A Study of School Climate and Students’ Academic Achievement in Public and Private Secondary Schools of Lahore

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the school climate and students' academic achievement in public and private secondary schools of Lahore, Pakistan. The study used quantitative research approach. The researchers adapted Pashiardis' (2008) instrument "School Climate Student Questionnaire (SCSQ)” to examine students' perceptions regarding school climate, while previous academic results of selected students were used to assess their academic achievement. The questionnaire had 44 questions on a 5-point Likert scale. The experts' viewpoints and pilot testing ensured the questionnaire's validity and reliability. A proportionate stratified random sampling technique was used to select the sample. The study sample includes 300 male and female students from public and private secondary school of Lahore. The data were analyzed using SPSS to perform descriptive and inferential statistics to address the research questions. The study results show that private schools show better physical and social environment than public schools, however learning environment is similar both in public and private schools. Overall, there is no difference between the school climate of public and private secondary schools. Private schools show significantly better academic achievement than public schools. Overall male schools climate is statistically better than female schools climate. Male students have significantly better academic achievement than female students. The school climate has implications for educational plans and policies that aim to improve the school climate and hence improve students' academic achievement