Teachers’ Perceptions Regarding Moral Education in Private and Public Schools in Karachi: A Comparative Study

Moral education is a stimulation of the natural development of learners’ moral judgement, which in turn, enables them to manage their behaviour. Schools can be successful in developing moral values in students through teachers and a positive school environment. However, due to teachers’ packed routines and lack of school attention towards the moral domain, this aspect of teaching is mainly neglected. The current quantitative study aimed to explore teachers’ perceptions in private and public sector schools regarding the development of moral values through formal education using a survey. It further endeavoured to draw a comparison between the teachers’ perceptions regarding moral education in private and public schools for a better insight into moral development of students for a holistic learning environment. Findings revealed that teachers from both sectors believed religion to be the prime source of moral values. They perceived teaching moral values as important but were less focused on modelling themselves as moral agents. Furthermore, there were no significant differences between the perceptions of public and private sector teachers regarding the importance, efficacy, and practice of moral education. However, a moderate correlation between perceived importance and subsequent practices was found to some extent.


Introduction
Education has twofold functions to perform, one entails developing the intellectual growth of children, and the other focuses on moral development.Education must strive for the growth of the entire abilities of children including, intellectual, social, and emotional domain, to equip them with skills required for being successful human beings in all aspects of life (Asif et al., 2020;Rissanen et al., 2018;Segev, 2017).Societies across the globe are experiencing multiple challenges due to increased rate of crimes such as violence, theft, sexual abuse, corruption, intolerance, and family degeneration (Demirel et al., 2016;Shrestha & Parajuli, 2019).Among other things, this is associated with apparent weakening morality in the general masses and especially the youth of nations.
Pakistan is no exception, as is evident from prevalent societal issues signifying decay of moral values and civic sense in its youth which must be curbed (Ahmad et al., 2014;Hussein, 2008;Imtiaz, 2017).Morality is deeply rooted in the education system (Birhan et al., 2021) which strives to develop prosocial behaviours through purposeful teaching of moral values and appropriate demeanours in schools (Khanam et al., 2020;Kumari & Babu, 2021).However, schools while focussing on the transmission of knowledge have neglected their responsibility towards nurturing affective domains of children, and, in many cases the moral development of children has taken the back seat (Chowdhury et al., 2019;Segev, 2017;Velea & Farca, 2013).
Therefore, to arrest further degeneration, the education system calls for immediate reflection on its processes focussing on moral education of learners for the sustainable future of society (Asif et al., 2020).The current study examined the understanding of teachers in private and public sector schools regarding the development of moral values through formal education.It further endeavoured to draw a comparison between teachers' perceptions regarding moral education in private and public schools which would allow teachers to have better insight into their teaching strategies to develop a holistic learning environment for the students.
In Pakistan, the educational system comprises mainly of public and private sector schools: the public schools are managed and financed by the government, while the private schools are managed and financed by individuals or groups.The two sectors vary in terms of fee structure, curriculum, management, administration, Siddiqui & Soomro resources, and, above all, qualification and expertise of the teachers (Javed et al., 2014;Khanam et al., 2020).Factors influencing parents' choice of public or private school for their children depend largely on the social and financial status of the household, school's ease of access, schooling cost, parents' views of school quality, and their perceptions of the available career opportunities (Farooq et al., 2017).

Morality
Morality is the ability to differentiate between right and wrong, to refrain from unprincipled conduct and to behave ethically (Gui et al., 2020;Rafique et al., 2020).The term morality is used either descriptively which refers to certain codes of conduct put forward by a society, group and individuals or normatively which refers to a code of conduct put forward by all rational persons (Gert & Gert, 2017).In the descriptive sense, morality can be highly specific in accordance with distinct societies or groups (Birnbacher, 2013), for example, Islamic morality, Western morality, Chinese morality and many others.Moral values can also have generality when concerned with matters related to the entire mankind, for example, human rights.In the normative sense, the ability to judge and think morally exists till such time a person has the ability of conscientiously thinking (Balliu, 2015), i.e. dialogue with self and a reminder of actions implemented in life.

