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Article History

Received: 11 February 2025

Accepted: 9 March 2026

First Online: 24 March 2026

Competing interests

: The authors declare no competing interests.

: Ethical approval for this study was obtained from the Graduate Committee of the Department of Sociology, School of Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Management and Technology, Lahore, Pakistan, on 21 February 2024. The research was conducted as partial fulfillment of the requirements for the MPhil in Sociology degree (ID: F2022261017). The researcher visited various schools between April 2024 and May 2024. During these visits, meetings were held with the heads of the respective schools, and a formal letter of recommendation along with a hard copy of the questionnaire was presented. The researcher assured the school authorities that all ethical guidelines and research protocols would be strictly observed during the interview process.

: Prior to conducting the interviews each day, informed consent was obtained from all respondents between 24 April and 16 May 2024, who voluntarily agreed to participate in the study. Participants were informed that they were not required to disclose personal identifying information. Each participant was assigned a unique case ID as well as a separate questionnaire ID to ensure anonymity. All information collected during the interviews was kept strictly confidential and securely protected, with no disclosure of personal details. The interviews were conducted without any discrimination based on class, race, ethnicity, culture, color, education, or social status. To maintain privacy, interviews were carried out in a designated classroom where no third party could listen to or record the conversation. During the interviews, the researcher entered respondents’ data into a Google Form. Upon completion of each interview, participants were thanked for their time and cooperation. The collected data were used solely for academic research purposes.