Budgeting Perceived Benefits, Challenges and Factors Considered In The Budgetary Process Of Public Secondary Schools In Nairobi County

Abstract

Educational institutions generally adhere to tenets of organization management. This principles of management enable schools to play their unique functions that comprise assurance that sound policies and objectives are formulated, procurement of resources necessary for achievement of objectives, implementation and coordination of school activities with maximum efficiency and effectiveness, influencing human resource available, integrating the school and its activities into the set up of the society and evaluation of school activities in accordance to a blue print so as to provide the necessary feedback for improvement. Inadequate planning, reporting, inspection and monitoring of resource management, has been considered as the root cause of exploitation of parents in some secondary schools. However, through effective budgeting and budgetary control process secondary school functions can be managed efficiently and effectively leading to resolution of conflict between school management and parents. The objectives of this study were to establish factors considered when undertaking a budgetary process, to determine perceived benefits and to establish challenges of budgeting by public secondary school managers. To achieve these study objectives, primary data was collected using questionnaires from 21 public secondary schools within Nairobi County. No secondary data was used in the survey. The primary data was analyzed using means, standard deviation and percentages and presented using frequency tables. Conclusions were drawn based on these descriptive statistics. The study established that secondary schools perceive budgets to be of great benefit in controlling costs, planning annual operations and for effective and efficient resources allocation. When undertaking the budget process the number of students was greatly considered since it provided a clear indication of amount of revenue likely to be generated and likely expenditure. The major challenges to the budget process were escalation of costs beyond expectation, budget implementation problems and lack of education for individuals involved in the budgeting process.