5.

4 Discussions

It was evident from the results of this study that students studying in public sector had higher

level of attitude towards religion than the students studying in private sector. This finding was

similar to the findings of some recent studies which reported that public sector students show

more religiosity in their attitude (Akpinar, Yildiz, Tatar, & Ergen, 2009; Dhindsa & Chung,

2003; Greenfield, 1996; Morrell & Lederman, 1998). Religion has a big influence on students

‘attitude. The results of the study have far teaching applications for students and teachers. Just

like the development of moral values and better attitude towards religion within the boundary of

school and home can be developed. The results of the study may provide help to teachers, they

may understand the level of students' knowledge and their attitude towards religion and timely

attempts may be made through curricular and non-curricular activities.

These results force us to think that rural area students in Pakistan have lesser facilities and socio-

economic situations but have higher attitudes towards religion than the students of urban areas

with much more facilities and high socioeconomic status. In a study conducted on higher

secondary school students in Pakistani Perspective, Rana (2002) also concluded that students

with average religious backgrounds obtained highest mean scores on TOSRA than the students

with high socioeconomic backgrounds. The possible reason for high attitude of rural students

towards religion might be the socio-economic situations. Vocational and technical fields are

considered the most valuable and worthwhile professions for which religious subjects are

precursors and rural students due to limited facilities have very less options for better future and

have fewer choices of activities and subjects at secondary level as compared to urban students.

Urban student’s high score on adoption of religious attitude can be attributed to the fact that in

urban areas religious subjects are considered important for career and urban students are forced
by the society and parents to adopt scientific attitudes to adjust in the modern society. It is

obvious from the findings of this study that public have higher attitude towards Social sciences

and religious attitude than boys of private sector and similar pattern can be seen through the

findings of all other subscales except for the Career Interest in religious subscale, on which both

the public and private institute students had similar attitudes. All the category/technology

Students belonging to public sector whether they are from civil, mechanical, or electronics

technologies shows positive attitude towards religion.