Introduction:
Education is a basic need of every society. A better education system can enhance the social, scientific, and technological improvement of a country. The human resource development of a country depends upon the quality of education imparted in country (Mohanthy, 2000) Higher education caters to the education in the colleges and universities. Allen (1988) observed "It is academically consider suitable to present distinctive feature of two stages for the purpose of clarity of concepts and avoiding duplication" Higher education is admittedly a separate stage quite distinct from primary, secondary, elementary, and higher secondary stage. Institutions of higher education have the primary responsibility for equipping individuals with advanced knowledge and skills required for positions of responsibility in government, The people in Pakistan and South Asia are neither lacking in talent nor in moral qualities in comparison to any other nation of the world, but about two centuries of foreign rule and blind replication of western attitudes and methods, unsuited to the genius and spiritual conditions of its people, have spoiled some of the virtues and have brought a awful name to their intellectual capacities (Siddiq, 1978). It is however necessary that the diagnosis about maladies should be correct and the measures for curing these maladies should be appropriate in the light of that diagnosis (Abdullah, 1992). Hassan (1990) observed "Pakistan is unfortunately really backward in education as in certain other spheres of intellectual activities but luckily people are not innately unskilled or morally incurable."
Higher Education in Pakistan:
When Pakistan was founded in 1947, the country had only one institute of higher education, the University of the Punjab. Over the next 20 years, many private and public schools and higher educational institutions were established to help the country's socio-economic development.
In the early 1970s, all of Pakistan's educational institutions were nationalized under the government of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, for the next decade, Pakistan's whole system of education was state-owned. However, the increasing demand for higher education fastly exceeded the establishment of new public universities. At that time, the system could accommodate only 25 percent of the high school graduates who applied to higher education institutions. The excess numbers motivated many well-to-do Pakistanis to seek university degrees abroad, while others sought out private tutors at home or entered the job market without a degree. In 1979, the public sector could no longer be the country's only contributor of education. By the mid-1980s, private educational institutions were allowed to function on the situation that they fulfill with government-recognized standards.
Until 1991, there were only two recognized private universities in Pakistan: Aga Khan University established in 1983; and Lahore University of Management Sciences established in 1985. By 1997, however, there were 10 private universities and in 2001-2002, this number had doubled to 20. From 2003-2004 Pakistan had a total of 53 private educational institutions.
The speedy growth of private higher education is even more outstanding if we look at the number of institutions established on a year-by-year basis. In 1997, for instance, three private institutions were established; in 2001 eleven new private institutions were opened; and in 2002 a total of 29 private sector institutions established. According to Higher Educational Commission, there are total 128 recognized Universities in Pakistan, 70 are public and 58 are private.
Some major issues in higher Education:
Quality
Acute shortage of qualified faculty
Low quality of education with poor quality teaching and learning
Very little had been done on quality assurance/internal evaluations of programs,
Access
Access to higher education is low with around 3.8% of the 17-23 age cohort
Receiving higher education (of this one third are in affiliated colleges).
Girls only make up one-third of total enrolment
Relevance
Composition of new intakes has accentuated the weight of general studies, which have shown their student population increase by an average 25%. This may not respond to the needs of labor market.
Governance
Insufficient accountability of Higher Education Instutions.
Internal governance of Universities is highly inefficient, administrative staff are under-qualified and excessive power remains in the hands of the vice-chancellor and the registrar.
Skill gaps within HEC and the concentration of power within a very thin leadership layer mean that a lot of work still remains to be done to institutionalize reforms.
Public Sector:
The major issue in education finance in Pakistan is the low public sector investment. Although education enjoys the highest priority on the social sector agenda, yet allocations are relatively modest due to the intrinsic rigidities (such as resource constraints, large establishment bills due to a large salaried workforce and heavy debt interest repayments) in the financial system of Pakistan, arising from more pressing commitments of the country. At present, an extremely high proportion (over 95%) of education budgets at the provincial levels are spent on recurrent heads, particularly on salaries of teaching staff, with negligible proportions i.e., below 5%, remaining for development expenditures due to avoidable delays and budgetary cuts in view of shortfall in resources. Similar to other social services in the public sector, education, too, suffers from inefficient financial management and outdated procedures which have adversely affected the implementation of education programs and projects.
Private Sector:
The quality of Pakistan's private universities varies extensively; they all share some common traits. Most of them have adopted the American model of higher education, which features a four-year bachelor's degree and system of credits.
The Supporters of private higher education consider that they can deliver higher quality education and do it far more professionally than the public sector Universities. The private schools infrequently undergo the closures and class suspensions their public counterparts do, and that students enrolled at these schools are more likely to complete their degree programs on time. Many private universities have introduced international standards of competence and accountability. The availability of more funds for financial assistance to students can not only improve the reputation of an institution, but also have a positive impact on its quality and ultimately achieve the goal of serving society.
Teacher/Student interaction:
Teachers who have positive interaction with their students create classroom environments more helpful to learning and meet students' developmental, emotional and educational needs.
Teaching is a people profession that demands a large amount of time being dedicated to personal interaction. Positive teacher-student interaction has a very crucial role for effective teaching and learning to take place (Arthur, Gordon, & Butterfield, 2003).
There are many important factors including productive Teaching and learning. Positive teacher-student interaction can be defined by shared acceptance, understanding, affection, intimacy, trust, respect, care and cooperation (Bochner, & Duchesne, 2006). The Teacher Student relationship depends on very large extent upon effort from both parties although the teacher plays a key role and in fact, the responsibility, to initiate positive interaction. The teacher who is practical in representation, recognition, understanding, intimacy, expectation, respect, care and cooperation towards his or her students not only works at initiating positive teacher-student relationships, but also increases the likelihood of building strong relationships that will endure over time (Barry & King, 1993). Teacher-student interaction is important for many reasons. Teacher student interaction is highly influence a student's skill to change to University, to do well at University, and to relate to peers (Pianta, 1999). Teachers who had positive and secure relationships with students reported that their students were less likely to stay away from school, appeared more independent, more supportive, and busy in learning (Birch & Ladd, 1997; Klem & Connell, 2004).
