A Comparative Study of the High School Leaving Certificate (H.S.L.C.) Examination Results of Government and Private High School Between 2017-2021

A comparative study of the High School Leaving Certificate (H.S.L.C.) Examination Results Of Government And Private High School is a study to compare the results of students in class X standard in Aizawl city. This study aims to find out the performance of students in government school and students studying in private school. A purposive sampling technique was applied for the present study, comprising 4394 students from 11 government schools and 12 private schools in Aizawl city. The study revealed the pass percentage of private schools are better than government school within the five-year span of school session.


OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The study aims at achieving the following objectives: 1) To compare pass percentages of students of Government and Private Schools of Aizawl City in the H.S.L.C. Examinations between the year 2017-2021? 2) To compare how many students of Government and Private Schools of Aizawl city scored above 75% across all subjects in the H.S.L.C. Examinations between the year 2017-2021?

RESEARCH QUESTIONS
The following research questions is established: 1) What are the pass percentages of students of Government and Private Schools of Aizawl City in the H.S.L.C. Examinations between the year 2017-2021? 2) How many students of Government and Private Schools of Aizawl city scored above 75% across all subjects in the H.S.L.C. Examinations between the year 2017-2021?

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
Ahmad et al., (2017) in their studies entitled "Comparative Study of Students Academic Performance between Private and Public Higher Secondary Schools of Wah Cantt", identified that about 78 students from private higher secondary schools scores 70.1%, and 15.3% and 7.2% of the subjects scored averagely and below average marks. On the other hand, the performance of government higher secondary school students is much lower when compare with private institutions with only about 30 students scoring 25.2% of the subject scored above the average marks, performance of 10 were average and 60 of them scored below average. Khan (2018) in her study entitled "Academic Achievement of Government and Private Secondary students with respect to their School Environment" revealed that Private school students outperform students attending government school stating students attending private school have better studying habit. It showed the need to investigate why public-school students showed poor performances when it is believed that efficient qualified teachers were teaching them compared to private school.

METHODOLOGY Population of the study
The population of the study comprised of all the high school students of Aizawl city.

Sample of the study:
The investigator studied a sample of 4394 students of class 10 from the three selected exam centers AZL-02, AZL-17 and AZL-18 of Aizawl city, out of which 1999 students are from 11 selected government schools and 2395 are from 12 selected private schools. Purposive sampling technique is used for collecting.

TOOLS FOR COLLECTION OF DATA
For the present study, the investigator developed interview schedule and collected examination results book of High School Leaving Certificate (H.S.L.C.) of Aizawl city of three selected exam centers between the year 2017-2021 from Mizoram Board of School Education.

PROCEDURE OF DATA COLLECTION
In the present study, the investigator contacted and obtained permission from the secretary of Mizoram Board of School Education, Aizawl, Mizoram. The required result book was then provided through the permission of controller of exam of MBSE. Other necessary related information's were garnered through the Joint Director of School education.

METHODS OF DATA ANALYSIS
For analyzing the data, the investigator used the following statistical techniques: 1. Percentage to find out students pass percentage.
2. Addition to find out the total number of students passing in particular division.
3. Table to classify the data properly. The following table shows the comparison of pass percentages of students in Government and Private schools.

Figure1.2: Comparison of HSLC Examination Pass percentage of Government and Private Schools (2017-2021)
From the above study, it was found out that the pass percentage of private school stay above 90% except the year 2017 and 2018 which are 87.62%. The pass percentage increases each year among private schools. However, in 2020 a minute fall was recorded. On the other hand, the performance of government schools fluctuated with decrease and increase in pass percentage. It reached, the peak point in 2018 with 85.80% pass percentage then fall to 84.03% and 75.92% in the following year. However, it does make an improvement in the year 2021 with 80.76% pass percentage. This reveals that private schools have better pass percentage when compared to government schools in HSLC Examination. Objective 2: To compare how many students of Government and Private school of Aizawl city scored above 75% across all subjects in the H.S.L.C. Examinations between the year 2017-2021?
In order to find out the number of students of government and private schools of Aizawl city who scored above 75% marks in HSLC examination, students result was identified and classified and group into the different division of marks. The number of students scoring above 75% was then counted and calculated.
The following table shows the total number of students passed at different division so that we can easily find out the total number of students who scored above 75% in HSLC examinations. The present study revealed that during the year 2017-2020, 635 students of government school pass at 2'nd division, indicating the greatest number of students passed at 2'nd division and 420 students at 3'rd division and only 104 total number of students of government school scored above 75% in the HSLC examinations during the year 2017-2021. So, the percentage of students scoring above 75% remain lower than 6% during the year 2017-2021. However, a slight improvement was recorded in the year 2021, with 12.46% of students scoring above 75% in HSLC examination.
On the other hand, 890 students of private school passed at 1'st division, 533 students at 2'nd division and 629 total number of students of private schools scored above 75%. So, the pass percentage of students of private school scoring above 75% range between 18-26% between the year 2017-2020. But, in 2021 a remarkable record was made, the pass percentage of students scoring above 75% sore high to 53.40%.

Discussions
From the study conducted, it was found out that pass percentage of private schools was higher than government school. The study revealed that the pass percentage of private school remains above 90% while government schools remain below 90% and often fluctuate with decrease and increase pass percentage every year. This showed that private schools are providing better education and dedication towards education.
The results shown indicated that students scoring above 75% remain lesser than 6% among government school students during the year 2017-2020. On the other hand, about 18-25% students from private school managed to score above 75% in HSLC examination. This proved that private school are far better than government school in terms of training and providing quality education to students.

Conclusion
From this study we can conclude that the performance of government schools is lower than private schools in HSLC examinations. It was found out that students studying at private schools pass percentages are greater when compared with the government schools. It was also revealed that the enrolment rate in private school was greater when compared with the government school. The study also revealed that during the year 2017-2021, only 104 students of government school manage to pass above 75% while a total of 629 students of private school passes out HSLC examination scoring above 75%. The reason behind this performance is not known. However, we can say that private schools are more dedicated towards their work in nurturing and educating students as compared to government schools. This indicated the need of introspection and check in the management and administration of government schools, teachers' attitude, work ethics and dedication towards their work.