ABSTRACT

This research is a comparative study between public and private primary school teaching practices, the school’s professional environment, its impact on teaching practice, and how it affects students’ learning outcomes. A mixed-method research approach is used. The qualitative approach includes structured interviews with principals, DEOs, and TEOs, further analyzed by thematic analysis. For quantitative analysis of the objectives, student achievement tests were conducted on 5th class students, and teachers filled out Likert scale-based questionnaires. The gathered data was analyzed using descriptive analysis and multiple regression. Statistical analysis reveals that the school’s professional environment positively affects teaching practice in all primary schools in Badin. Along with Other factors, such as teacher assessment, professional development, order, and discipline, the school’s professional environment depends on the principal’s role and the teacher’s collaboration. A principal is an instructional leader and can cultivate a collaborative environment among teachers that significantly improves teaching practices and student outcomes. Conversely, a poorly defined role or a principal’s leadership style that does not support collaboration can negatively impact student achievement. Findings show that, with good teaching practice and a professional school environment, students have good reading and arithmetic scores in private schools compared to public schools because private schools often have advantages such as resource availability and a robust examination system that can contribute to better teaching practices and potentially better academic performance than public schools. Even government school teachers are highly qualified and have extensive teaching experience, but results reveal that experienced teachers don’t teach very well because they don’t use new approaches; men and women have the same teaching methods.Besides, these private schools perform well because they typically have more financial resources than public schools. Resource availability allows the private to provide facilities with updated technology. Private schools adopting activity-based and technology-based teaching methods can enrich students’ learning achievements. Moreover, it has been noted that an increase in the quality of teaching is connected to higher student learning achievements, whereas an increase in the quantity of teaching is linked to lower student learning achievements. The reason behind this is that increasing the duration of class without improving the quality of teaching methodologies doesn’t make any improvement. The factors at the school level that influence students’ learning include assessments, which the examination system can do. Keywords: Professional School Environment, Teaching Practice, Principal’s Role, Teacher Collaboration, Quality of Teaching, Quantity of Teaching, Student Learning Outcomes, Primary Education.