The effect of poor auditing and monitoring of school resource materials in selected primary schools of Kapiri-Mposhi district.
Date
2022-09-29
Authors
Moonga, Martin
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
The University of Zambia
Abstract
The study strived to explore the effects of poor auditing and monitoring of school resource materials particularly in the selected primary schools of Kapiri Mposhi. The study has been carried out to find measures of enhancing education standards within the system in any given country like Zambia (Nnamocha (2005:38). The objectives of the study were to: Ascertain the effects poor auditing and monitoring of school resource materials in the primary schools of Kapiri Mposhi district. The research was also to investigate the causes of poor auditing and monitoring of school resource materials in selected primary schools in Kapiri – Mposhi district. It also explored challenges faced by school managers in ensuring proper auditing and monitoring of school resource materials in selected primary schools of kapiri - mposhi district). Finally, the study suggested ways of enhancing proper auditing and monitoring of school resource materials in selected primary schools of kapiri- mposhi.
The methods of data collection included in- depth semi structured interviews and questionnaires which were used for the purpose of this study which was qualitative in approach. The study involved a total number of ten (10) schools from which 100 participants were selected of which 61 were females 39 were males. The data for the study was collected using questionnaires, interview guides.
The study however, had a number of findings from respondents on both questionnaires and interviews. The following were the findings on responses on questionnaires; Condition on the effect of poor auditing and monitoring of school resource materials in selected primary schools of kapiri mposhi district. According to the findings from the 39 males respondents, they all pointed out that auditing and monitoring is not conducted in primary schools. However, some of the respondent mentioned that, sometimes they do carry out activities simply to stock take some of the items that are in school though the exercise are not done professionally. The 61 respondents from the female side also mentioned that, auditing and monitoring of resource materials does not take place in these selected schools. What the respondents mentioned was the records of inventories which is being kept by school administrators and is being updated in once in a year.
There were 61 questionnaires that were conducted in the selected schools to both senior teachers and stores officers while 61 questionnaires and all of them sent returned answered. In most of the schools where questionnaires were, the following were the responses, most of the senior teachers were found to have served between 1-5 years in their positions and the general response was that auditing of resource materials have never happened except monitoring of staff on teaching and learning which happens not very often and monitoring of school resource materials does not take place at all. Besides, most senior teachers and stores officers mentioned that though they are mandated to take custody of these materials, it’s not their job description to audit and monitor these resource materials because their job description has nothing to do with auditing and monitoring.
To investigate the causes of poor auditing and monitoring of school resource materials in selected primary schools in Kapiri – Mposhi district: According to the findings that were collected from the respondents basing on the questionnaires from the second objective, the 61 female respondents pointed out that, the causes of poor auditing and monitoring in primary schools is because those mandated to audit and monitor have no professional understanding in this area hence a lot of ineffectiveness and incompetence’s in handling the issues. At the same time, those from the same categories of female respondents mentioned that, auditing is very involving and requires a lot of time, therefore, even if it was conducted, division of time becomes a problem since most of those involved in auditing and monitoring have other responsibilities to do besides that call.
The 39 male respondents pointed out that, storage rooms as safety places for these resource materials, becomes another issue and becomes one reason why audits are not even conducted. The respondents have further said, auditing and monitoring of resource materials in these school is difficult because staff used to undertake this activity are teachers who have other responsibilities besides auditing and monitoring. The responses from various respondents on the causes pointed out that are a result of lack of better store rooms for the safety of these materials. One of the respondents said “that, teacher in school have a habit of using these resource materials, but don’t want to be held accountable when they get missing”. This was clearly stated when highlighting particularly on the use of text books as one of the school resource materials readily available for daily use in the school. Another, example is the desks as another resource materials in the school. The respondents mentioned that, most of the desks that were received during the movement for Mult-Party Democracy (MMD) are in deplorable state and only a few are in good condition. Due to the fact that schools have become negligent in keeping these school resources materials well, audits and monitoring are never conducted to help in enhancing accountability of these materials in the schools.
Generally, the challenge was that even when these materials are audited, time and again, the areas of storage are open places perhaps in the head teacher’s office and in a number of times, children or pupils are assigned to collect these materials for their friends hence room for thieving is very high.
When some respondents were contacted for comment on the general status of auditing and monitoring as a district, the they said that, there are no audits conducted either by the DEBS office or any other external monitors as a result schools have taken it as a self supervisory venture because even if materials are getting lost, there is no one to task them for replacements. Government had from time to time supplied resource materials, but to the surprise the shortages of materials keep increasing time and again. The impact of these shortages is seen on the low reading levels in the district and the poor results which are all result from poor auditing and monitoring of the limited resources that are in place.
