Principals’ demographic variables and administration of school finance in Calabar Metropolis of Cross River State, Nigeria

Abstract

Finance in educational system has been seen as the major factor in the provision of educational services and products all over the world. This is because, availability and adequacy of other resources in educational system is dependent on the provision of adequate finance, hence the need for administration of school finance. This paper therefore, examined principals’ demographic variables and administration of school finance in Calabar Metropolis of Cross River State, Nigeria. A descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. Three research questions were formulated to guide this study. The population of the study comprised all the principals and vice principals, making a total of seventy-two principals in the study area. It was a census study since all the principals in the study area were used as respondents. A questionnaire was used as the instrument for this study. All the data collected were analyzed using mean and standard deviation. From the result of the analysis,  it was found that, principals with more years of experience administered school finance better than their counterpart beginners. It terms of academic qualification, principals with masters Degrees were found to have administered school finance prudently. This was followed by those by those with PGDE, B.Ed and Ph. D. With respect to family size, it was discovered that, principal with no and less family size were discovered to have been effective in administration of school finance. Based on these findings, it was recommended among others that, newly appointed or beginner principals should be well equipped with the administrative skills of and practical technique of financial management in the secondary school system.