Abstract:
The study examined the financial management training needs of public secondary school
principals with the specific intent of suggesting content areas for development of effective training
programs for training of secondary school principals in order to facilitate prudent management of
financial resources in public secondary schools in Kenya. Theoretically, the study was based on
needs assessment which suggests that needs analyses should be conducted to provide data for
design and evaluation of training and training systems. The study sampled 16 public secondary
school principals in Masinga Sub-county of Machakos County, Kenya during the 2013/2014
academic year. Stratified and proportional sampling techniques were employed to select the
sample. Questionnaires and interview collected data. Mixed methods were employed to analyse
data. It was found that many secondary school principals still faced challenges in managing
financial resources of secondary schools and training of principals in financial management was
ineffective. It was concluded that the lack of motivation amongst principals and insufficient time
to attend training programs hampered provision of effective training on financial management. It
is recommended that effective financial management training programs should be developed based
on identification and analysis of their needs. Training programs should also be devolved so that
they can focus on specific training needs of principals in order to facilitate principals’ acquisition
of knowledge and skills required to improve financial management and performance of secondary
schools.
