Unit 3 Mobilising Financial Resources

Introduction
In the implementation of any educational plan, programme or project, it is important that the necessary resources are available. There are four main types of resources which can be mobilised. These are human, material, time and financial resources. This unit will deal specifically with financial resources and how they can be mobilised.

Once the needs for human and material resources have been identified, estimates of the amount of financing required to deploy and use these resources effectively should be worked out. In Unit 1 sources of school funds were identified. They include the government, parents and the community, as well as the school itself through finance generating projects. Mobilisation of any of these sources involves sensitisation, education, justification for the activities to be done and a plan for achieving the objectives. This unit considers the availability of finance, budgetary prioritisation in a school, the distribution and use of financial resources.

Comments
You may have listed the inequalities mentioned in the first paragraph of this section or others. Inequalities may arise when more importance is given to preferred levels of education. E.g. primary rather than secondary or between boarding and day or within a given school when more importance is given to examination classes than to lower classes.

Activity 3.3
1) Give reasons why financial resources for education are limited.
2) What are the conditions that can ensure the satisfactory use of financial resources?

Comments
Considering the number of sectors sharing the national revenue, education gets a relatively large share in countries where learning is a priority for national development. Guyana would be included in this group of countries. However, the overall Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is relatively small due to Guyana’s small population and large land mass covered in untouched rainforest. GDP is the total production of goods and services producing revenue in a country. As such, the overall government budget is small and the education budget is small pro rata. Among the necessary conditions for the satisfactory use of resources can be included:

the capacity to use available funds
the provision of funds in time
the proper accounting for expenditure based on priorities.udgetary sources of financing.

However, when considering the issues in this unit, remember that you must measure gains against the efforts made to achieve them. One must also ensure that the core purpose of the school – teaching and learning – is not devalued by our efforts to mobilise funds. It is a fine balance but essential to be aware of it.

Individual study time: 4 hours

Learning outcomes
By the end of this unit you should be able to:

§ mobilise available finance
organise financial resources based on the budgetary priorities set within the school
§ demonstrate skills of distribution and the use of school financial resources by budget items
describe how to make provisions for additional sources of finance for school projects and programmes.

Financing availability
Financing availability may be described as the percentage of public expendi­ture given to education. In the case of an individual school, financing avail­ability can be considered as a percentage of education expenditure on the appropriate sector. Although it is not essential that a Headteacher is fully conversant with overall government spending policy, it helps if he / she has a broad idea of “the big picture” to locate the school within it. The examples below illustrate how financing availability can be determined.

To view this diagram you will need to look at the PDF version by going to the sidebar on the right.

Therefore, the financing availability for education is the percentage of government expenditure allocated to education. The financial availability for an individual school is the percentage of the total education budget that is allocated to that individual school.

In order to calculate this, work out the total amount of money available to the individual school by multiplying the enrolment by the capitation grant for each pupil. Then find what percentage this amount is of the total expenditure on schools generally. This calculation can be done as a percentage of the following:-

The total government expenditure
The government expenditure on education
The expenditure on a particular level – secondary, primary or nursery
The expenditure on a region.

Although increasing steadily, Guyana still has low financing availability and because of this, government and communities need to mobilise additional financial resources. It should be noted that mobilisation of financial resources for education is strongly affected by changes at both the national government level and education sector level. Readjustments in expenditure from, for example, defence spending might be diverted to education. Often, priorities are directed to providing the infrastructure (such as roads, electricity and water) to support economic development. However, the balance of argument in the early 21st century is now back in favour of additional funding for education, particularly for basic education (literacy and numeracy) and for disadvantaged groups, such as those living in rural areas, and children with special educational needs. Since the year 2000 countries, including Guyana, have concerned themselves, often with the help of other nations, with achieving the Millennium Development Goals. Guyana is well advanced in the educational area of “Universal Primary Education”. Schools should take note of this and, as far as possible, adjust their plans or projects accordingly. School heads should try to ensure that they are receiving a fair allocation of funds, particularly those from government sources. This is why it is important to keep an eye on your school’s financial availability both within the sector and the region.

Budgetary prioritisation in a school
Because an institution's financing availability might not meet all its educational requirements priorities have to be set. Educational planners, including school heads, seek to channel resources to the educational activities which will have the greatest impact and are likely to be able to solve educational problems. Prioritisation involves putting first things first, that is, deciding on the activities that must be done before others are carried out. When a country defines its priorities in accordance with an overall development policy it has more chances for mobilising resources for education.

