Comparative Study Between Private and Government School Teachers in Relation to Awareness Regarding Learning Disability in Children in Selected Schools of Mangalore

Background: "learning disabilities" is a term associated with difficulties in reading, writing, doing maths and motor co-ordination. Awareness about learning disabilities is required for early identification and further remediation. Teachers are the first ones, usually to suspect a learning disability in a child. For appropriate observation and referrals for further assessment, a teacher should be aware of the various characteristics of learning disabilities which differ from individual to individual.

Aim: awareness regarding learning disabilities among private and government school teachers. Methods: comparative study design was adopted for the study. A sample of 25 government school teachers and 30 private school teachers was selected by purposive non probability sampling technique from 6 selected schools of Mangalore. A demographic data and structured awareness questionnaire was used for data collection.

Results: the result showed that 93.3% of private school teachers and 92% of government school teachers had average awareness. The findings also showed that there is no significant difference between level of awareness regarding learning disability between private and government school teachers. t₍₅₃₎ = 2.005 at P < 0.05 level of significance. The study also revealed that there is no significant association between level of awareness regarding learning disability with selected demographic variables like age, teaching experience, and educational qualification (χ² = 1.044,0.237, 0.959, and χ² = 2.755, 1.004, 6.284 at P < 0.005 level of significance for private and government school teachers respectively.