The Interplay Between School Manager-Financial Accountability and School Performance

This paper examines the relationship between school manager-financial accountability and school performance in public secondary schools in Zambia. A quantitative approach of purposively sampled forty-six school managers from 46 secondary schools that were randomly selected using the stratified sampling technique was employed. Data collected through document review and questionnaires were analyzed by Smart PLS software, aided by the statistics package for social sciences (SPSS version 30) for further descriptive statistical and regression analysis. School manager financial-accountability assessment revealed a 75% accountability rate, while academic performance analysis of the schools stood at 74%. This is a significant positive correlation between school manager-financial accountability and school educational outcomes. Schools with financially accountable managers generally showed better results, while the opposite is true for less accountable managers. There is also evidence of effective resource utilization among financially accountable managers, where resources are efficiently allocated and decisions are data-driven and made based on prioritization of needs that benefit the school. Better-performing school managers manifested increased transparency by including parents, teachers, and the community in financial decision-making and availing these with school financial documents. This has fostered trust among stakeholders in relating to the school.