The financial management practices of head teachers, teachers and chairperson of school management committee at elementary schools in Bahanaga block, Balasore, Odisha: An analytical assessment

The development of schools relies considerably on effective financial management. Financial management is the process of maximizing the use of school resources by utilizing financial knowledge, competencies, and practices. The study has deployed stratified simple random sampling to obtain information from 41 schools out of 123 schools in the Bahanaga Block to understand the financial management capability among different stakeholders of the schools, such as head teachers, teachers, and chairpersons of the school management committee. Forty-one head teachers, 41 teachers, and 41 SMC chairpersons were among the 123 responded who completed the questionnaire. To collect information from SMC chairpersons, teachers, and head teachers, descriptive questionnaires were used as a technique along with the use of hypotheses and descriptive statistics in the analysis. The ANOVA test found no statistically significant variance between the average evaluations of head teachers, teachers, and SMC chairpersons regarding the efficacy of financial management methods in schools at the significance level of 0.05. School leaders, teachers, and SMCs should improve their financial skills in budget planning, utilization, and procurement, as well as transparency with key stakeholders, to practice efficient financial management. Head teachers, teachers, and SMCs should frequently attend training sessions to stay informed about how financial rules and regulations are pursued and applied at schools.