General and technical secondary schools in West Timor: A comparative analysis based on selected school-, teacher-, and student-related factors

• Main Author: Salu, Petrus, SVD.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2001
• Subjects: Education; Secondary; Educational planning; Educational Psychology
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_masteral/2545
• Institution: De La Salle University

This study analyzes and compares the general and technical secondary schools of West Timor, Indonesia, in terms of teacher-, school-, and student-related factors.The study was conducted in ten randomly selected secondary schools involving 242 tenured teachers.A descriptive-comparative analysis was used in the study using the teacher, school and student related factors as reference for comparison. The statistical tools used were frequencies and percentages, ranking and arithmetic means. The findings of the study revealed that a great majority of the teachers in general and technical schools, were forty years old and above, male and married. Most of them hold a master's degree and evaluated their teaching performances as very satisfactory.The teachers also perceived the academic and instructional management of the schools as very satisfactory. The weak points identified were mostly the lack of provisions for instructional materials and facilities particularly among the technical schools. However, technical schools exhibit a more open climate that is supportive of learning.On the other hand, general secondary schools have a bigger enrollment, and charge higher school fees compared with technical schools. The students' socio-economic status was average to below average. Student characteristics were fairly satisfactory with some problems on poor study habits of the students. Attrition rate on the average is 9 percent for both school types. West Timor schools performed low in the National Achievement Test with a mean rating of 5.15 against the regional mean score of 5.50 and national mean score of 6.50. Students found difficulty in Math and Sciences especially the technical school students. General and technical schools do not differ in terms of the teacher, school and student-related factors. The study recommended a review of the school curriculum to strengthen weak areas and augment provisions of instructional materials and facilities for an improved performance in the National Achievement Test.