Moral Education
Moral education refers to fostering values in students which make them upright and industrious human beings for themselves and for the community (Otewa, 2016).Furthermore, in schools it can be an opportunity for teachers to impart messages for right and wrong or good and bad conduct where students learn through pedagogical practices and moral vision of instructors (Ashfihana, 2021;Rosenberg, 2015).Therefore, moral education includes all circumstances in schools that intentionally aim to facilitate the moral development of students whether directly or indirectly (Gamage et al., 2021;Noddings, 2008).It aims at the holistic development of students with strong characteristics, encompassing moral values such as honesty, justice, loyalty, fairness, and courage (Alvi et al., 2020;Berkowitz & Bier, 2007;Carr, 2008).A foremost and vital role in connection with moral development involves the home environment, schools, and the community at large (Singh, 2019).While all three factors are significant, the current study focused on the schools as they have a substantial role in this domain.

Schools' Contribution towards Moral Development
Schools directly or indirectly have a vast and long-lasting effect on the moral development of children, as such, the teaching methodologies should cater to specific directions of moral development (Gamage et al., 2021;Otewa, 2016).There are usually two kinds of curriculum, one is the formal curriculum which is a written document containing objectives, teaching methodologies, and activities, and the other which is not laid out, is referred to as the hidden curriculum (Kian et al., 2020;Otewa, 2016).Hidden curriculum is the base for establishing the social environment of the school which sets the culture of interpersonal relationships between staff, teachers and students (Gunawan et al., 2018;Kian et al., 2020).Hence, moral education is an integral part of the curriculum which cannot be neglected.
Since the curriculum content is delivered in classrooms by teachers, their teaching approach is key for incorporating moral inferences in the topics included in the syllabi (Segev, 2017;Siddiqui & Habib, 2021).Although moral education promotes the intellectual growth of students, teachers tend to be more focused on academic progress than the moral development (Williams et al., 2003).In fact, schools in the United States have largely failed in their efforts for character formation due to the failure of linking character building to deeper human issues (Ryan, 2013).

Teachers' Role in Moral Education
Teachers can engage in the moral education of students either formally or informally via classroom environment, teaching practices, and modelling of the moral values of honesty, kindness, justice, respect, fairness, courage, and trustworthiness (Campbell, 2013;Noddings, 2008).Teachers' role in developing moral values can broadly be classified in two categories i.e. teaching morally and teaching morality (Fenstermacher et al., 2009;Rissanen et al., 2018).If a teacher follows moral values and becomes a model for the students, it is teaching morally whereas the teaching efforts that provide students with the means for developing a moral character is teaching morality.

Kenya Projects Organization (KENPRO, 2010) in an article, highlights
Siddiqui & Soomro that "morals are caught not taught" (p. 1).Firstly, teachers as moral educators are expected to establish a respectful and caring relationship with students in order to maintain a supportive classroom atmosphere for character development.Secondly, teachers are expected to enhance students' social and emotional skills for communication development, conflict resolution, decision making, and cooperation building.Thirdly, teachers have to teach with expertise and perfection through role modelling, underscoring the importance of ethical behaviour and focusing attention on ethical aspects to foster students' self-efficacy and self-regulation in this domain.

Moral Education in Pakistani Schools
In Pakistan, moral education is rooted in Islamic teachings, which signifies the development of good character and loyalty to religion and country (Asif et al., 2020).The moral system is derived from the teachings of the Quran and life of the Holy Prophet Muhammad PBUH that encourages inquiry, observation, rationality, and active experimentation while learning through it rather than following it blindly (Asif et al., 2020;Yuliasih et al., 2018).Infact, Islam and morality are inseparable and complement each other; the Islamic faith is based on moral behaviour and is considered genuine only if it results in acting morally (Halstead, 2007;Haron et al., 2020).
However, Pakistan is facing many social issues such as corruption, insecurity, inequality, and poverty which can be attributed to dishonest, unjust, intolerant society and illiteracy endorsed by an ineffective education system (Khanam et al., 2020;Rehman, 2018;Soomro & Tanveer, 2017).There is a lack of focus on moral and ethical development in the curriculum delivered in Pakistani public and private sector schools (Khan, 2017;Siddiqui & Habib, 2021).Also, teacher education focuses on subject knowledge and a fixed set of skills required to impart theoretical content knowledge to students, while the affective domains such as personal, social, emotional and moral are given little or no attention as compared to international practices (Ali, 2011;Asif et al., 2020;National Education Policy, 2017).
Nurturing moral values at schools is the need of the hour if future generations of a country are to be morally righteous and honourable citizens.Thus, this study proposed the following research questions: Q1.What are teachers' perceptions regarding elements of moral education in the private and public schools of Karachi?Q2.Are there significant differences between public and private school teachers' perceptions regarding importance, efficacy and practice of moral education?
Q3.Is there a significant correlation between the teachers' perceived importance and practice of moral education in private and public schools?