Likewise the head of a school should arrange developmental activities in order of importance, so that funds may then be allocated.

Activity 3.1
1) List all the activities or items on which you would like to spend money in the next financial year. Set yourself a limit of ten items and make sure the items are realistic!
2) Rearrange them in order of priority

Comments
There is a wide range of activities or items which you might have identified, for example, purchase of teaching materials, stationery, furniture, practical and extra curricular equipment; construction of a classroom block, a library, repair of a leaking roof, painting of a dormitory, purchasing a pick up for school transport; installation of internet, purchase of audio visual equipment etc. Considering the importance of each item you should be able individually or in a group to prioritise the items.

Prioritising may mean having to make hard choices. Clearly the leaking roof must come before a library, since it is necessary to stop more damage being done. Some decisions relate to direct improvements in the teaching and learning environment, whilst others are more to do with personnel and welfare matters. Thus would money spent on school transport be more beneficial than building a library room? How about balancing say, four less expensive things against one more expensive item? Perhaps you suggested in your answer that you might concentrate on different types of things from one year to the next; so this year you could target one more expensive item and next year give something to each area.

In all of this, however, it is important that your priorities form part of the School Improvement Plan (SIP) and that everything can be traced either directly or indirectly to an improvement in the quality of education and a more effective school in terms of teaching and learning.

Activity 3.2
As the head of a new primary school you plan is to establish a computer suite in order to expose the children to 21st century technology

1) List the hardware and software that will be required (you need not go into too much technical detail)
2) Outline the estimated costs for building or refurbishment
3) Identify the costs for technical support
4) Arrange the activities in order of priority to facilitate the mobilisation of resources.

Do not concern yourself too much with exact prices but identify the process that you will have to follow to achieve your goals.

Comments
Unless you are well versed and trained in Information technology, we assume that you will have sought help in this answer. We cannot expect to know everything ourselves but accept that many persons have different skills. However you have tackled this, you should have identified a logical progression of activities from original costings to implementation with children in the ICT suite. You will have reached a total cost which will enable you to make decisions about how you will raise the funds and whether the activity will need to be spread over several years.

Distribution and use of school financial resources
In general, financial resources are scarce and this scarcity can be made worse by the inappropriate distribution or misuse of such resources. It is, therefore, necessary to rationalise all expenditures. This can be achieved by drawing up proper criteria for resource distribution and thus to reduce imbalances. Inequalities frequently exist in the sharing out of resources committed for education. One such inequality is the way that resources are distributed between urban and rural schools. Normally the urban schools are advantaged while the rural schools become marginal in matters of education and other social services. Another inequality occurs when the resources allocated have high administrative costs which limit implementa­tion of projects. In Guyana, the cost of distribution and the sheer difficulty of some of the terrain often mean that rural and hinterland areas are the least served with resources in material, personnel and financial terms. Even when there is a political will of equality as in Guyana, sometimes these difficulties can seem overwhelming.

From the national point of view the distribution of financial resources for the education sector is affected by pressure from other sectors for which there seems to be greater justification regarding the distribution of funds. It is true that in the education sector significant results are reached only in the medium or long‑term while in other sectors they are realised in the short­ term and often with greater efficiency.

It is important to note that often the good use of financial resources is limited by administrative problems. Utilisation is satisfactory when:

the allocation of funds takes account of the activities to be carried out
there is the capacity to use the funds committed
resources are provided in time
expenditure is properly accounted for and is according to priorities.

For example, an issue in Guyana is the availability of qualified personnel at all levels because of the migration of Guyanese residents, sometimes known as the “brain drain”. The government may allocate, for example GY$60 million for curriculum specialists but, if they are not available, progress will not be made. Hence, the need for capacity building.

Consider two factors that cause inequality in the distribution of financial resources

Comments
You may have listed the inequalities mentioned in the first paragraph of this section or others. Inequalities may arise when more importance is given to preferred levels of education. E.g. primary rather than secondary or between boarding and day or within a given school when more importance is given to examination classes than to lower classes.

Activity 3.3
1) Give reasons why financial resources for education are limited.
2) What are the conditions that can ensure the satisfactory use of financial resources?

