School Financing in Jamaica: An Exploration of the Allocation of School Resources

Education spending has increased significantly in Latin America and the Caribbean over the last few decades and Jamaica is no exception. The country has prioritized education within its policy agenda, with spending consistently above the regions average for more than 10 years. Despite these efforts, closing existing learning gaps between advantaged and disadvantaged students has remained a challenge. This study examines how resources are allocated to Jamaican schools and explores ways to promote equity through adjustments in education spending. Findings suggest that lower socio-economic schools rely mainly on public funds, while most high socio-economic schools income comes from donations from different sources, which can be used more flexibly. Such contributions are not always quantifiable or consistently described in the MOEYIs registries, which distorts the equitable allocation of public resources. Moreover, the funding formula used by the MOEYI is relatively new and no impact evaluation studies have been carried out to measure if it effectively responds to equitable education opportunities across schools. More information on schools access to and sources of resources would allow the MOEYI to determine more accurately whether the funds allocated to each school are sufficient to meet their real needs.

The survival of school financing management in COVID-19 pandemic

This study aimed to explore the survival of school financing management during the COVID-19 pandemic, to assure the quality of teaching and learning continuously. This study used a qualitative design, and data collection is carried out by observing resource persons and in-depth interviews, analysis or analysis of documentation and a combination of the three as triangulation method. The collected data were analyzed using an interactive model. The results showed that financial management strategies in managing school finances effectively and efficiently, through transparency, accountability and responsibility, are considered to have contributed to the prospects, quality, progress and sustainability of education in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. This is based on the fact that many quality and good schools eventually experience setbacks due to the lack of transparency, accountability and responsibility in the management of education funds. Openness in schools can promote accountability and fight corruption in education, if it is implemented effectively and any malpractice is dealt with clear consequences. The implication is the strategies of education financing management in terms of transparency, accountability and accountability need to be carry out consistently to ensure the improvement of school quality runs in a sustainable manner.

An Armageddon of Righteousness

Chapter 5 documents a new and transformative vision of school integration that blended Black nationalist ideals of self-determination with the goal of racially diverse and inclusive schools. Black educational activists maintained that for all of its challenges, integration was the single most effective way to guarantee equal school financing, qualified teachers, advanced courses, and adequate facilities for Black students. This chapter considers two districts where Black educational activists successfully fought for and won integrated schools: the suburban town of Montclair, New Jersey, and the city of Hartford, Connecticut. It also locates strong support for separatism in the form of Afrocentric public schools, which became popular again in the early 1990s. The struggle for northern school integration remains in flux and unresolved—but many Black educational activists continue to advocate for schools that are racially diverse and committed to nurturing and affirming Black identities in institutions with explicit restorative justice frameworks.

Manajemen Pembiayaan Pendidikan dalam Meningkatkan Mutu Pendidikan di Madrasah Aliyah Imam Muslim Serdang Bedagai

This study aims to determine the management of education financing in relation to efforts to improve the quality of education. This research is focused on the managerial head of the Aliyah Imam Muslim madrasah, Serdang Bedagai Regency. This research uses qualitative methods based on descriptive studies. Data collection techniques using observation, interviews, and documentation studies. Data analysis was performed using the Miles and Huberman model stages, namely data reduction, data presentation, and conclusion drawing. The data validity test used triangulation and member crosscheck. The results showed that the management of education financing at Madrasah Aliyah Imam Muslim Serdang Bedagai Regency has a family principle, is effective, efficient, productive, transparent and can be accounted for in accordance with existing procedures, namely the upward hierarchical pattern to the Chairman of the Foundation. In improving the quality of education, the principal is in charge of managing education as best as possible and reporting the draft budget for school financing is given to the Head of the Foundation, the head of madrasah also has the task of how to improve the quality of education in Madrasahs by coordinating every activity with peers in order to realize the quality of education through education financing management

Neoliberal stratification: The confounding effect of the school poverty quintile ranking system in South Africa

The South African school education landscape is distinctly uneven as it relates to school financing. The state’s attempt at differentiated funding via the quintile system is vaunted as an initiative to address the needs of poor schools. It parades as a commitment to a redress agenda. Since implementation, the socioeconomic demography has changed significantly for many schools. Some have experienced an exodus of fee-paying learners and an increase in poor learners residing in newly established informal settlements. There is limited understanding of the extent of the financial crises that these schools face. In this article we examine the financial management struggles of schools from low socioeconomic contexts. Eight schools in the Greater Durban area were purposively sampled and a series of in-depth interviews were conducted with school principals. The study revealed that principals were involved in constant struggles to manage their schools in the context of dire financial constraints. The advent of outsourcing of procurement is a distinct neoliberal move that relegates previously state functions to the ambit of the market. Profit-driven procurement agents systematically drain the public purse as they wilfully render services and supplies incommensurate with the charges they levy.

Funding inclusive education for equity and social justice in South African schools

The implementation of inclusive education in South African schools has resulted in more demands being placed on them to make provision for the inclusion of learners with special educational needs in mainstream classrooms. This has brought about substantial changes regarding school financing in order to cater for a diverse learner population. This generic qualitative study conducted through interviews with 9 secondary school principals from formerly disadvantaged and advantaged schools, as well as policy document analysis, investigated the current school financing practices for inclusive education in schools aimed at attaining equity and social justice. During this study data were analysed using inductive content analysis. The findings of the study suggest that although provision has been made in terms of the National Norms and Standards for School Funding policy, schools, especially those in previously disadvantaged communities, are not adequately and suitably resourced to implement inclusive education fully.

School principals’ perceptions on the diversification of school financing sources: A study using Delphi method

The study aims to identify the perceptions of the principals of public schools in Kuwait regarding the importance of diversifying the sources of school financing, the actual measures taken to increase the sources of school financing and the obstacles in the way of increasing the sources of school financing. The study uses the futures studies’ methodology through implementing Delphi method to achieve the objectives of the study. The implementation of Delphi technique is conducted in four consecutive rounds on a sample of experts in the study area consisting of 25 distinguished school principals in the educational areas, during the second semester of the academic year 2017/2018. The study concluded a number of results, the most important of which are: (1) school principals are convinced of the need to diversify school financing sources and increase its sources in light of the high prices and limited budget granted by the government for this purpose; (2) there are specific measures for increasing the support for school financing, the most important of which is to urge parents and society institutions to donate to schools in order to help fill the budget shortfall; (3) there are obstacles which face the attempts to increase the sources of school financing which are legal, regulatory and community partnership-based obstacles. The study came up with several recommendations that would contribute to diversifying school financing sources.