CHAPTER ONE
1.0 INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
Education remains the main catalyst for development in any society, whether in the developed or developing world. The future development of the world and of individual nations hinges more than ever on the capacity of individuals and countries to acquire, adopt and advance knowledge. Using formal and non-formal approaches education should take on board the needs of the poor and the disadvantaged groups particularly girls. In addition, efficient management of schools resources is crucial in order to make the school a pleasant, safe and comfortable center that will increase students’ attendance, motivation and willingness to participate adequately in both curricula and co-curricular activities (Osei-Owusu and Kwame, 2012) Financial management is a major task of educational administration that involves the utilization of all available financial resources in an eort to achieve the objectives for which educational institutions are established. For Nwaokolo and Akilaya (2000), financial strategy is concerned with the management of funds for educational expansion. According to Egbule and Igbogbor (2000), financial management deals with how to plan, budget for, secure and maintain financial resources in order to attain the institution’s objectives. It involves managing the funds available to ensure the provision of a wide variety of school resources and facilities. The aim of financial management is to ensure that the resources available for education are procured, properly disbursed, accounted for and regularly monitored to ensure their effective use. It is a major task for principals to engage in practices that would enhance effective financial management.
In Anambra State, secondary school principals are expected to prepare school budgets to guide their spending in these areas after which the budget should be sent to the Anambra State Education Commission for approval. It is their duty to raise funds from approved sources and ensure that funds are spent for what they are originally budgeted for (Ezebunanwa, 2004). Proper accounting of revenue and expenditure of schools should be kept. In essence, financial management by principals should include budgeting, fund raising, and disbursing for school funds. Where the principals eiciently do these, there will likely be increased and improved school facilities (Enyi, 2001). But where there are cases of mismanagement by principals, the status of school human and physical facilities will be such that educational objectives-are hardly achieved. Many situations in Nigerian education system appear to threaten schools’ financial management. For instance, the rising cost of education places more burdens on principals1 financial management of schools (Okoye, 2004). Closely related to the issue of rising educational cost is the problem of the inability of government to provide suicient funds for educational endeavors. Okonjo-Iweala (2005), remarked that the government faces competing demands and priorities its activities and policies on which funds are spent. As a result, the Nigerian government has found it impossible to continue to provide suicient: funding to meet the requirements of the rapid expansion of her educational system. The consequence is that the amount of money that the government pumps into the education sector are poor and not enough to provide the facilities required for quality education. In the face of insuiciency of funds, principals are expected to engage in financial strategy practices that would ensure eiciency of the limited funds available. But research reports such as Ukeje, Akabogu and Ndu (1992) and Okoye (2004), reported persistent problems in secondary schools financial management. Such problems manifest in ill-equipped laboratories and libraries, dilapidated buildings, shortage of classroom accommodation, lack of science and technical equipment and consumable items (e.g. chalk), shortage of school furniture for students and teachers, and lack of essential facilities such as water, light, and toilet facilities. Speculations are rife that the financial resources meant for schools improvement were not properly disbursed and many principals have been seriously accused of embezzlement of funds. Thus, ineicient financial strategy have become an issue of serious concern to policy makers, educators and parents, as it would aect the success of the secondary education in Anambra State. Unfortunately, researches on the financial strategy practices of principals in Anambra State are inconclusive as to what principals do and fail to do with respect to financial management (Okoye, 2004; Ezebunanwa, 2004). This creates a research gap because if the management practices of principals are not investigated, it would be diicult to identify those practices that could be responsible for mismanagement of limited school funds. Therefore an empirical investigation of the financial strategy practices of principals, may provide useful information towards reducing financial problems of secondary schools.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
It is the expectation of the government, parents and even students that quality education is received by students in Nigeria secondary schools through the adoption of appropriate administrative process/ strategies by the principals. However, observations have shown that there seems to be poor principals’ strategies for financial management which have led to poor quality of secondary schools in Anambra State. This can be seen in the areas of inadequate funding, inadequate facilities, poor instructional supervision, conflict among teachers, and poor vision of the principals, poor principal teacher relationship and poor administrative style of the principals among others. These situations seem to have led to poor academic achievement among the secondary school students, high drop-out rate, and high rate of examination malpractice, poor reading and writing cultures among others. The above situation should not be allowed to continue, hence the problem of this study put in question form is, ‘what are the principals strategies in controlling finance for the improvement of quality education in Anambra State
STRATEGIES ADOPTED BY SECONDARY SCHOOL PRINCIPAL IN CONTROLLING FINANCE FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OF SECONDARY SCHOOL IN ANAMBRA STATE
