Page 122 - FREN-C2021 PROCEEDINGS

Table 1. Factors for Private Preschool Choice Selection from the Perspective of Parents
No. Factors for Private
Preschool Choice
Selection from the Research Findings
Perspective of Parents
1. Brand Image 84.0 % chose Branded Preschools as opposed to non-branded
preschools of 13.6% ((Dahari & Ya, 2011).
Brand image perceptions directly affect customer loyalty, which
leads to customer retention (Allen & Rao, 2000).
In 2003, when the idea of teaching Mathematics and Science in
English being introduced by the Ministry of Education, this
resulted in many preschools that offer English as the medium
language blooming. Due to this, banded preschools which
normally prepares English proficiency for preschool children also
began to gain popularity (K. Kamarulzaman & Razalli, 2017).
2. Enriched Curriculum Preschool education curriculum should be well aligned with
primary school curriculum so that the transition to school is
successful (Mustafa, Yunus, & Azman, 2014).
3. Religious Based 95.1% of parents of 162 participating Malay parents decided on
Preschool Islamic-based preschool when deciding to send their children to
the private preschool (Dahari & Ya, 2011).
4. Word of Mouth Parents are communicating more about private preschool
compared to the government preschool (Yahaya & Ramli, 2001).
5. Location Preschool education is highly important in ensuring equitable
access to all children but it is affected by many factors such as
geographical location (K. Karulzaman & Razalli, 2017).
Parents will normally choose the preschool closest to their home
or working place due to convenience (Dahari & Ya, 2011).
6. Transportation Private preschools which offer transportation services will be at
the advantage in catering for the need of parents who live quite
far from the selected private preschool or do not has transport
facilities to send their children (Mustafa, Yunus, & Azman,
2014).

Classifications of Parental Reasons for School Choice
Past studies have classified parental reasons for school choice into various classifications. Some of the
past studies which classified the parental reasons for school choice are as follow;

a) Coldron and Boulton (1991) identified 30 parental school choice reasons and categorised these
findings into four main groups which are; Academic Reason (Eg. Better education), Security Reason
(Eg. No bullying), Organisation Reason (Eg. Better school management), Source of Information
Reason (Eg. Having siblings at the same school).

b) Gorard (1999) classified the reasons into five main groups which are; Academic Reason (Eg.
Quality of teaching staff), Convenience Reason (Eg. Proximity to home), Organisational Reason (Eg.
Good school management), Selective Reason (Eg. Selection due to religion), Security (Eg. School
with good discipline).

c) Taylor (2001) had categorised the parental school selection into four main reasons which are;
Ideological Reason (Eg. Religious), Geographical Reason (Eg. Proximity to home), Academic Reason
(Eg. Academic performance), Non-Educational Reason (Eg. Children’s happiness)

d) Goldring and Hausman (1999) grouped few reasons into four main groups which are; Academic
Reason (Eg. Good academic reputation), Convenience Reason (Eg. School location is near home),

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