The findings from the data collected so far from the respondents who were responding using questionnaires were all pointing to the fact that there is negligence among the people mandated to handle these resource materials particularly the class teachers who don’t want to be held responsible over things which they use in their classrooms.
However, what prominently came out was the fact that, headtecher and their deputies do not conduct audits like the way professional auditors do, but instead they simply depend on records of the school resource materials from senior teachers and the stores officers. Instead, senior teachers and stores officers are in direct control of these resource materials. Besides the issue of negative altitude among teachers also came out prominently from headtecher in response commented that teacher in most times use these materials such desks and text books and in the event when these materials miss they only give a report to the senior teacher and cannot properly account for the materials well.
In as much as auditing and monitoring is concerned, both administrations in the various selected primary schools stated that, internal auditing takes place though not in a professional manner. Instead, those mandated just for record keeping of these school resource materials that is being used in the school. , some school actually mentioned that in a number of situations, their offices have been robbed by thieves and only targeting resource materials in school such as books and sometimes desks as well go missing suspected to be vandalized by the surrounding communities. However, all this was as a result of not having secured store rooms and lockable classes and offices.
The findings on the semi-structured interviews were conducted among the 20 head teachers and their deputies of the selected primary schools of kapiri mposhi district. The findings from these respondents stated that, schools do not conduct professional auditing and monitoring, however, in certain times, updates of school resource materials are done just for the sake of keeping inventories for schools.
To investigate the causes of poor auditing and monitoring of school resource materials in selected primary schools in Kapiri – Mposhi district. When head teachers and their deputies commented on the causes of poor auditing and monitoring, they did not accept that there is poor monitoring and auditing, instead they commented that auditing does not take place at all. The reasons to this fact were that, the activity should be handled by professional people and not just teachers or any one person who may not have an understanding on the technocracy of the area. Some female head teachers also pointed out that even if auditing and monitoring was to be carried out, time factor could still be a serious factor because the people who supposed to have handled auditing and monitoring have other responsibilities to do.
Explore challenges faced by school managers in ensuring proper auditing and monitoring of school resource materials in selected primary schools of kapiri - mposhi district)
According to the findings from the 20 head teachers and their deputies on this objective, the major challenge which they face is that understanding on the technocracy of the profession. What head teachers from the ten schools attested to be practiced is the records of inventories which still is not updated so often. However, some respondents amongst the head teachers pointed out that, even if auditing and monitoring of these materials were to be done either quarterly or per term, still the challenge of storage rooms for these resource materials could still be a serious challenge. The respondents from some schools pointed out that, some resource materials are being kept in head teachers’ offices which are still not being properly stored.
Some of the suggestions which were put across ,when trying to find ways of improving auditing and monitoring were that, the ministry of general education must be sending professional auditors and monitors to be caring out this activity and not using teachers who have other responsibilities to do.
However, the conclusions of the study were that, The conclusions from the respondents basing on the first objective tells as that, due to lucky of auditing and monitoring in the selected schools, the performance of learners in these selected primary schools are very poor and this has been proved when analyzing the literacy reading levels from these schools. The conclusions therefore, tells as that, the analysis indicates that, the high shortages of school resource materials such as text books and desks have a great impact on the performance of children in these schools hence causing low literacy reading levels in these schools.
The study has also shown that, most of this selected primary school do not conduct any audits and monitoring within their schools, hence causing no proper accountability of these school resource materials in the selected schools of kapiri Mposhi. Where respondents were given space to justify for their augments, the stores officers and senior teachers commented that, when these members of staff become inquisitive on matters of audit and monitoring of these school resource materials, their fellow teachers raise serious conflicts indicating that, they are being accused of causing the shortages of these school resource materials and that they are behind the miss management of these school resources materials in these selected primary schools kapiri mposhi district.
The general responses from both head teachers on responses from interviews from stores and senior teachers all pointed out to the fact that, there is poor record keeping of these resource materials by class teachers and to some extent, the blame was also given to the senior teachers as custodians of these materials and not the stores officers.:
In line with the second objective, the conclusions are to investigate the causes of poor auditing and monitoring of resource materials in the selected primary schools of kapiri mposhi district.
The conclusions in line with the our findings on the major causes of this poor auditing and monitoring are that, sometimes the year ends without making a stock talking of the school resource materials in school. The general response from stores officers and senior teachers all indicated that most school management addresses the issues of accountability of school resource materials in their school s, although not done on regular basis.
