education

1. The Importance, Definition, Challenges of
Financial Management
& Legal Issues in School Finance
ED 218
DISCUSSANT: GEREON B DE LA CRUZ JR

3. Since public education was established in the Philippines from the time
of the Americans until now, the funding of public schools has always
been shouldered mostly by the National Government as it appropriates
funds to national, provincial and municipal schools.

4. A study defined financial management as dealing with the sources of
funds, their efficient use of and minimization of cost or losses for the
profitability. This productivity is generally intended for business in ministerial
departments and post primary institutions. Similarly, it is for the enhanced
welfare of students and both the teaching and non-teaching staff.
4

5. Financial management in Schools describes the process of ensuring that school
leaders plan, organize, delegate and control the funds of the school to achieve its
goals.
School Financial Management. This pertains to the relationship between school
financial management manifested in the performance of management actions
(regulatory tasks) and the financial aspects of schools for an authority to achieve
the set goals.

6. “School principals like any leaders of any organization have
decisions to make when it comes to utilization of the funds
channeled to public schools . These decisions according to
Brigham and Houston (2012) have financial implications on the
financial management of school principals who play the most
crucial role in ensuring schools' effectiveness and performance
taking into account the day to day operations of the school.

7. “

8. • Financial Management Practices. It involves financial planning
and budgeting, financial accounting, financial analysis, financial
decision making and action.
• Financial management includes reviewing, forecasting and
building of and budget control and monitoring. These practices
refer to the capacity of a principal to manage financial resources
to help teachers work with stakeholders and practice
instructional competencies to meet the ever-changing needs of
the community in general with respect to identified
responsibilities in the context of the school.

9. Republic Act No. 9155 in the Philippines or commonly called as
Governance of Basic Education Act of 2001 mentioned how school
principals are expected to administer and manage all personnel,
physical and fiscal resources of the school.

10. RA 232 otherwise known as The Education Act of 1982 reiterates that
practice. Chapter 5, Section 34 states that “Public school shall continue to be
funded from national funds.” Generally, municipalities and barangays shall
continue to appropriate funds in their annual budgets for the operation and
maintenance of public secondary schools.

11. With the turn to the K-12 program of the Enhanced Basic Education Act
of 2013 (RA 10533) of the DepEd, after its signing into law by President
Benigno Aquino III, funding on its initial operations shall be shouldered by
the current budget of the Department of Education (still coming from the
National Government) (Presidential Communications Development and
Strategic Planning Office and PREGINET, 2013).

13. How will the national government mitigate the needs of
public schools in the Philippines whereas the country’s
combined foreign and domestic debts alone amounts to P4.712
trillion (Freedom from Debt Coalition, 2011)? Obviously, the
country needs a lot of “austerity measures” in its educational
sector to cover for the lack of funds coming from the DepEd’s
budget.

14. School Finance remains an area in need of ni
direction for three crucial reasons

15. 1.School finance systems are responsible for providing the necessary
resources to implement education policies – all education systems rely on
financing to function. Education spending is necessary, though not
sufficient, to bring about learning outcomes; it facilitates the provision of
essential inputs such as teachers, school buildings, and learning materials.
2.Governments sometimes struggle to use education resources efficiently,
although they should have a strong incentive to do so. Education
expenditure represents a large share of total public expenditure in many
countries, which often signals education as a national priority.

16. 3. The complex process of school finance involves a diverse set of actors
and stakeholders with different perspectives and motivations, but the
is rarely examined holistically. Policymakers establish education objectives
well as guidelines for their regulation and execution.

18. Challenges of Financial Management
in Schools

19. The educational reforms in the field of education posed various challenges
related to financial planning, financial reports and financial controls. Barasa
(2009) recognized that efficient management of financial resources is an
important task for school principals.

20. Most important to these tasks, according to Miriti and Wangui
(2014), the principals are expected to set the funds available to
support instructional needs of teachers and students required in
the teaching and learning process.

21. Moreover, learning achievement and engagement in all levels
which is anchored on the curriculum have been a top priority of
schools and are key areas in strategic planning.

23. Generally, schools need to operate using a conservative
approach considering the budget at hand (Theodotou, 2014).
This implies that innovative approaches may slowly be integrated
in the development of national frameworks and other related
legalities concerning curriculum.

24. The observations show that the Philippine sources of school financing are mostly from
the National Budget – which, despite its growth in the latter years with the programs put
forth by President Aquino, still falls short to fully satisfy the educational needs of Filipinos.
Education and government officials claim that this school year 2013, “public school
students can already look forward to having their own textbooks and chairs ,as there
would be a "zero backlog" in textbooks and school furniture” (Santos, 2012).

25. Experience in most public schools proves otherwise. Things really
look good however, despite the improvements still the Philippine
government falls short of the United Nations’ standard to “spend at
least six percent of the GDP on education” (Quismundo, 2012). Still
the Philippines place is on the lower levels of educational
international standards (Casauay, 2012).