Establishing financial management tactics for school leaders in private secondary schools in the north west region of Cameroon

Abstract

The study sought to examine and establish financial management tactics, for school leaders, in private secondary schools in the North West Region of Cameroon. It examined the background to the existing challenges from a global, Africa, regional and Cameroon perspective. A convenient sampling technique was used to select the schools. Questionnaires and interviews were used to collect data for the study. Three participants from each of the twenty private secondary schools were selected to obtain relevant information for the study. The population of 60 participants included: 20 principals, 20 vice-principals and 20 school bursars, from the twenty purposively sampled private secondary schools Descriptive statistics were used to analyse the responses obtained from the participants. The findings of the study revealed that there exists financial planning framework with flaws with regards to execution, the study also revealed a lack of a procurement board that is mandated to make sure that the procurement of goods and services. The study further found that the budgets of respective schools represent the main financial planning framework around which incomes and expenditures are managed, besides auditing and reporting. The findings, however, revealed the major challenges confronting the effective financial management of the private schools including; lack of financial management skill by school leaders to effectively manage the schools’ finances, poor budgeting, irregular auditing/follow up and late disbursement of subvention by the central government. The study recommended among others that, school leaders be equipped with basic financial skills and monitoring of school finances to enhance school leader’s ability to effectively manage the finances of the schools they manage.