african journal of education, science and technology, april · 2020. 5. 21. · african journal of...

African Journal of Education, Science and Technology, April, 2016 Vol 3, No. 2157

Strategies Towards Effective Financial Managementin the Administration of Government OwnedSecondary Shools in Bayelsa State

Ikati, LawrenceDept of Vocational/Technology Edu, Faculty of Education

Niger Delta, University, Wiberforce Island, Amasoma, Bayelsa StateEmail: [email protected]

ABSTRACTThere is an increasing demand for education and school administrators have the responsibility of ensuringadequate provision of needed facilities as the only means to provide qualitative education with adequateprofessional competencies that will guarantee an atmosphere of transparency and accountability in themanagement of school funds as allocated. Best financial practices and acceptable global standards arerequired from administrators of schools to achieve desired objectives as enshrined in the National policy onEducation (2004). This paper provides guide with deep procedure and processes school administrators couldapply to bring about effective financial management in secondary schools in Bayelsa.

Keywords: Strategy, Effective Financial Management, Administration.

INTRODUCTIONEducation constitutes a vital flow in the management of human, physical and financial resources of a nation,especially in developing countries like Nigeria and growing states like Bayelsa. This is so because educationhad been considered the key to all development process, and produces the right skills and attitudes to movea nation forward. Stressing the importance of education and the role of human resources development in anation’s developmental process, scholars like Harbison (1973) and Todaro (1977) submitted that; Humanresources constitute the ultimate basis for the wealth of a nation. Capital and natural resources are passivefactors of production. Human beings are active agents who accumulate capital, exploit natural resources,build social, economic and political organizations and also carry forward national development. A countryor state, which is unable to develop the skills and knowledge of its people and utilize its resources effectivelyin the national economy, will be unable to develop anything else.

Education is a very vital and essential tool in national development. It is the process by which a persondevelops abilities, ideas, and other forms of behavior, which are of positive value to the immediateenvironment (community, society) at large. These skills can be acquired through formal education in thewalls of a school and informal education as well. The National Policy on Education (2004) stated that ‘theFederal Government of Nigeria has adopted education as an instrument par excellence for effective nationaldevelopment’. It also sees education as the greatest investment the nation will make for quick developmentof its economic, political, sociological and human resources. The establishment and progress of any industryor firm (school) calls for funds of both capital and recurrent expenditure, which also calls for administrators,at all levels, to exhibit transparency and honesty in every sphere of leadership, capable of inspiring theconfidence of the public of the public as a continued support for the school system, financially and otherwisefor the creation of a healthy society.

Bayelsa State offers some free educational programs at different levels through scholarships but theeducational system is still not growing accordingly because the administrator does not properly manage thefunds needed to finance the system.This calls for urgent attention.Good and sustainable managementstrategies such as budgeting, auditing, record keeping, supervision and monitoring, manpower development,investment planning amongst others, would provide teachers with a clear view towards goal attainment andequally direct them to be better managers and future educational administrators. It would also provide astandard for which the future performance can be improved. Today, the issue of effective financialmanagement in the administration of secondary schools has not been encouraging; School administrators still


collect illegal fees from students and parents for the provision of reading materials other their school facilitieswhich otherwise should have been provided by the government.Experience shows that for strategic financial management in the administration of secondary schools to bemeaningful and successful, the government must lead the process of planning and implementation of policiesand bring offenders to the law. Administrative planning is concerned with how the government can optimizethe use of its resources within strategic objectives. Efficient management of funds, flows through the mainfinancial objective that is; to maximize the economic welfare of the owners.

Importance of Financing EducationEhiametalor (1985:24), while writing on implementation of the National Policy on Education, stressed theplace of educational financing when he said. “The success of any educational programme where little or noeducational equipment are present, depend heavily on the amount of money available for education”. By this,Ehiametalor sees financing as one of the most important factors in planning for any educational programme.Another importance is also identified in the national policy on education (2004) where it states that educationis an expensive social service and requires adequate financial provision from all the tiers ofgovernment for asuccessful implementation of the educational programmes.

