Influence Of Information Communication Technology Integration On Financial Management Of Public Secondary Schools In Kisii County, Kenya

Abstract

With the rapid development of ICTs in business world in developing countries, it is yet to permeate other institutional functions and in particular, financial management in educational institutions. ICT has become valuable for storing and analyzing data in school financial management which includes budgetary allocations, expenditures, students’ fees payment and general accounting. Despite the wide use of ICTs in administration and management in education institutions in Kisii County, many schools have failed to tap the potential of ICTs into financial management. The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of integration on ICT in the financial management of public secondary schools in Kisii County, Kisii County. This study sought to; asses the current status of ICT integration in financial management among public secondary schools in Kisii County, establish whether infrastructures influences integration of ICT in the financial management of public secondary schools in Kisii County, investigate whether administrator’s levels of awareness influence integration of ICT in the financial management of public secondary schools and assess the influence of capacity building on integration of ICT in the financial management of public secondary schools in Kisii Central Sub- County. The study adopts a descriptive survey design to investigate factors affecting the integration of ICT in the financial management of secondary schools in Kisii County. The target population for this study consisted of all public secondary schools in Kisii County. Purposive sampling technique was used in selecting schools that have incorporated ICT in the delivery of their management systems.The researcher intends to use two types of research instruments in this study. They include; principals’ interview schedules and questionnaires for deputy principals, computer teachers and HODs. A pilot study was conducted in three schools that were not selected for main the study. This ensured that the study gets the intended information from the questionnaires. Data was obtained from the questionnaires, observations and interviews in its original form may be difficult to interpret. Such data was cleaned, coded, entered into a computer and analyzed. The chi-square test was used to determine the relationship between independent and dependent variables. Thereafter, make conclusions and recommendations. The findings showed that school administration play a key role in integrating ICTs in managing school finances. Several factors were found to affect integration of ICTs in managing school finances. This included unavailability and inappropriate ICT infrastructure in the secondary schools; poor power supply and limited number of computers in most schools in the region. Internet connectivity was rated poorly in all the schools with some of them not having even a school email address. The administration has not fully owned ICT projects and most of the heads see it as an extra/unnecessary expense to the already constrained school budget. Lack of sufficient finances has been a challenge in most schools in Kisii County. It is recommended that for schools to successfully integrate ICTs in their financial management practices, they should set more flexible structures within which to accommodate recurrent ICT needs like breakdowns and training.