The Roles of educational managers in managing institutional finance. A Case study of Kongwa District Council

ABSTRACT

The current study is mainly critical at determining the role of educational managers in managing institutional finance. The study was guided with three objectives namely, roles of district education managers in managing school finance in free education policy, challenges facing educational managers in managing school funds, and strategies used by educational managers to manage school expenditures. The study employed mixed research approach and descriptive research design. The sample size for this study was 66 respondents from Kongwa district, that involve 2 DEO, 2 DAO and 62 head of schools. This study employed purposive sampling techniques in selection of DEO and DAO, and accidental (or convenience) sampling techniques in selection of head of schools. Quantitative data were analysed through the SPSS v. 20 and qualitative data were subjected to thematic analysis. The findings revealed that, educational managers play several roles in managing institutional finance, for instance preparation of school budget, involvement of teaching staff in budget preparation, recording of payment receipts in cash book, recording of cheques on pre-numbered carbon copy, reconciliation of bank accounts, quarterly review of financial reports, and sharing of financial information among beneficiaries. On the other hand, challenges facing educational officers in managing school funds include teachers fail to use the Fears properly, shortage of monitoring funds to educational managers, reallocation of institutional finance, insufficient of school capitation grant, lack of financial skills, misreading of financial regulations and bills. Likewise, strategies which used by educational officers to manage school expenditures include, planning and budgeting, basic accounting system, financial reporting, internal financial control, school grant management, involvement of staff in school financial expenditure. In conclusion, in spite of challenges faces educational officers on managing the school funds, but they play a great role on supervising the schools to maintain the financial health to their schools and educational sector in general. The study recommends that, the Government should provide funds according to the number of students enrolled to the schools to avoid insufficient of funds on implementing the school-planned activities, the Government should cross-check and evaluate the application of online payment system, educational managers at all level should maintain financial transparency, and educational managers should be given the financial risk management knowledge.