Finance is the power of education, which it has for its growth and progress. It is a dependent variabletherefore; proper management is required for the utilization of funds. Not all teachers’ have seen or readpolicies on how they are expected to operate. They do not know the desire of the nation for its youths. Davis(1996) says in many developing countries, 80% of recurrent expenditure and 60% of total expenditure isspent on institutional staff cost therefore he says that ‘Teachers’ allowances constitute a major proportion ofthe total cost of education’. Ehiametalor (1985) says, “A pupil’s effort at learning in school can behandicapped by the circumstances under which his learning takes place. He also said that two importantelements- The services received and the benefit inherent in the services must be given serious attention inconsidering the circumstances of a students’ learning at school.

Physical FacilitiesSome of our secondary schools today are still an eyesore. Infant, most schools have a predominated featureof a building, few desks and chairs. They are still using the initial school population to provide these facilities.Some of the important and expensive school equipment are reserved under lock and key and used only whenexternal supervisors and inspectors come around. Facilities should be designed to support and strengthenteaching and learning process. Adaralegbe (1972) is of the view that poor and inadequate facilities contributeto a poor quality of education and a poor educational system.Adesina (1977) observed that apart from thedanger to which pupils are exposed to, when the school plant is deplorable, there is also the fact that adeplorable school environment offers little or no stimulus to learning.Concerning the construction ofsecondary school buildings, Adesina (1982) said, for school buildings, staffed with architects, engineers andtechnicians that are familiar with school construction requirements.

Teaching AidsTeaching aids in Nigeria according to Byrne and Williams (1973) is a major determinant of academicattainment in schools. Wales (1982) on the other hand emphasizing the place of teaching aids, added thatthey enable him (as a teacher) teach more in the time allocated and on certain occasions, facilitate the extentof learning to which you cannot achieve through verbal or written words alone. Adaralegbe (1970) maintainsthat the right type of environment for effective learning consists of school buildings and better teachingfacilities.

Running CostThe PTF (Petroleum Trust Fund) has also tried to fund education by subsidizing the sale of exercise books,educational texts, stationary, etc. on an affordable rate by students and teachers. It has also in this case,reduced the total running administrative cost of the school system.

Sources of Funding for Educational Finance in NigeriaNigeria’s independence, the establishment, planning and management of schools were on in the hands ofmissionary groups, voluntary organizations and individuals. Amongst these were missions who have an upperhand in the running of schools. Adesina (1977) said that at the post primary school level, the Christian


missions were controlling 80% of the schools’ finance and 77% of students financing. The sources of fundingare diverse and many depend on the ability of the school head in projecting the image of the school to theinternational and external environment. In most cases, it is a point of joint affair between the federal, stateand local government regardless of where the school is located. In general, funds for educational financingcan be gotten from government, grants, foreign aid, assistance from missions and churches, communityefforts, PTA collection.

GovernmentFor Secondary School Education, the Federal Government under the 3rd national development plan, assumedthe responsibility for 55% funding. What this has shown is that the Federal Government bears major fiscalresponsibility for education, since most of the funds for educational development and maintenance comesfrom it. Whatever money a state can commit to a large extent, is able to make and spend on education.Government can also assist in the building of infrastructural projects, learning materials, supply of officeequipment, books etc.

Foreign AidForeign aid can be said to be assistance gotten/given to by a foreign country to a home country. This aid cancome in different forms to developing countries. It can come as supply of school equipment, supply ofteachers in different subjects to teach in various institutions in the country. In all part of the 3rd worldcountries, in which Nigeria is categorized under, schools benefit from volunteers from various countries.Also embassies distribute library books, school equipment and other educational resources as the requestmay be. Also, the International Monetary System (IMS) tries to assist member nations by assisting them inareas of Education, Agriculture, Irrigation, electricity projects.

