COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL RECORD MANAGEMENT AND AUDITING PRACTICES OF PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN ANAMBRA STATE

Abstract

The main purpose of the study was to conduct a comparative analysis of financial record management and auditing 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 financial management and auditing practices. Furthermore, the result revealed that public and private secondary school principals differed in their mean ratings on their application of financial record management and audit practices. The researcher therefore recommended among others that principals of public secondary schools should ensure that records of collections are made daily and ensure that there is provision impress account book.