COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF CASH AND INVENTORY MANAGEMENT PRACTICES OF PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN ANAMBRA STATE

Abstract

The main purpose of the study was to conduct a comparative analysis of cash and inventory management practices of public and private secondary schools in Anambra State. Two research questions guided the study and two hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. The population of this study was 867 principals of public and private secondary schools in Anambra State. This population consists of 263 principals of public secondary schools and 604 principals of private secondary schools in the six education zones of the State. The sample for the study was 434 principals of public and private secondary schools in Anambra State. This was made up of 132 public secondary school principals and 302 private secondary schools principals representing 50 percent of the population. The stratified random sampling technique was used to determine the study sample. A self-structured rating scale was used in collecting data from the respondents. The rating scale was validated by five specialists, two from the discipline of Educational Measurement and Evaluation and three from Educational Management of Faculty of Education, Imo State University, Owerri. The application of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 21 using Cronbach Alpha reliability method on the obtained data yielded a score of .84 for internal consistency which was deemed reliable for the study. Mean, standard deviation and t-test was used for data analysis. The finding of the study revealed that public and private secondary schools in Anambra State apply cash management practices. However, findings showed that public secondary school principals do not apply inventory management practices while private secondary school principals apply inventory management practices. Further findings showed that public and private secondary school principals differed in their application of cash and inventory management practices. Based on these findings, the researcher recommended among others that Government at all levels and Proprietors of private schools should ensure that secondary schools have clearly defined inventory policy in schools.