<?php
    $a = $_POST['findSchool'];

    //1. Enter database credentials
    $servername = "****";
    $username = "****";
    $password = "****";
    $dbname = "****";
    $flag = 0;

    // 2. Create connection
    $conn = new mysqli($servername, $username, $password, $dbname);
    echo '<form id="myNewForm" name="myNewForm" class="form"  method="post" action="">';
    echo '<table class="table table-bordered">';
    echo '<tr scope="col" >
                       <th align="center">SchoolName</th>
                          <th align="center">Details</th>
                      </tr>';
    $sql = "SELECT schName FROM schoolinformation WHERE schName LIKE '%$a%'";
    echo $sql;
    $i = 0;
    $result = mysqli_query($conn, $sql);
    while($rowval = mysqli_fetch_array($result))
    {
        $schName= $rowval['schName'];
        echo '<tr scope="col"><td  align="center">'.$rowval['schName'].'</td>
                           <td align="center"><input type="submit" id="shwData" name="shwData" class="btn" value="Show"/></td>';
    }
    echo '</table>';
    echo '</form>';

    if($schName == '')
    {
        echo "Entry not found";
        $flag = 1;
    }
    else
    {
        //echo $schName;
        $flag = 0;
    }
?>

<?php
    if (isset($_POST['shwData']))
    {
        echo "this is it";
    }
?>

$a = $_POST['findSchool'];

session_start();
if(isset($_POST['findSchool'])){
 $_SESSION['a'] = $_POST['findSchool'];
}
$a = $_SESSION['a'];

$a = isset($_POST['findSchool']) ? 'Found '.$_POST['findSchool'] : '';
echo $a;