Financial management practices in Kenya secondary schools : problems and issues
Loading...
Date
2012-06-15
Authors
Kamau, Kenneth Wanjau
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
Education is one sector that has gone through tremendous growth and continues to do so. Providing education to the children has always been an expensive undertaking to both the government and the community. To implement the curriculum there has to be a provision of educational facilities, equipment and services whose costs have been soring with time. The population has also been rising sharply implying that there has been a tremendous increase in the demand for education. This has resulted to budget slices of money going to financing education. The cost-sharing policy where the community shares the burden of financing schools has as a result been given more impetus. It was on this score that the researcher formulated the problem of the study in liqht of the limitation placed on the headteachers in their attempt to effectively finance their school programmes. This study also sought to look into the fiscal management practices and the problems experienced in the process. Implications of these problems to schools' administrative tasks were also reviewed.
The study was conducted through field research
which covered 30 secondary schools in Nairobi Province.
Questionnaires were provided to headteachers of these
schools to respo~d to. Interview schedules were also
arranged for education and audit officers for the
purpose of providing supplementary information.
There was a review of literature made which was
related to the study being undertaken. This dealt
with the general funding of schools and management of
funds as well as limitations usually straining headteachers
in this area.
Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics
like means and percentages. This facilitated extracting
major findings of'the study from the analyzed data.
It was found out that the government grants and fees
paid by students formed the main sources of revenue
for schools. The late arrival of grants and the
community's inability to pay were the main limitations
to effective funds acquisation. Although the headteachers
prepared budgets and made attempts to administer
them, they were greatly hampered in the area of accounting
The researcher concluded that for there to be
effectively run schools, there had to be financial back
up. Revenue-raising programmes became therefore a
chief concern to educators. Little was done to
upgrade head teachers and make them better versed in
accounting procedures. All schools' administrative
tasks ,were to some degree influenced by the amount of
revenue a school was able to muster.
There were a few recommendations that were made.
The researcher recommended that there should be more
involvement by the government in formulating policy
to streamline funding and revenue collection in all
schools. That headteachers be guided in improving
their budgeting processes and accounting procedures.
The researcher recommended that there should be further
research carried out in this area of study.
Description
The LB 2826.6.K4 K3
Keywords
Education--Finance//Education Higher--Reseach