Methodology
The current research is a quantitative study based on a cross-sectional survey that records school teachers' perceptions regarding moral education for the moral development of students.The independent variable consisted of public and private school teachers, whereas the dependent variables were defined as importance, efficacy and practices of moral education.The use of statistical data as a tool saves time and resources, guarantees respondents' anonymity, findings are free of researcher's biases and reported objectively and results can be generalised (Apuke, 2017;Daniel, 2016).This method was best suited to answer the research questions, as it allowed to gather data from maximum participants from both public and private sector schools of Karachi, in a short period of time.The method was further considered appropriate for the data collection process due to the limitations imposed by Covid-19 pandemic.

Setting
This study was conducted in the public and private schools of Karachi, Pakistan.Teachers from pre-primary to secondary level were approached for this research via online and in-person questionnaires depending on the availability and convenience of the participants.

Population and Sample
The population of the current study includes male and female teachers from public and private sector schools of Karachi.Convenient sampling technique was used for selecting teachers to contribute to the study.Only those schools were included which allowed access to their teachers for data collection and teachers Siddiqui & Soomro from all levels, teaching any subject had an equal opportunity to participate in the study.The demographic information of the participant teachers is provided in the Table 1 below.

Data Collection Tool
A quantitative survey was conducted to find the teachers' perceptions about moral education.Based on the salient features of teachers' understanding of moral education, a survey questionnaire with three sections was administered.The first section based on demographic information comprised eight questions and was followed by a section on the elements of moral education adapted from Imana (2016).The last section included three scales adapted from Troutman (2014) and Ampel (2009) to gauge the perceptions of teachers regarding importance, efficacy and practice of moral education.
The 40 items were divided into three sections, 10 items for each variable 'importance' and 'efficacy', and 20 items for the variable 'practices'.A range of five choices on the Likert scale formed a continuum of responses for teachers to record their answers from least to the highest level of agreement.The reliability of the three scales used in the new context was found via Cronbach's Alpha.The method showed a high reliability score for all three scales used at 0.89 for 'Importance', 0.86 for 'Efficacy' and 0.94 for 'Practice'.

Data Analysis
The data were analysed via descriptive and inferential statistics with the help of the statistical package, SPSS.Teachers' perspectives regarding moral education which includes elements of moral education were analysed through descriptive statistics.Independent Sample t-test was applied to examine whether there were significant differences between the perceptions of teachers from public and private sector schools regarding importance, efficacy, and practice of moral education.Finally, correlation between teachers' perceived importance and practice of moral education was assessed using Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient.

Teachers' Perceptions regarding Elements of Moral Education
Data were analysed via frequency and percentile to record the number of items selected as elements of the moral education according to teachers' views.

Figure 1 Elements of Moral Education
Siddiqui & Soomro Findings revealed that the perceptions of teachers regarding moral education are entrenched in Islamic values.Figure 1 shows that the two items related to teaching of Islamic values and life of Prophet (PBUH) received highest number of responses that is 78% and 71% respectively.Figure 1 further indicates that seven items related to teaching of various aspects of morality in universal context (such as respect for self and others, importance of responsible behaviour, universal norms of right and wrong etc.) received second highest number of responses ranging between 63% and 43%.Whereas, three items related to modelling of moral behaviour by teachers received least responses reaching 32% to 35% only.

Figure 2 Public and Private School Comparison: Elements of Moral Education
Regarding comparison between public and private school teachers' perceptions of elements of moral education, only minor differences were found in the responses for the three items related to religion as source of morality.As shown in Figure 2, teachers largely have a common viewpoint of moral education with respect to religious morality.However, public school respondents view moral education more in the context of traditional/ cultural values or societal morality with almost 26% more than private school respondents.Whereas private school respondents' views of moral education are more inclined towards universal morality.

