EFFECTIVENESS OF SCHOOL FINANCE COMMITTEES IN FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT OF SCHOOLS

Abstract

This study was conducted to explore the effectiveness of finance committees at schools.  Finance committees appear as an alternative to the new paradigm of educational activities. One of the purposes of this study was to make school inseparable from the participation of the community. This concept will play a role to provide a forum for parents, community, stakeholders, and entrepreneurs in school betterment. It is observed that up till now, not any finance Committees in schools have been able to play an effective role in supporting the development of education in schools. One of the important factors is that the institutional management design is not seriously empowered into an independent and professional management.

A qualitative design was selected for this study by conducting interviews of selected participants from fifteen school principals and ten finance officers in the Province of Punjab, Department of Education for data collection. The aim of the study was to explore how school finance committees are effective to improve the efficiency of the schools and how such committees can be improved to become more effective in executing their financial responsibilities and functions. A literature review exposed the conceptual framework and extract of the functional effectiveness of school finance committees leading towards the basis for empirical study. The factual study was based on Social constructive paradigm with the philosophical system with the method of investigation. Findings of the study indicated that Finance committees in schools are usually constructed according to the educational policies. effectiveness of finance committees was affected with the attitude and performance of the finance committees. Principals of the schools play a dominating role as ex-officio members in finance committees for different reasons. These reasons can be considered due to their high level of skills and knowledge about financial management as compared with the other members of finance committees. Improvement in the quality of education is an effort that never ends in Pakistan but poor budget is always a great reason of low performance in achieving educational standards.

It was found that from the planning to implementation, lake of financial resources was the main reason of weak administration in financial matters like evaluation, monitoring and implementation of financial policies. Resultantly, management of the school has to face budget deficit. Ultimately, they need virement in management of funds. Recommendations of the study address that there is dire need of capacity building of the finance committees in particular areas of utilization of funds. Monitoring, Evaluation, support, annual report, rewards and punishment of finance committees should be done regularly.