Financial Management: Training Needs of Public Secondary School Principals in Machakos County, Kenya

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.