The implication of finance resource management to academic performance of primary schools in Lugazi Town Council, Mukono District

Abstract

The study focused on the implication of finance resource management to academic performance of primary schools with special focus on primary schools in Lugazi Town Council, Mukono District. The study adopted a cross sectional survey research design, where data was collected at one point in time from a cross section of respondents. These included, the head teachers, teachers, and the learners (pupils) A survey design was used to collect opinions from head teachers and teachers from 10 (76%) private and 3(24%) Government aided primary schools. From these schools a random selection of 106 teachers was made while 13 head teachers were purposively sampled for the study. The researcher endeavored to carry out casual, but investigative, interactions with the pupils in the upper primary sections (P6 and P7) in the schools he visited. This was in an effort to gather more information on the study project. More private than Government- aided schools were considered because the former entirely depend on fees collection (self sponsorship) while the latter received the Government assistance in form of salaries, wedges and grants (co-funding). So the implication of finance resource management would be more manifested in private than in Government aided schools. The instruments of data collection were; structured questionnaires interview guide, discussions and document analysis, for example academic results and financial statements /records. The researcher found them more convenient because he was dealing with literate respondents. A chi-square goodness - of - fit test of significance and percentages were used to test statistical significance of the data obtained. The findings revealed that the implication of finance resource management to academic performance is significant. The process of finance resource planning, allocation, utilization and financial policies should lay emphasis on academic programs. The researcher discovered that all the stakeholders in education ought to join hands in the process of mobilizing finance resources, their planning, allocation and utilization in view of academic development in the schools. Since it has been established that finance resources play a crucial role in academic performance, the finance resource management mechanism should endeavour to apportion the resources appropriately for a desirable academic outcomes.