PRINCIPALS’ FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT PRACTICES AND EFFECTIVE SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION IN PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN ANAMBRA STATE

Abstract

The study examined Relationship between principals’ financial management practices and effective school administration in Public Secondary Schools in Anambra State. Five research questions and five null hypotheses guided the study. The study adopted a correlational research design. The population of the study comprised of 266 principals in the 266 public secondary schools in the six Education Zones in the State as recorded by the Post Primary Schools Service Commission (PPSSC), Awka. The sample of this study comprised all the population of 266 principals in the 266 public secondary schools in the six Education Zones in the State. This study adopted the whole population as sample since it is manageable for the study. The instruments for data collection were two questionnaires structured by the researcher titled “Principals Financial Management Practices Questionnaires (PFMPQ)” and “Effective School Administration Questionnaires (ESAQ). The instruments were subjected to face and construct validity by three experts, two from Educational Management and one from Educational Measurement and Evaluation, all from Faculty of Education, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University, Igbariam Campus, Anambra State.  The reliability of the instruments were established using Cronbach’s Alpha to find the reliability and it yielded the average reliability coefficient value of 0.86 for Principals’ Financial Management Questionnaire (PFMPQ) and 0.87. For Effective School Administration Questionnaire (ESAQ) which indicated a positive and high reliability, therefore the instruments were considered reliable and adequate for the study. The researcher visited the sampled schools with the aid of five briefed research-assistants state total received and the percentage. The research questions were answered using Pearson product moment correlation coefficient while the hypotheses were tested at .05 level of significance using test of significance of Pearson product moment correlation coefficient. After the analysis the following findings were made; that there exist, a moderate positive and a significance relationship between financial record management a strong positive and a significance relationship between utilization of fund. Based on the findings, the study recommended among others that the Government should provide equipment that would ensure that school financial records are properly stored, preserved and disposed to achieve best approach in financial records management. Also, school administrations should use ICT for recording school information for better school management in order to keep schools’ financial information update. The implications of the study, limitations and suggestion for further studies were highlighted.