Community EffortsMost Bayelsa communities are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of education and thesecommunities play a vital role in educational awareness which is for the benefit of their children. In order toachieve this, communities contribute huge sums of money to meet the need for education. For example, iffarming of palm fruit is a common practice, they may decide to pass a law to prevent the farmers fromharvesting from the community for a period of time, after which the fruit are then harvested and sold. Theproceeds are used to fund education. Also, communities fund education by donating their land for buildingof schools and some give their labour free towards the building of classrooms, teachers quarters, clearing ofbushes. Today, individuals, old boys’ association (Alumni), industries in the locality are happy and readilyavailable to fund education in the communities.

Assistance from Mission OutfitsIn spite the government takes over of schools, Missions still give assistance to their schools in form of revenueor by assisting in the provision of learning materials and sometimes scholarships.

School FeesPayments of fees have been one of the oldest forms of raising fund. It is also the most consistent method usedto raise funds for education. The amount of fees charged especially at the secondary school level depends onthe institution, Federal or state and the type of ownership, either public or private owned. School fees paidby each pupil are used to run the school’s educational system. It is also used for administrative purposes, topay teacher’s salaries and to supply school facilities. Fees are generally used for the running cost of the schoolsystem.

PTA CollectionsIgwe (1990) noted that PTA may be defined as a voluntary welfare association of Parents/guardians andteachers aimed at ensuring the welfare of both child and school. It makes both parents and teachers consciousof their joint responsibility to produce good education for the community in which they live in. Igwe (1992)also observed that Parent Teacher Association (PTA) refers to an organization comprise of parents andteachers of a particular school whose major aim is to mobilize resources that are geared towards effectiveschool administration. Parents’ Teachers’ Association agrees on a levy to be paid by parents for their child.These levy collections have become very strong sources of income mainly for capital projects in the schoole.g. building of more classroom blocks, hostels or auditoriums.


Strategies towards Effective Financial Management in EducationMbiom (2000) says that education is planned in Nigeria as an integral part of the national developmentprogramme, the educational planners have to face the problem of resource allocation at the National, Stateand Local Government levels, and Resource allocation for educational programmes has affected the numberof political, social and economic attitudes. It is therefore possible for an effective administrator to useappropriate planning tools to reach optimal investment decisions. There are so many approaches to projectevaluation and planning. They include: -

The social demand approach: which provided useful projections of a private demand for education and;

The manpower requirement approach: which recognizes the role of education in providing trainedmanpower and;

The Cost-benefit Analysis approach: This compares the total cost of the project with the total benefit inorder to determine its worth.

The Cost-benefit AnalysisCost-benefit analysis is the same as rate of return analysis. It is concerned with the relationship between costand the benefits received due to incurring cost, Mbiom (2000) defined cost-benefit as the process ofdetermining whether a given programme is ‘worth’ more than it costs. The aim of cost-benefit analysis is tomaximize all benefits, less that of all cost, subject to specified constraints.

Ndebbio (1998) says the purpose of the cost-benefit analysis is to assist in decision making, bringing intofocus factors that are relevant. More to the fact that cost-benefit analysis aids good investment decision, italso measures the average rate of return so that the local management (school) can improve their finances byinvesting in projects, which earn above the existing finances or by ceasing projects, which will bring thembelow their average. For example, a school awarding scholarship to a student because the student is brilliantand good at football. The student will benefit the school academic brilliance and sport fame. Another exampleof cost benefit is in a community which funds its sons and daughters with funds raised, they will sponsorthose who are brilliant so that they can upon graduation, get good jobs, promote the communities name andrepresent the community in the world of work. Instead of the reverse which has no positive benefit.

Record KeepingThe school administrator needs a lot of information to be able to plan, organize and administer the institutioneffectively. He cannot carry all the information in his head. Some records are statutory and some are not.Even the records that are not statutory must be kept also to help the administrator and his staff to do theirwork better. The quality of records kept in a school tends to speak for the quality of discipline in the school.School records like admission register, log book, personnel record cards, finance records, school inventorybook etc. must be kept very well because they aid the administrator in financial management.