Teachers' Perceptions regarding Importance, Efficacy and Practice of Moral Education
Data were analysed via inferential statistics using an independent sample t-test to compare the means of an independent variable (type of schools) with three dependent variables (importance, efficacy and practice).Each dependent variable was tested individually to test the research hypothesis.

Importance of Moral Education
Through descriptive analysis of the items as shown in Figure 3, it was revealed that the importance of moral education for the students to become responsible citizens, shape their characters, and transfer core values were few of the items that received the highest mean scores.Another item which received a high mean score was that of moral education programs involving parents as most effective.
Participant teachers believed that it is their responsibility to model appropriate behaviour (M= 4.12), yet they least agreed that moral education should be set as an explicit curriculum (M= 3.88).Moreover, teachers recognized that students benefit from high-quality moral education with (M= 4.08), yet they were of the viewpoint that it contributes less towards improvement of students' (academic) performance (M= 3.89) and does not reduce their negative behaviour (M= 3.97).

Figure 3 Importance of Moral Education
While comparing the mean values of statements of public and private schools, respondent teachers descriptively, Figure 4 shows that more private school teachers believe that moral education contributes towards improvement in students' performance (M= 4.09) as compared to public school teachers (M= 3.68), hence the difference of 11% between the two mean scores.On the other hand, public school respondents are comparatively more inclined towards setting moral education as an explicit curriculum (M= 4.01) as against (M= 3.76) by private school respondents, hence the difference of 6% in two mean scores.

Figure 4 Public and Private School Comparison: Importance of Moral Education
An independent-sample t-test was conducted to compare teachers' perceptions regarding the importance of moral education in public and private sector schools of Karachi.As shown in Table 2, there was no significant difference found in the scores for public (M= 4.03, SD=0.530) and private school teachers (M=4.08,SD=0.746); t(276)= -.607, p = .544.It was found that teachers from public and private sector schools perceived moral education equally important.

Efficacy of Moral Education
The dependent variable 'efficacy' (capacity to perform) received lowest mean scores as all of the statements scored below 4, except one as shown in Figure 5.This shows that participant teachers were more uncertain about the efficacy of moral education as compared to its importance and practice.Findings revealed that respondent teachers hardly received moral education training during their pre-service training in colleges as the relevant statement achieved least mean score of 3.17.The three items that scored less were about the lack of support and unfavourable environment at schools for moral education.In that, schools provide moral education training/ guidance to teachers, associated curriculum materials and monetary support for moral education activities.

Figure 5 Efficacy of Moral Education
Through descriptive analysis, it surfaced in Figure 6 that private school respondents believed more in the efficacy of moral education as compared to their public school counterparts which is reflected through relative mean scores of statements.

Figure 6 Public and Private School Comparison: Efficacy of Moral Education
An independent-sample t-test was conducted to compare teachers' perceptions regarding efficacy of moral education in public and private sector schools.As shown in table 3, there was not a significant difference found in the scores for public (M= 3.64, SD= 0.613) and private school teachers (M= 3.75, SD= 0.742); t(276)= -1.365, p = .173.It was found that both public and private sector school teachers are equally effective in imparting moral education according to teachers' perspectives.

Practice of Moral Education
In contrast to other two dependent variables, 'practice' received the highest mean score as 15 out of 20 statements scored above 4 as shown in Figure 7. Findings revealed that teachers engage themselves more in explanation of perceived moral values as compared to giving the students moral experiences in classroom settings.This is indicated by comparatively low mean scores of the statements pertaining to integration/ connection of moral education with opportunities for service, practice of good citizenship and holding students accountable to classroom expectations.

Figure 7 Practice of Moral Education
Moreover, findings indicated that public school teachers practise moral education more through explanation as depicted in Figure 8.In contrast, notwithstanding the low score, private school teachers have a better tendency to impart moral education through experience as reflected through mean scores of statements.Another key difference is that the private school teachers focus more on teaching the significance of school rituals and/or traditions to promote school's identity (M= 3.98) as compared to public school teachers (M= 3.61), hence the difference of more than 10% in two mean scores.

