FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN THE NZEMA-EAST DISTRICT – THE DILEMMA OF HEADMASTERS

ABSTRACT Financial management in schools is bedevilled with challenges and so are rated low in terms of the administrative functions of headmasters in the district. This is a diagnostic study of the dilemmas that heads of schools face in financial management in secondary schools of the Nzema-East District. One hundred respondents expressed their views on the subject. Four sets of questionnaire and an interview guide were adopted as the main instruments for the study. Nine major questions were spread across all the four sets of questionnaire. The interview guide contained 13 major questions. The researcher applied Cronbach’s Alpha to ascertain the reliability of the 9 main items of the questionnaires and the result was .743. The study analysed levels of exposure to capacity-building training in financial management by heads, effective use of regulations and the perception of heads’ management of school funds among others. Evidence from the study suggests that dilemmas were rife in financial management for heads. Heads’ inability to train, poor payment and embezzlement of fees, stalled information on finances to school personnel especially the financial standing of the schools, audit reports, poor payment of fees and unsound practices in financial management were predominant. With money still very difficult to come by and in order to maintain the confidence of stakeholders and well-wishers to commit funds to teaching and learning as well as infrastructural development, it is recommended that the Ghana Education Service should intensify the training of headmasters to enable them adopt good practices in financial management in the schools.