Comments
Considering the number of sectors sharing the national revenue, education gets a relatively large share in countries where learning is a priority for national development. Guyana would be included in this group of countries. However, the overall Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is relatively small due to Guyana’s small population and large land mass covered in untouched rainforest. GDP is the total production of goods and services producing revenue in a country. As such, the overall government budget is small and the education budget is small pro rata. Among the necessary conditions for the satisfactory use of resources can be included:

the capacity to use available funds
the provision of funds in time
the proper accounting for expenditure based on priorities.

Possible extra‑budgetary sources of finance
Most of the financial resources for the different levels and types of education are provided by the public sector. In Guyana, while government contributes most of the educational requirements, there has to be a constant search for other sources of finance. Parents have played a big role in meeting the largest part of educa­tion costs.

In education systems the most important component is personnel since the sector makes intensive use of human resources. In other words, the running or recurrent costs reach much higher levels than investments. Among extra‑budgetary sources the contributions which the parents and the community can make constitute an important supplementary way of mobil­ising financial resources allocated to education.

This particularly applies to those parents who choose to have their children educated privately. They pay twice for education in that they pay fees and also local and government taxes to pay for state controlled schools. They only benefit indirectly from this in others’ education providing them with services. At present, if all children in the country were educated in state controlled schools the education budget and financial availability would have to be much larger than at present putting a severe strain on the system. This situation also applies in many other countries and is not unique to Guyana.

Resources mobilisation strategy
In order to gain extra resources for education, a strategy is needed, which may involve the following aspects:

To increase financial resources for education, account should be taken of the fact that it is important to improve the lot of disadvantaged groups in the population since they provide continuing examples of social inequalities.

Additional resources need to be sought to supplement the normal budget coming from the Ministry of Education, taking into account each school's characteristics.
It can sometimes be difficult to convince the providers of such sources of funding that they should invest in education because the economic gains are not immediate.
Extra resources should be sought to reduce unit costs and improve the implementation of plans or projects.

It is often staffing costs which increase the burden of any project or plan.

It is difficult to find additional sources of financing, given the great variety of sources already used in Guyana. Currently the country benefits from many financial and charitable sources from NGOs such as VSO, Peace Corps, Every Child Guyana and Educare amongst many to international organisations such as UNESCO and UNICEF. Many resources derive from other countries where there are particular good relations such as Canada and the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). This Education Management Programme is funded through GBET which means "Improving Guyana Basic Education Teacher Training Project." It is funded by CIDA which is sponsored by the Canadian Government. On the other hand long term loans for major projects with favourable rates are often used. There are many partnerships such as BEAMS which was funded by the Inter-American Development Bank . IDB was established with headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States, in 1959 to support Latin American and Caribbean economic and social development and regional integration by lending mainly to governments and government agencies, including state corporations.

At school level, here are a variety of ways of mobilising financial resources which are commonly used. Some of these have already been mentioned in Unit 1. They include the following:

Fund raising functions: these may involve activities like raffles, drama, concerts, charity walks, collecting various items and auctioning them, cash donations.
Contributions or donations by private companies.
Special grants by government for specific activities.
Sales of school products.

Activity 3.4
1) Examine the various ways of mobilising financial resources and determine which one of them gives the best returns.
2) What are the risks for each of them?
3) Can you mention any other ways you consider important but which have been omitted?

In this unit you have been able to learn a number of concepts or ideas concerning mobilisation of financial resources. These can be summarised as follows:

The main types of resources are human, material, time and financial resources. These need to be mobilised to facilitate implementation of school plans, programmes or projects.
To mobilise financial resources one must consider the financing avail­ability, which is the percentage of the public expenditure given to education or, in case of a school, it is the percentage of the education sector expenditure given to that school.

Budgetary prioritisation is the arrangement of items or activities in order of importance and allocating money which will facilitate their execution. Often there are inequalities which arise in the distribution of financial resources nationally as well as at the school level. Great care must be taken in distribution of the available funds.

All budgetary plans must be related to your School Improvement Plan which will identify need, express developments in teaching and learning strategies and be the overall school document which identifies priorities for improved school effectiveness.

As the financing availability is extremely small, a search for extra budgetary sources of financing educational activities has to be carried out.

Various mobilisation strategies should be used to obtain the necessary funds in order to implement the school plans.