Practices prevent the abuse of school funds Essay

The education of students and the welfare situation of the staff are paramount issues in addressing school finance. The nature of the education cadre in high schools is an important part of the formal education of the young child who has in between the childhood and adolescent stages of human development. It is therefore important for he head teacher who is saddled with the responsibility of promoting education within the school to commit the available resources to the right channels to achieve the intended results of infrastructure development and provision of facilities to ensure continuity of education in the school. Some of the Infrastructure development- that needs be upheld include library, art and technical studios, computer rooms, music room; environmental sanitation, provision of teaching and learning aids, game centre and kits, award ceremony for staff and students In this age and time, it is needful to realize that education is a social and economic good; this implies that it is an avenue to build viable human capital which would contribute to , national economic wealth and health alongside the effective utilization of material, capital and natural resources within the environment. This economic good also contributes to individual health by establishing an individual as a positive force within the community where he resides. Although education does not preclude evil but its positive impact apparently outweighs its negatives. This issue is important because it informs the decision of the principal of head teacher of the high school about the judicial use of the funds available to him from various sources. What are these sources of funds to the high school? These include the federal allocation to public schools, the state allocation to schools within the jurisdiction. These two forms the socio-political source of funds, while there is the local source from payments by the attending students. Besides, there could also be internally generated funds from projects, programs and economic activities approved for and/or by the school. Realizing the economic good in education and the source of funding of schools are important tools that can contribute to stemming abuse of funds in schools especially high schools. While it is illegal to misuse funds for personal goals, aspirations like acquisition of political power or savings towards retirement, it is necessary for head teachers to realize the role of education in the growth and development of the adolescent child that attend high schools. If they realize the import this can have on the morals and social development of these kids, the propensity to embezzle schools funds would diminish in our schools. One of the practices that prevent abuse of funds includes fiscal accountability. Realizing that for every allocation by the government or payment by the attending students would be accounted for contribute to stopping the abuse of funds. This fiscal accountability is achieved by tracking fund though the means of revenue and expenditure track, monitoring of accounting transactions and auditing. As part of this measure, auditing is an inevitable tool; it includes internal and external audit. While the former uses local staff, the latter adopts using the appropriate institutions within the society which can rarely be influenced the caprices of a local head of high school. In any situation there is inconsistency in the tracking of the funds, which shows that there is need for more scrutiny of such heads. If this auditing can be effectively carried out at all levels of education especially at high schools, it would drastically change the shape of funding and spending within schools by their principals. Another equally important tool is Budgeting: this includes organizing financial transactions, balancing them through stipulated revenue and expenditure plan with a view to meeting staff needs, fund student activities and attain social and local goals. Organizations can incremental, use of school site, outcome-focused or tailored towards program planning. Balancing includes planning revenue and expenditure in such a way as to achieve a balance, deficit or surplus. The aim of budgeting is basically to draw a financial plan to meet specific needs. This gives rooms for identifying challenges and tackling them within the limit of available resources. A comprehensive budget would meet staffing needs which covers recruitment and selection, compensation, and continuous training and retraining on advancements in technological and teaching practices. It would also make provisions for student’s activities and embark of appropriate programs that can meet school and district missions. There would also be allocations for infrastructure development to cover construction works, architectural lay-out and provision of necessary education facilities. Such a budget would encompass all areas that need improvement within the school; when these goals are outlined and there is institutional will to meet them, it would be difficult to abuse funds. Usually available funds may not even be sufficient to meet needs driving fund-raising and capital programs for increased revenue generation. When purpose is not known, abuse is inevitable. This is the essence of the budget. Realizing the importance of good governance with respect to financial prudence on the morals of staff and students makes a leader a judicious custodian of available financial resources. Fiscal accountability through auditing by internal and external outfits dampens the propensity to divert school funds towards personal goals. Since knowledge does not preclude this evil, strict disciplinary measure meted to offenders who are convicted of this white collar crime is another practice that militates against abuse of school funds. These are measures that prevent misuse of school funds. REFERENCES Safeguarding School Funds by Henry Linn. 4th edition. †¢ Review of Educational Research, Vol. 3, No. 5, 399-408 (1933) 1933 American Educational Research Association Chapter VI: School Finance †¢ Does money matter? GT Burtless – Policy Studies Journal, 1997 †¢ Pritchett, Lant & Filmer, Deon, 1999. What education production functions really show: a positive theory of education expenditures. Economics of education review. Elsevier, vol. 18(2), pages 223-239, April. †¢ Goldhaber, Dan D. , 1996. Public and private high schools: Is school choice an answer to productivity problem. Economics of education review. Elsevier, vol. 15(2), pages 93-109, April.