Budget control and monitoring challenges for school governing bodies

Abstract

This study focussed on the budget control and monitoring challenges for school governing bodies. The study engaged a qualitative in-depth research into the challenges school governing bodies experience regarding budget control and monitoring based on the fact that budget control and monitoring are dimensional tools of financial management aimed at ensuring proper financial management and accountability. The research, grounded on social constructivism and employing a phenomenological pragmatic approach for data collection was purposely and conveniently confined to town schools in the Ekurhuleni District. Data was collected using interviews with school principals, finance officers and a treasurer and Institutional Development and Support Officers. Findings from the data indicated that while there were areas where school governing bodies did well, they faced numerous challenges in budget control and monitoring. It was found that there were challenges regarding the budgeting process in so far as budget preparation, budget implementation, and budget control and monitoring. Miscellaneous challenges influencing the budget control and monitoring process found included poor financial reporting, the low level of parental literacy which seemed to influence the meaningfulness of and realistic nature of the budgeting processes and the generic, inadequate and poor training school governors were provided with. Recommendation from the study mainly concern the provision of customised, focussed and needs-based training in financial and budget management after determining the skills audit to determine training and capacity building needs of school governors, holding principal to account for financial management as ex officio members of governing bodies, reviewing the quintile classification of schools based on the poverty index and considering the backgrounds of learners at town schools, who mostly are from previously disadvantaged backgrounds and ensuring that schools report on finances in languages parents understand and linking budgeting process to schools’ educational goals.