Impact of financial management in Migori county public primary schools on pupils’ academic achievement in Kenya certificate of primary education

Abstract

Primary education is the first stage of compulsory education. It comes between the early childhood education and secondary school. Studies have revealed that teacher qualification has an influence on pupil’s academic performance. Migori County public primary schools on average have been performing poorly in the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education examinations. Looking at the examination results of Migori County 2010 to 2014 the average mean score is 240.6 lower than those of neighbouring counties of Homa-Bay 247.3 and Kisumu 260.3. This could be an indicator that there are challenges in the provision of quality basic education in public primary schools. The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of financial management on the performance by Migori County public primary pupils in Kenya Certificate of Primary Education. The objective of the study was to determine the extent to financial management in schools affects pupils’ academic achievement in public primary schools in Migori County. A conceptual framework was used to guide the study and attempt to establish a correlation between financial management and pupils’ academic achievement in public primary schools in Migori County. The study adopted descriptive survey and inferential statistics design. The study population consisted of 723 head-teachers and 16 QASO officials in Migori County. Simple random sampling procedure was used to pick 251 head teachers and saturated sampling to pick 16 QASO officers. The instruments of data collection were questionnaires and interview schedules. They were piloted by use of test retest method to determine workability research instruments and research questions. The data was analyzed using frequency counts, percentages, standard deviations, means and t-score analysis where appropriate. The data was calculated to 95% confidence level. The study’s finding was thatthe head teachers who are the financial managers in the schools have not been adequately trained to manage the finances of schools. Another finding was that the amount of funds disbursed by government is inadequate and its disbursement is also irregular. The study recommended that the government should increase the amount money disbursed per child significantly in order to enable schools have adequate funds to acquire teaching and learning resources. The findings of this study may be significant in providing information that can be used by education practitioners and stakeholders on ways of improving academic achievement of pupils in rural public primary schools.