Assessment of reading comprehension skills of primary learners in Private and Public Schools: A comparative study

Abstract

The study aimed to investigate the reading comprehension skills of the Grade 3 primary learners in private and public school. The study used the quantitative-comparative research design to evaluate and compare the literal and inferential reading comprehension skills of the learners. The study's respondents were 62 pupils in total with 29 from a private school and 33 from a public school. The purposive sampling method was used to select respondents most likely to yield appropriate and useful information. The research instruments used are short stories, questionnaires, and rubrics. The data gathering procedure included the letters for the principal in private and public school and a requested list of short stories from the existing curriculum that had been examined and agreed upon by the teacher. The questionnaire measures were developed by Barrett’s taxonomy, written at a reading level appropriate for Grade 3 learners to answer. The data gathered were tabulated and subjected to statistical analysis using the frequency count, percentage, mean, and standard deviation which were employed for descriptive analysis. The Mann-Whitney U was used for the inferential statistics, all set at .05 level of significance. The results revealed that in terms of their literal and inferential means, the participants from a private school had higher- level comprehension skills compared to the participants from a public school despite both being average. This implies that while students in private school and public school have average level of reading comprehension skills the private school have different and higher level of reading comprehension skills in the literal and inferential categories with both having basic literal comprehension skills and a disparity in the inferential skills calling a review on the teaching methods and available learning resources in public school, as private schools had advanced methods and resources that led to a better literal and inferential comprehension skills despite both being average.