COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF BUDGETING PRACTICES OF PRINCIPALS FOR ENHACING FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT IN PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN ANAMBRA STATE, NIGERIA

The study compared the budgeting practices of principals for enhancing financial management in public and private secondary schools in Anambra State. Two research questions guided the study and two hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. The research design adopted for the study was descriptive survey. The population of the study comprised 762 respondents made up of 261 public and 501 private secondary school principals in Anambra State. Proportionate stratified sampling technique was utilized to draw a sample size of 534 respondents made up of 183 public and 351 private secondary school principals. The instrument titled ‘‘Principals’ Budgeting Practices for Financial Management Questionnaire (PBPFMQ)’’ was used for data collection. The instrument was validated by three experts and the Cronbach alpha statistical tool which was used to determine its reliability yielded overall coefficient value of 0.80. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions and the hypotheses were tested using t-test. The findings of the study revealed among others that the principals implement school budget to enhance financial management in public and private secondary schools in Anambra State. It was also found out that there is no significant difference in the budget evaluation practices of principals for enhancing financial management in public and private secondary schools in Anambra State Based on the findings, it was recommended among others that the Ministry of Education should recruit qualified personnel and post them to secondary schools to evaluate the school budget on regular basis such as: monthly, quarterly or annual basis.