Financial Administration practices in public secondary schools in the Accra metropolis

Abstract

The study was aimed at finding out the practices of financial administration in public secondary schools in the Accra Metropolis. Data were gathered using a questionnaire with an internal reliability co-efficient of 0.7147. The data collected were analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software. The findings revealed that whilst all the participating bursars had pursued diverse courses in financial administration before they were appointed, majority of heads who participated in the study had never pursued any course in financial administration prior to their appointment. The study further revealed that many of the participating schools were not able to generate enough funds to finance their work programmes. Another significant finding was that the schools could not readily spend money on capital items. They could however, readily spend money on non-capital expenditure items. Also, heads were not able to supervise the work of the bursars and other accounting staff effectively. The study therefore, recommends that prospective school heads should be encourage and supported by the Ghana Education Service to pursue courses in financial administration and management before they are substantively appointed. Moreover, schools heads should educate parents and publish the names of debtors regularly on the notice board to remind students and parents to settle debts they owe promptly to generate enough funds for the schools.