Analysis of Disbursement and Management of the Capitation Grant to Primary Schools in Morogoro Region, Tanzania

Abstract

In Tanzania, the management of capitation grant in Government primary schools is under school committees with expectation that the capitation grant would be well managed so as to give intended outcomes. However, there are incidents of inadequate allocation and mismanagement of the grant, and little is known on the functioning of school committees in terms of their coping strategies, decisiveness and financial management skills. Hence, based on this problem, the study was conducted in Morogoro Region from August, 2014 to March 2015, and used qualitative and quantitative data to analyse management and disbursement of the grant in Government primary schools. The study found that some schools borrowed money and sent home pupils whose parents failed to contribute for their education as their coping strategies. Also most members of the school committees depended much on school heads in their capitation spending decisions. Furthermore, most school committee members were not skilled in financial management. The results demonstrate the need for allocating adequate capitation grant, improving monitoring of capitation spending and committing extra funds for training education actors in grant management at local level.

Keywords: Capitation Grant, School Committees, Financial Management Skills