Teacher-student Interaction has an impact on classroom management and affects learning and growth. According to developmental perspective, the establishment of a positive teacher-student relationship aids a student's cognitive, social and emotional growth and enhances their mental well-being.
The teacher-student relationships impact productively on a student's self-esteem and enhance their skills. Student-Teacher interactions are very important for the development of the students' academic self-concept and enhancing their enthusiasm and success. Colleges and universities that actively encourage secure and regular contact between their students and Teachers are expected to get benefits from such initiatives. We can improve Intellectual and professional development of students, if the teachers will take interest in students education. The students who are keep in touch with their faculty members for educational purposes; they feel more pleased with their University life and seek to go further in their careers. The Teacher Student interaction is very likely occur in classroom setting, students with such productive interactions experience tend to be more motivated, busy, and enthusiastically involved in the education (Woodside, Wong, & Weist, 1999)
Teacher Student interactions can be formal or informal, its play a very important role in shaping students' academic outcomes. The regular types of contact that students have with Teachers normally consist of situations in which they are asking for information about a course or visiting after class. Such interaction seems to improve student learning and to know each other at an informal and personal level. According to Cox and Orehovec (2007) there are four types of student teacher interactions, one of the most important "functional interaction", it refers to educational related interactions outside the classroom. The other three types are "personal interactions", it's about some personal issues not linked to education, "incidental interactions", they are maintained by occasional greetings, and lastly "disengagement interactions", where there is minimum interaction with the teacher inside the classroom and slight or no interpersonal exchange.
Decker, Dona, and Christenson (2007) noted that the essential features of predicting students social-emotional functioning than their academic performance is the Teacher student interaction.
Some teachers may not always be attentive that their interactions can have an extensive influence on their students. Teacher student interactions are the indicator of learning (Christensen & Menzel, 1998).
Students who have high and reasonable interactions with their teachers, they academic program as being more interesting, exciting, and enjoyable, as well as more appropriate and necessary for their career. Student teacher interactions have a multidimensional influence on the cognitive and emotional needs of students, thus validating the importance of teachers as role models. Interacting regularly with teachers is part of being academically engaged and students who are more concerned to do better in University. students who are in more frequent contact with teachers and receive more advice on their performance show outstanding enhancement in communicating in a group, proficiency in their area of study, awareness about their future career, and common problem-solving skills. Students who perceive their teachers to be helpful and have constructive interactions with them experiencing greater learning and improved academic and personal growth.
Achievement Motivation of Students:
Achievement motivation is often correlated with actual achievement behavior. The motivation to achieve, however may evidence itself only in behavior that children value. For example, a child may be highly motivated to achieve, and this may be exhibited in athletics but not in schoolwork. Thus, different situations have different achievement- attaining values for children.
Individuals' actual achievement behavior depends not only on their motivation to achieve but also on whether they expect to achieve and whether they fear failure. People are more likely to work hard when they perceive a reasonable chance to succeed than when they perceive a goal to be out of reach . Children's expectations of success can be measured by asking them to predict a certain grade, indicate how sure they are that they can solve a particular problem, and select the hardest task they think they can do from a collection of tasks varying by degree of difficulty. Children with high expectation for success on a task usually persist at it longer and perform better than children with low expectations. Researchers like found that children with high IQs and high expectations of success in school do, in facts get the highest grades. Children with high IQs and children with low IQs and low expectations receive lower grades than children with
low IQs and high expectations. In addition to child rearing practices, reviewed previously, teaching styles and communication pattern affect children's attributions. When teachers are caring and supportive and emphasize the teaching learning process over the performance outcomes, and when they give feedback, children tend to be motivated to achieve and to expect
success (Daniels, Kalkman, and McCombs, 2001).
Parent involvement:
Parent involvement is absolutely essential to student achievement in school and in life. The overwhelming studies and research indicate that there are positive academic outcomes stemming from parental involvement with benefits beginning in early childhood throughout adolescence and beyond (Henderson & Mapp, 2002; Patrikakou, Weisberg, Redding, & Walberg, 2005).
A child's learning is enhanced when schools encourage parents to stimulate their children's intellectual development. Numerous studies have shown that the home environment has a powerful effect on what children and youth learn, not only in school but outside of school as well. This environment is considerably more powerful than the parents' income and education in influencing what children learn in the first six years of life and during the twelve years of primary and secondary education. One major reason that parental influence is so strong, is because the children spend more than ninety percent of their time from infancy throughout their childhood outside school under the influence of their parents. Therefore, ultimately the parents are their first and most important teacher. (Weinstein & Walberg, 1983, Peng & Wright, 1994, Walberg & Paik, 1997)
Method:
Scale of Students' Perception on Teachers' behavior:
The instrument measure students' perception on teachers' behavior developed by the researcher based on a study by Oakes (1992), which discovered the difference between teacher's behavior in the high-performers and low-performers classes.
The Student's perception on teachers' behavior questionnaire is a 4 points scale with 20 survey items. Each engagement domain is represented by subscale. There are 10 items for each construct. The Student's response scale range from strongly Disagree (=4) to strongly Agree (=1).
Hypotheses:
1: There will be positive correlation between Student- Teacher interaction in Private and Public Sector Universities and academic outcomes or achievement.
2: Student Teacher Interaction will be higher in Private Sector Universities as compared to public Sector Universities.