Admission Register: - it shows the number of students admitted by the school. It further differentiates theminto students admitted through entrance examination to begin from class 1, those on transfer from otherschools, those repeating; the number who have left the school on transfer, the classes of each student etc. Awell-kept admission register is an indispensable data book for the school. The school administrator keeps it.It contains information of the totalfees paid by each student, which must correspond with the financialrecords, and also contains vital information about all the students i.e. their state of origins, addresses, name,address and phone number of parent. Guardian etc.

Log Book: - It is a statutory record. It shows major events that take place in the school. The resumption andclosure dates, the visitation date of the school by inspectors and the amount spent on each occasion, etc. Theevents should be recorded in a chronological order in which they occurred. Catastrophes like storms andflood should also be recorded and in fact all important news pertaining to the history and existence of theschool should be reported in the log book.


Personnel Record Cards: This shows vital information about staff. The number of staff working in theschool, their monthly salaries and allowances, date they started work their qualifications, grade levels etc.

Financial records: - Money talks a lot about people especially those in public officers. The schooladministrator/bursar is in charge of all the monies received, kept or expended. All monies spent must bereceipted and documented. The cash book must be kept using security codes. The bursar must be given aspecific time to bank all cash received in a day and for any cash to be spent, the principal/administrator andbursar must be signatories to approve any ash to be spent.

School Inventory: - This is a list of the total of all school property. The principal to ensure they are in goodform and if they are not, write a report so that sufficient measures can be carried out. He must monitor theitems belonging to the school

AUDITINGAuditing was established in the later part of 19th century. Originally an auditor was one to whom the receiptsand payments of an establishment were read. This practice existed first ancient civilization, such as Egypt.Auditing practically means to be able to verify, understand and tell the enterprise concerned of that, theyhave exactly done over a period of time audited. Auditing can be defined as a process whereby the accountsand records of the organization are subjected to scrutiny and will enable the auditor form an opinion as totheir accuracy, truth, fairness of the organizations state of affairs (Osuala, 1996).

International Auditing Guideline (IAG) and International Federation of Accounting Committee (IFAC) viewsAuditing as an independent administration of and the expression of an opinion on the financial statements ofan enterprise by an appointed auditor, in accordance with his terms of engagement and the observance ofstatutory regulatory and professional requirement.

Why do we need an auditor?An auditor in Nigerian must be a certified or chartered accountant who is a bonafied member of a recognizedprofessional body e.g. ICAN, ACCA; therefore, his activities are guided by statue. Companies and AlliedMatters Decree, Institute of Chartered Accountant of Nigeria. (CAMD 1990, ICAN act 1965). An Auditor isneeded to check all financial books and records to ensure accuracy and confidence to its users.

The Benefits of Auditing:It gives confidence to parents, government etc on how their money is used.It gives confidence to it users e.g. principals, bursars etcIt gives advice with regards to handling of financial and management matters.

The Importance of Auditing:To ensure prudent managementTo safeguard assets.To prevent and detect fraud.To prevent and detect other irregularitiesTo ascertain that proper records and financial statements are kept.To provide prescribed information required.

AA budget should be able to meet the needs for which it was designed. It should not just be seen as a revenueexpenditure operation required by law and may be easily forgotten without attention given to the needs ofeach school should be identified and given consideration. Candoli, Hack, Ray and Stollar (1978).

The Budget Process:The controlling function of the budget makes it very useful in our educational system because in view of thedecline budgetary provisions for the sub sector, the available ones should be effectively and efficientlyutilized. The budget process starts with educational planning. A school budget is educational planningtranslated into naira and kobo. One of the ways to effectively and efficiently carry out budgetary process isthrough Planning, Programming and Budgetary System (PPBS). This is a procedure where Planning and


development of Programme and Budgeting are required resources, which are integrated into a whole. Inherentin this method are the specification of objectives, the identification and evaluation of alternatives toaccomplish the objectives, the minimization of costs and maximization of benefits.