Figure 8 Public and Private School Comparison: Practice of Moral Education
An independent-sample t-test was conducted to compare teachers' perceptions regarding practice of moral education in public and private sector schools.As shown in table 4, there was no significant difference found in the scores for public (M= 4.13, SD=0.589) and private school teachers (M=4.11,SD=0.763); t(276)= .238,p = .812.It shows that teachers from both public and private schools have almost similar levels of practising moral education according to their views.

Correlation between the Teachers' Perceived Importance and Practice of Moral Education
A Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient was calculated to assess the relationship between the perceived importance of moral education and Siddiqui & Soomro subsequent practices by teachers of public and private schools of Karachi.As shown in table 5, the results indicated that there was a positive correlation between the two variables, r = 0.665, N = 278, p < 0.01.Overall, there was a significant moderate positive correlation between perceived significance of moral education and teaching practices.Increased perceived importance of moral education was correlated with an increase in teachers' reported practices of moral education.

Discussion
The key dimensions of the findings from quantitative data revealed that the teachers perceived moral values in Islamic perspective followed by its understanding in the universal context.They considered moral values important for students to become responsible citizens as it shapes their character and transfers core values.On the other hand, participant teachers were uncertain about the efficacy of moral education.Neither do they receive moral education training during their pre-service training in colleges nor do they find support and a favourable environment at schools for moral education.During instructions, teachers preferred to explain perceived moral values instead of giving the students moral experiences in classrooms.A significant aspect of the quantitative data analysis showed that the more perceived importance of moral education, the better the practices of moral education.

Teachers Orientation towards Religious, Universal and Societal Morality
Findings revealed that the perceptions of teachers, from both public and private sector schools, regarding moral education are largely oriented towards religious Islamic values.Teachers also believe in the tenets of secular morality or universal morality but to a lesser extent.Comparing the responses of public and private sector school teachers, it was brought out that public school teachers are more focused towards societal morality (26% difference) whereas private school teachers have a more universal approach towards moral education.
Findings of the current research corroborate findings of the study conducted by Asif et al. (2020) which concluded that character education in Pakistan is rooted in Islamic teachings.Similarly, Halstead (2007) and Haron et al. (2020) emphasized that religion and morality in Islam are inseparable and complement each other.On the other hand, Smagorinsky and Taxel (2005) and Jones (2000) favoured teaching of universal values for character development of students.In support of teaching of universal moral values, Schuitema et al. (2008) opined that this would reduce moral relativism and assist students to internalise individual values at a personal level.
According to Birnbacher (2013), morality can be highly specific in accordance with distinct societies or groups.In this context, the current research signifies that Islam is viewed as the principal source of morality in Pakistani society followed by principles of universal morality.These findings are also consistent with the goals of character building stated in National Education Policy (2017) which aims for "character building on the basis of universal Islamic values integrated with ethical values relevant to all human beings" (p.10).Therefore, it can be concluded that Pakistani society's perspectives of moral education are more inclined towards religious and societal morality as compared to universal morality.

Practising Moral Education through Hidden Curriculum
The present study found that teachers recognize the importance of moral education and acknowledge their responsibility of modelling appropriate moral behaviour.However, teachers in general and those from private sector schools in particular do not favour moral education to be a part of the formal curriculum.Notably, teaching of moral education can be classified into teaching morally and teaching morality (Rissanen et al., 2018).The current research, therefore, highlights that teachers perceive themselves 'teaching morally' as they wish to present themselves as role models for the students but do not believe in the efficacy of 'teaching morality' by setting it as part of the formal curriculum.

Siddiqui & Soomro
A study conducted by Otewa (2016) highlighted that moral education is an attempt to influence students' thoughts, emotions, and actions regarding the problems of right and wrong which is usually a part of a hidden curriculum.Explaining it further, Burgoon (2018) stated that teachers portray themselves through obvious moral aspects like setting rules for the classroom environment and how students must behave towards each other.However, one of the limitations of hidden curriculum is that it is not laid out and hence does not contain written objectives of teaching methodologies (Otewa, 2016).In this context, Kraft and Austin (2015) pointed out that as moral education is usually part of the hidden curriculum, teachers tend to be preoccupied with giving academic support to students with little focus on moral upbringing.In the absence of a formal mechanism of defined objectives and methodologies of moral education, this assertion is endorsed by the current study as the variable 'practice' of moral education' received the highest mean score whereas the variable 'efficacy' received the lowest.

