Experiences of school board members in managing school finances in five public schools in Nzinze circuit, Kavango West region
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Date
2023
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Publisher
University of Namibia
Abstract
The ideal purpose of this study was to investigate the experiences of school board members in managing school finances at five public schools in Nzinze Circuit in the Kavango West Region. A qualitative research approach was employed by the researcher to understand the experiences of school board members in managing school finances. There are 29 public schools in Nzinze Circuit. Convenience sampling was used to select three combined and two senior primary schools. Purposeful sampling was used to select the principal, the school board chairperson, the secretary, the treasurer, and one teacher serving on the school board considering that they are directly involved in school financial matters. Interviews and document analysis were used to get information from sampled participants. Content Analysis was used as a technique to analyse data. Findings show that school board members’ experiences in managing school finances include drafting and implementing school internal financial policies, making school budgets, keeping financial records, appointing school accountants, and signatories, appointing a finance committee, appointing a school independent auditor, and authorising any withdrawals or expenditures. The study also found that school board members were experiencing challenges in managing school finances, which included a lack of financial management skills, financial structures, and language barriers. The need to train all school board members in financial management, establish proper financial structures provide incentives, and change the formula of allocating funds to schools to mitigate challenges faced by school board members was identified. One of the overarching recommendations is for the Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture to offer training to school board members that are directly involved with school finances on regular basis at the beginning of each financial year.
Description
A research thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Education (Educational Management, Leadership, and Policy studies)
Keywords
School board members, School finances, Kavango West Region, Nzinze Circuit, Experiences, Mitigations