Why Do Public School Teachers Send Their Wards To Private Schools?

Most teachers teaching in the public schools (government school) have enrolled their wards in private schools and international schools. What possibly accounts for this situation? Yes, it is not mandatory for public school teachers to enroll their children in other public schools but their action raises a lot of questions as to why they would opt for private schools to public schools.

What is a public school? A public school is a school wholly owned and regulated by the government. Public schools are also known as government schools. Some services provided by these schools, which includes tuition and feeding are totally absorbed by the government. Education at the public basic schools are free. Learners pay absolutely nothing.

When it comes to human resource, government schools are well resourced with staff. Teachers recruited into the public or government schools are trained, licensed and qualified teachers and are regularly given capacity building trainings by the Ghana Education Service yet the Teachers who work in such institutions do not see the need to enroll their children in the category of schools where they work.

Private schools on the other hand are owned by individuals. Most of the teachers who work in private schools are not trained or certified and therefore not even competent enough to teach. Majority of private schools employ senior high school graduate and middle school leavers as teachers. The well resourced private schools are able to employ diploma and degree holders who probably may not have any background in education or psychology yet teachers teaching in public schools prefer to enroll their children in private schools.

This article seeks to explore why public school teachers send their wards to private schools knowing the human resource deficiencies that exist in those (private) schools.

Why Do Public School Teachers Send Their Wards To Private Schools?

1. Control and Supervision:

One of the major reasons [why] most people, including public school teachers send their wards to private schools has to do with low supervision and control in the public schools. Private investors are keen on making profit hence the effort to ensure positive results is always achieved.

There are internal mechanisms in private schools to control and measure the output of teacher on daily basis. Private schools do not rely on external supervision. Supervision is done internally and regularly. When it comes to punctuality, private school teachers are very punctual.

In many private schools, teachers who are not punctual are denied certain allowances or are kicked out to make room for serious people to be employed. The private school teacher is aware that he can be sacked anytime and that his income depends on his output hence the effort they put into their work.

Government school teachers are aware of this hence their decision to send their children to private schools.

2. Academic Performance and Quality of Education:

The academic performance of children in the private schools is far better than those in the public schools. This is evident in the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) written over the years. In all areas, the performance of children in the private schools is far better.

Teachers have time for the children and they teach to their understanding. In private schools, the performance of the teachers are measured by the output of the children. Administrators at private schools ensure that no child is left behind. Parents who teach in public schools and are exposed to this reality will definitely send their children to private schools.

3. Availability of Teaching and Learning Resources

Private school owners ensure that teaching and learning resources are made available to augment teaching. As it stands now in Ghana, government has not been able to provide enough teaching and learning materials (textbooks) to public schools but private schools have relied on private publishers for textbooks at a cost. Teachers in government schools have to improvise learning materials when teaching.

This largely affect the performance of children. A lot of private basic schools have science labs, computer labs, library etc. These facilities are unavailable in public basic schools.

This is another reason why public school teachers send their children to private schools even though private schools are more expensive.

What other reasons do you think push teachers at public schools to enroll their children in private schools. Share your views via the comment section. Kindly share the post after reading. Would you allow your children enroll in public schools?