Lack of Teachers Training and Supportive Environment for Moral Education
Findings revealed that the majority of the teacher participants did not receive moral education training during their pre-service training in colleges and the schools lack in providing focused in-service training/ guidance about moral education to teachers.Likewise, schools do not provide associated curriculum materials and monetary support for moral education activities to the teachers.These factors have a profound impact on the moral development of students.As highlighted by Demirel et al. (2016), schools can be successful in developing moral values in students through teachers as well as by providing a positive school environment.
It can be deduced from the above that the school administrators are largely focused towards academic achievements of students with little or no emphasis on their moral development.As highlighted by Burgess and Rogers (2015), teachers are mediators between administrators and students for maintaining a conducive environment in a school setting.Therefore, in order to ensure the effectiveness of moral education, teachers must not only be trained in this domain but also be able to reflect it through their practice in the school environment.Ali (2011) elucidated that teacher professional development is not confined to the training programs and workshops but it is also affected by their ability to think critically and reflect on their daily experiences in the school.

Impact of Moral Education on Students' Academic Performance and Behaviour
The study found that both public and private sector school teachers believe that moral education is neither significantly contributing towards improvement of students' performance nor reducing their negative behaviour.On the contrary, Berkowitz and Bier (2007) in a study underscored several benefits of moral education and advocated that there is a significant correlation between academic achievement and aspects of character education.Similarly, Burgoon (2018) in a study concluded that moral education has a profound impact on students' academic and social development.
Findings from the current study indicate that in Pakistani schools, efforts towards development of moral values of students do not achieve the desired results.Contrary to the studies conducted earlier, this research highlights that Pakistani school teachers believe that moral education does not benefit their students particularly in the domains of academic performance and appropriate behaviour.This dichotomy in the Pakistani context points towards teachers' lack of training and understanding of the objectives of moral education.As explained by Ryan (2013), schools have failed in their efforts for character formation due to the faulty core concept of character and failure in linking character formation to deeper human issues.In this context, the current study indicated that while practising moral education, schools do not integrate or connect moral education with opportunities for service.Similarly, teachers do not promote practising good citizenship in the classroom settings or hold students accountable to their classroom expectations.

Conclusion
It can be concluded that Pakistani society's viewpoints of moral education are mainly derived from Islamic values and life of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).It is therefore pertinent that the corresponding pedagogies/ methodologies of imparting moral education in religious context are focused on.This research highlights that teachers perceive themselves as 'teaching morally' because they aspire to present themselves as moral agents for students but do not believe in the efficacy of 'teaching morality' through the formal curriculum.Thus, moral education remains part of the hidden curriculum without any defined objectives and prescribed methodologies.Nevertheless, the teachers believe that they are practicing moral education but Siddiqui & Soomro respondents for this study report that its efficacy is low.It is therefore recommended that moral education may be included in the formal curriculum of schools in line with the aspiration of our National Education Policy 2017.
Pakistani school teachers further believe that moral education neither benefits the academic performance nor reduces the negative behaviour of students.This lack of efficacy and belief in moral education in the Pakistani educational context points towards teachers' inadequate training and understanding of the objectives of moral education as well as their inability to relate it to practical issues faced by students.This can be further attributed to an unsupportive school environment which focuses on academic achievements of students with little or no emphasis on their moral development.Therefore, it is recommended that teachers' training on moral education may be organised to expand their insights on moral values for broader society through both pre-service and in-service programs.Along with training programs it is essential for schools to facilitate such opportunities and allocate separate funds that support students to engage in community service to develop a sense of responsibility in them.
The current study is limited to survey data and did not gather information about actual practices of teachers for moral development in their respective classes.Therefore, future researchers can consider qualitative research methods for exploring moral education offered at schools and subsequent teaching practices in real situations via observations.Moreover, the current research only included schools which were conveniently accessible.Hence, researchers in future can conduct the same research in different settings using random sampling techniques including higher education institutions.

Table 2
Group Statistics: Importance

Table 3
Group Statistics: Efficacy

Table 4
Group Statistics: Practice