Abstract:
he main objective of the study was to investigate factors affecting financial resource
management in government secondary schools of Wolaita Zone. The design employed in this
study was concurrent embedded and the method employed was mixed. For this study, 265
teachers, 32 school management (6 main principals, 14 vice principals, 6 PTSA and 6 KETB), 6
cluster supervisors and 6 finance officers with a total of 309 respondents were involved as a
sample from 12 secondary schools, 2 town administration and 4 woredas. The data gathering
instruments were questionnaire, interview and document analysis. The participants of interview
were cluster supervisors and finance officers. Questionnaire was administered to teachers and
school committee members. Both primary and secondary data were collected from various
sources. The collected data were analyzed using both qualitative and quantitative methods of
data analysis. A pilot study was conducted before the main study in order to examine the
reliability and validity of the research questionnaire. The Cronbach’s alpha coefficient technique
was used to test reliability while academic scholars such as colleagues, lectures, professors in
the field were consulted to determine the content validity of the research questionnaire. The
study found that school principals’ management skills, budgetary procedures, internal control,
and school management committee were found to influence the financial resource management
in secondary schools to a great extent. The finding also indicated that the financial resource
management and utilization in secondary schools were not in the expected level as indicated by
mean value (1.99 and 2.15). The major factors identified in financial resource management in
the secondary schools were lack of experience of the school principals on budgetary control,
lack of experience of the school principals on budget preparation and lack of transparency on
financial activities for the school community. The secondary schools should include all functions
of financial resource management to better implement and maximize the gains from other
functions in order to foster the schools overall performance. School leaders had better involve
stakeholders on budget preparation and budget execution, WEO should be employed financial
personnel, WEO together with MoFED prepare financial management training program for
schools and strengthening internal and external auditing in order to reduce the challenges of
financial resource management in government secondary schools.