We have also concluded that, since the people mandated to audit and monitor these resources have no trade in this professional, auditing and monitoring becomes inefficient in the way matters of auditing are being handled. Besides, these members of staff also do not have any professional understanding of how to use a stock control register to help them account well on their school resource materials. The aspect of time has also been concluded that, since these members of staff mandated to audit the materials have other duties besides auditing and monitoring, division of time becomes an issue. The conclusion therefore, is that, since these mandated to audit and monitor are teachers who have other job description, undertaking other responsibilities becomes difficulty hence causing poor auditing and monitoring of these resource materials..
In line with the third objective which explores challenges faced by school managers in ensuring proper auditing and monitoring of school resource materials in the selected primary school of kapiri mposhi district. According to the responses, from the school managers from various selected primary schools, we have concluded that, the major challenges faced by these schools is the understanding on what exactly is supposed to be done regarding auditing and monitoring of school resource materials.
As a result of this, most of the schools where research was conducted indicated that audits and monitoring are rarely done in these schools except conducting usual recordings of school inventories which is not even updated. The school managers face challenges of not having proper store rooms for safety of these materials. At the same time, division of time for conducting theses audits and monitoring becomes another issue. Most of the participants indicated that audits and monitoring of resource materials in schools are not done by both management and external auditors and monitors.
In the final conclusion on the forth objective where we suggest ways of enhancing proper auditing and monitoring of these school resource materials in the selected primary schools of kapiri – mposhi district.
Auditing and Monitoring are subjects that need to be handled by a professionals and besides their duty needs to be conducted by technocrats, , The office of the ministry of general education, therefore, must ensure that, schools are helped with the audits of these school resource materials by auditors from auditor’s general office and not just internal auditing by schools themselves. At the same time, schools must be inducted on how to do internal auditing perhaps by district accountants so that proper records are well kept in these schools with regards to school resource materials.
The study however, made some recommendations such as; basing on the findings and conclusions of the study, the following are the recommendations;
The schools must introduce deliberate audits and monitory of school resource materials in primary schools the members of staff so that it becomes routine and easier for enhancing accountability. The school must be inducted on the use of stock control registers in each besides the inventory must be stuck on each classroom for easy accountability for the whole class.
The provision of motivational trends must be provided in terms of incentives to those given responsibility to audit and monitor school resource materials. The issue of sensitizing the entire staff on matters of how best schools should be helped to maintain audit and monitoring activities and perhaps create barcodes that will help in giving access to account for the missing stocks using modern technologies of computers in schools.
Management must assure that they introduce an audit and monitory stock control register in each class besides what the inventory for the whole class. .
Qualified people such as auditors from Auditor’s General office should handle these matters and not teachers or administrators within schools.
The issue of sensitizing the entire staff on matters of how best schools should be helped to maintain audit and monitoring activities and perhaps create barcodes that will help to account for the missing stock in the school. .
Following these findings, the study recommends that the government should provide motivational incentives to teachers who are given extra activities or sends qualified auditors to ensure that credible accountability is done in schools. It is seemingly noticed that public resources are not being used appropriately schools and yet the priorities of governments are being implemented on the supply of these materials to improve quality education However, research studies have found that, fraud mis-appropriation of resources is growing at a very alarming rate. Without the government and its wings to take serious measures to control these vices, then our schools will keep on deteriorating in terms of performances due to the shortages of resource materials particularly in primary schools.
Recommendations were that members of staff must be well informed in matters of auditing and monitoring of resource materials in schools. The impact of education investments in developing and transition countries are typically measured by inputs and outputs. Missing from the education agenda could be consistent measures of performance that reflect whether education systems are meeting their objectives in terms delivery of resource materials to enhance quality education This auditing and monitoring of resource material serves as an entry point to raising institutional performance in the delivery of education services primary schools. Crucial to the provision of these material are the low performance, standards, information, incentives and accountability to be provided by the staff mandated to offer checks and balances in the confines of the provision of quality education through ensuring that these materials are guarded jealously and managed very well by schools.
The study revealed that indeed there is scanty auditing and monitoring of resource materials under taken in schools in the selected schools of kapiri mposhi district. The findings also revealed that a negative altitude regarding auditing and monitoring of these materials hence are causing poor effect on the learners’ academic performance. In addition, the findings highlighted the need for teachers and administrators mandated to audit and monitor school resource materials to be very vigilant and perhaps take responsibility in ensuring that there is accountability and responsibility as well as ownership to the resources that are being used in schools.
Description
Thesis
Keywords
Auditing and monitoring--School resource materials.