A Comparative Study of Academic Achievement of Students on the basis of their Perceived School Culture

Abstract

The purpose of the present paper is to study school culture in terms of six dimensions, namely, democratic governance, student leadership, respect and caring, recognition of diversity and catering to it, clear policies and expectation, emphasis on reflective behaviour and its effect on academic achievement of students. The sample of the study included 456 students of standard X selected through probability sampling technique. The study adopted the descriptive method of causal-comparative type. The school culture questionnaire was developed by the researchers. Students’ academic achievement is studied in terms of marks obtained by them at the SSC examination conducted by the Maharashtra State Board of Secondary Education. The result indicated that there is a significant difference in the academic achievement of the students on the basis of their perceived school culture. Further, it was found that students from schools with a more congenial school culture showed low academic achievement and those from schools with average and poor school culture showed higher academic achievement.