Ideally, schools are in urgent need of more money to stay afloat. For projects and programmes can come to a grinding halt due to continuous cash crunch. Schools are always caught up in headwinds when in financial doldrums. Through it all, there are always suppliers and service-providers to be paid for the delivery of essential products and services in school. Then, there are BoM teachers and non-teaching staff (NTS) whose livelihoods are tied to the apron strings of school coffers. At the tail-end of the month, they expect some emolument. For they live, survive and thrive on such sources of funds.
No wonder the Board of Management (BoM) and Head of Institution (HoI) must ensure that the school has multiple avenues of generating a sufficient amount of revenue so as to make the school a going concern. The onus is on the BoM to ensure that they set stupendous strategies for mobilising more resources. More so, getting more moolah to bankroll school projects and programmes.
Wise Use of Important Management Documents
Actually, visionary HoIs and BoMs ensure that they formulate important management documents that can assist them in mobilising more resources to support school projects and programmes. There is a dire need to write and review the lustrum (5-year) Strategic Plan, complemented by the School Infrastructure Development Plan (SIDP), complete and replete with Annual Work Plans (AWPs).
Consequently, carefully-crafted Strategic Plans assist schools to raise revenue and mobilise more resources. For that, the management document has specific sections focusing on such important matters. In a chapter titled Strategic Framework, the sub-topic of Financial Analysis explains three things: (1) Sources of funds, (2) bank accounts run by the school, and (3) procurement process, which is open tendering.
Withal, there is the sub-topic focusing on Prioritised Projects, which points out specific projects, costs, and possible sources of funding. Then, towards the conclusion of the Strategic Plan, there is a chapter on Implementation Budget Projection cascading to these four focal areas: (1) Strategic action or projects, (2) cost estimates, (3) year of action, and (4) sources of funds.
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Advisably, once the school has a well-thought-out project to venture into, it is right to write business plans, targeting potential financiers out there. Likewise, schools can write letters of request to solicit robust support. Therefore, you understand the real reason school management and administration should be a confluence of men and women who are smart, strategic and visionary in nature.
More importantly, how can schools raise reasonable revenue? In the policy document titled Guidelines for Implementation of Senior School Education, Chapter 7 titled Financial and Procurement Management discusses Sources of Revenue in Senior Schools.
Government Grants and Capitation
It is instructive to note. Government of Kenya (GoK), through implementation of Free Day Secondary Education (FDSE), doles out spondulicks (spondulix) each learner to cover part of the school’s operational costs, which include: Tuition fees, learning materials and other essential resources. Then, Infrastructure Development Grants may occasionally be provided to eligible Schools to improve infrastructure and other important projects. There is also the National Government Constituency Development Fund (NG-CDF) under the patronage of the area Member of Parliament, who can support some school projects.
School Fees and Levies
Then, school fees defrayed by parents to cover additional school expenses include: Boarding fees, where parents contribute to the cost of accommodation, meals and other related expenses. There are approved Development Fees where parents contribute to the development of certain infrastructure facilities in the school projects. Likewise, lunches that are provided voluntarily in day Senior Schools, where concerned parents contribute to the provision of lunches to their children.
In plenary sessions of Prize-Giving Days, Annual General Meetings (AGMs) and Class Academic Clinics, members of the Parents’ Association (PAs) can also mobilise, sensitise and convince parents to remit reasonable levies to go into extra-mile academic programmes. As part of Parental Empowerment and Engagement (PE&E), such progressive initiatives also achieve success when HoIs are good at scouting for, and inviting persuasive public speakers who wield a cache of experience in educating and rallying parents to support school projects and programmes.
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Income-Generating Activities (IGAs)
Furthermore, schools can generate reasonable revenue internally by engaging in income-generating activities (IGAs) such as: Schools with adequate tracts of land can venture into farm or agriculture projects, such as poultry keeping, farming, livestock production, et cetera. Then, schools can generate income through enterprises such as canteens. They can hire out school facilities such as tents, school buses and vans. During holidays, schools can generate some doit amount of revenue by hosting social activities in their fields and halls.
External Support and Donations
Finally, schools can receive robust support in the form of monetary contributions or donations of facilities such as computers, from different sources. For instance, HoIs should ensure that they mobilise alumni or alumnae to support the school. With proper sensitisation and mobilisation on the integral role of alumni in schools, they can support school projects and programmes. Alumni can champion for charity for needy students and establish puissant mentorship programmes.
Then, through wise use of Strategic Plans, School Infrastructure Development Plans, Annual Work Plans (AWPs), Budgets and well-written request letters, HoIs can solicit support from the school-centred philanthropists, well-wishers, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), school sponsor or, Church, Faith-Based Organisations, international organisations, donor programmes.
By Victor Ochieng’
Victor Ochieng’ assists schools to write and review lustrum (5-year) Strategic Plans. vochieng.90@gmail.com. 0704420232
