Analyzing the Shadow Education System in Iran

The purpose of this study was to compare the effect of formal education and shadow education on school students’ general education behavior. The research was a causal-comparative one. The sample included 600 students that were selected via multi–stage cluster sampling from Iranian high schools. The data were collected by General Educational Behavior Questionnaire (GBEQ). Also, the data were analyzed by statistics of X2, t, Mann Whitney U. The results showed that there were significant differences between formal education and shadow education in terms of variables such as students’ educational effectiveness, study hours, educational satisfaction, safety and tuition. In fact, in all cases a shadow education system was indicated to be more efficient, effective and satisfying.