The Planning Portion of planning, programming and budgetary system involves objective formulation andidentification alternative and the means to accomplish the objective while the programming aspect consistof delineating those resources (manpower, material, finance, facilities) required of each alternative and thebudgetary port involves amount of the resources required by the programme.

The School BudgetAs may be seen from ICMA definition, the budget is not based on the actual money the school has, but alsoon projected money the school hopes to have. A school’s budget is an educational programme and planningexpressed in financial terms, Amaewhule (2000). It is a plan expressed in financial terms, usually one year.

In preparing a budget, it is important to back it up with clearly defined educational objectives. The preparationof the budget begins with the individual schools. The budget forecasts the activities, programmes and servicethat the Board of Governors has approved for the school. The school head (PRINCIPAL) has a say in thechoice of equipment, stationary, and text books etc. The school budget shows in detail the estimatedexpenditure for the various sections of the school system. The school board examines the mini budgetprepared by the school and finally prepares a budget document, which has to be approved by the stateexecutive council before it can be adopted. If the budget is carefully planned, it would help to control theadministration of school programmes. Through adequate budgetary control, the principal can compare theactual operations in the school with the budgets to determine if the plans are being carried out or if not, todetermine the reasons for deviations.

Budgetary planning varies considerably in accuracy, complexity, extent of details and ways of developingand implementing the budget. Evaluation of budget reveals the success or otherwise of the budget. Whatimprovements should be carried out in the next budget, what imbalance had been created betweenprogrammes that are over financed with those that were under financed will be revealed. Therefore, theadministrator after analyzing the previous budget must write out a statement of accounts drawn from allfinancial books and records and also present a report and advice to government based on its accounts revealed.The state executive council after reading the administrators report and statement of accounts will review thebudget if need be to do so.

CONCLUSIONA government policy on education is a good strategy towards effective financial management insufficientfunds will lead to poor educational output. It will also pose a problem in the teaching/learning process therebydistorting the purpose of the National Policy on education (2004) which states that the success of aneducational system is hinged upon proper planning, efficient administration and adequate financing. If thelearning environment is not conducive (lack of school building, unhealthy environment filled withmicroorganisms which we will come in contact with) it will lead to poor academic performance and causesome health hazards for both teacher’s and students’. Health is Wealth. Udoh (1980) said that students areable to study well when they are physically strong. A good environment will improve learning and discipleand also be a source of w to the teachers making them dedicated to their job.

RECOMMENDATIONSIt is therefore recommended that:

Money should be made adequately available; since money seems to be the main key for the progress of manysocial groups, in which the school falls. Specific strategies should be undertaken to solve the problem offinancial management. Some of the strategies include: record keeping, auditing and budgeting.

There are some of the ways in which more funds can be raised for education i.e. some alternative sources offunds e.g. producing crafts for sale to the public, voluntary and educational organizations, donations and fundraising and funds from government Effective disbursement of the financial management strategies must be


maintained. Immediate repair of structure, equipment and other physical facilities which will cost less thanembarking on new projects, Mbiom) (2000). No matter how difficult the economic and financial problemsof the school may be they should not assume defeat but efficiency, optimism and faith should be theirwatchword.

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publications.Mbiom, G. (2000). Educational Administration and planning. Calabar: Glad Tidings Press Ltd.National Policy on Education (2004). (4th Edition). Yaba, Lagos. NERDC Press.Okah, I. R. (2002). Modern Strategies in Educational Administration, Planning and Supervision. Port Harcourt: Harley Publications.Olaniyi, W. O. (1998). Conceptual Approach to Educational Administration. Ibadan: Patrick Ade printing press.Oteri, I. G. (1987). Expenditure and Cost Analysis. M.Edthesis. University of Ibadan.Shubin, A. S. (1957). Business Management. London: The Barnes & Noble outline series, harper row publishers.Todaro, M. P. (1960). Economics for a Development World. London: Longmans press Ltd.Ukaeje B. O. (1990). Foundations of Education. Benin: Ethiope Publishing Corporation.UZoka, N. D. (2006). Financial Management.Owerri: Bon Publications.

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