FINANCIAL RESOURCE UTILIZATION FOR QUALITY EDUCATION IN PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN DELTA STATE, NIGERIA.

Abstract

This study investigated financial resource utilization for quality education in PSS in Delta State, Nigeria. Descriptive survey research design was adopted with three research questions and two hypotheses guiding the study, 438 PSS in Delta State served as the population. A sample of 120 male principals and 99 female principals was drawn via stratified random sampling technique. Data was collected with a questionnaire entitled, “Financial Resource Utilization for Quality Education Questionnaire (FRUQEQ)”. It contained 24 items and was properly validated. Reliability test was conducted through the test retest approach. Using Pearson Product Moment Correlation Statistics a reliability index of 0.72 was established, mean scores, standard deviation and rank order were tools used to analyze the research questions while z-test was used to test the hypotheses. The results showed that financial resource available to PSS in Delta State is spent on capital and recurrent items, school expenditure is prioritized according to immediate needs and there is fiscal accountability on the use of school fund by the end of every financial year. It was found that adequate budgeting, auditing, financial accounting and accurate keeping of financial records are some of the factors that enhance efficient utilization of school fund. The study also revealed emphasis on quality inputs, quality process, output, productivity of output and serenity of learning environment as indicators of quality education. Based on these findings the researchers recommended among others a periodic training and retraining of PSS administrators on financial resource utilization and quality education delivery by the state government.