respondent said:
“Students come from varying social and economic backgrounds, their intelligence level is also
different, not all teachers pay equal attention to all and they don’t slow down while teaching
so that weaker student can cope up.”
There was a contrary response from another respondent:
“It depends on student’s capability to understand and grasp, as it has nothing to do with
background. An economic disparity has nothing to do with learning capability.”
The respondent who teaches students with learning disabilities said:
“We don’t send such children to special schools, instead we identify their needs, improvement
areas and teach them here in our school and are kept with other normal students. They are
given same tests and their performance is monitored on regular basis. After they pass out from
school even then they are tracked by keeping in touch with them to know how they are excelling
in their lives. We spend extra time with them in difficult subjects like home science and IT.”
Theme 5: “Opinion on education system in the country and improvements recommended”
Most of the respondents felt that our education system has same rote learning and practical or
application part is missing. The evaluation method is still the same and students are judged on
the basis of their marks. They told that there is disconnect between the teaching methods and
evaluation criteria. One of the respondents said that syllabus should be reduced because
students are highly burdened. Another even suggested that teachers should be consulted while
setting the syllabus.
Discussion:
The study reveals that two third of respondents made a conscience decision to join school
teaching profession and rest one third came by chance, but they found teaching job more
interesting and satisfying.
Further, this research has helped in understanding the psychology of respondents as to whether
good salary and comfort that teaching provides makes them happy and satisfied or the fact that
their students are performing well and excelling in their respective lives.
A key contribution of this study is exploration of challenges that teachers face in todays
changing times. As the level of awareness and sense of independence is increasing among
students, not only their patience level but also their respect for and trust on teachers is
decreasing. In addition to this, student’s vulnerability has also increased many folds because
of advancement in IT and the uninterrupted & uncensored information available on social
media.
The research also brought an insight about the positive side that our teachers are striving for
the betterment of children despite many challenges from students, parents and education
system. They understand all the dimensions of learning and how student’s behaviour and
psychology is changing.
Lastly, the research contributed by providing the teachers an opportunity to raise their concerns
and to recommend good suggestions. This study helps in understanding that overall quality of
education is not just confined to how teachers teaches, but there are numerous factors which
play critical role and they are always changing with time.
Limitations of the Study:
Due to limitation of time the sample size and the number of schools that have been chosen are
less. They might not reflect the true picture of education scenario in the entire country. The
researchers have to rely on what respondent had said. The information provided by respondents
could be correct or wrong (intentionally or otherwise). There can be error in the methodology
or the questions which were framed to extract exact information can also be either inappropriate
or incomplete.
Scope for Further Research:
The study can be continued, and more information has to be collected by increasing the sample
size and number of schools. In this study only five themes were studied but there can be more
dimensions to factors effecting education quality, so, more themes have to be explored &
examined. The study focused on teachers and students but there are many stakeholders who
have to be taken into account for exhaustive and inclusive research.