Financial Resource Planning Dynamics and Performance of Upgraded Extra-County Schools to National Status in Western Kenya Counties

The assessment of secondary school success is according to the number of students they are producing to join universities and other higher learning institutions. To increase access to all pupils from primary schools to access secondary schools, the government of Kenya upgraded previously extra county schools to national status to ensure regional distribution of schools across the nation. With the upgrade, the government was required to inject funds to enable facilities expansion. Despite the upgrade, the money allocated and disbursed to schools has always been inadequate to meet the needs of students. Therefore, this demands that school management makes plans for financial mobilisation to ensure that school operations are done without interruptions. The paper looks at the financial resource planning strategies that upgraded national schools in western Kenya have in place for the purpose of improving their performance. Data was collected from eight of the upgraded schools making up the study population where principals and teachers were the respondents. A sample of 156 respondents was selected to answer research questions through interviews and questionnaires. Analysis of data was performed using quantitative and qualitative methods. SPSS facilitated quantitative data analysis. The study found out that schools experienced financial shortfall arising from inadequate capitation grants from the government and delay in payment of schools by students. To cushion themselves, schools had made several financial plans like applying for grants for infrastructure development. Further, despite schools having large tracts of land, some school management did not put into use either through growing grass for dairy farming or planting crops for subsidising school food supplies. Computed correlation statistics showed a weak correlation that existed (r=0.191 and p=0.016) between financial planning dynamics and academic performance of upgraded national schools in the western region of Kenya. The paper concludes that financial resource planning strategies had minimal effects on the academic performance of upgraded national secondary schools in Kenya Certificate of Secondary examinations. The paper recommends that there is a need for school administration to work with stakeholders to identify profitable projects that can be implemented in their school to earn income.


INTRODUCTION
Educational institutions like other organisation require adequate finances to ensure all operations are conducted well. The success or failure of any educational institution depends greatly on the availability of funds (Bua & Adzongo, 2014). Mobegi, Ondigi and Oburu (2010) noted that the issue of financial resources is crucial to the retention and the provision of quality education since it determines the quality of physical facilities, teaching and learning materials, quality of teacher motivation and teachers employed in the time of shortage. Unfortunately, allocation to the education sector on which secondary education depends has been consistently low in spite of the strategic role of the sector in the training of manpower for the development of the economy (Akindele, 2013). This requires principals of secondary schools to plan and strategize on how to raise more money to ensure programmes in schools run well.
Financial planning involves aspects of accounting that involves the overall process of identifying, measuring, recording, interpreting and communicating the results of economic activity; tracking business income and expenses and using these measurements to answer specific questions about the financial and tax status of the business which is basically a system that provides quantitative information about finances. Cole and Kelly (2011) define planning as the formalisation of what is intended to happen at some tie in the future; concerns actions taken prior to an event, typically formulating goals and objectives and then arranging for resources to be provided in order to achieve the desired outcome.
Planning leads to budgeting, which is a statement usually, expressed in financial terms, of the desired performance of an organisation (in this case a school) in the pursuit of its objectives over a specified period. A budget is an action plan for the immediate future, representing the operational and tactical end of the corporate planning chain. Cole & Kelly further states that managers responsible for carrying out budgets should participate in their formulation and should be flexible to be changed if conditions arise and budgets should be seen as a means to an end, and not an end in themselves. Barasa (2009) recognises that efficient management of financial resources is an important task for headteachers. Without adequate financial resources, institutions cannot carry out their defined tasks effectively. Money must be available to run the different departments of the school (Kaguri, Ibuathu & Thiaine, 2014). The available funds will be used to purchase the required teaching and learning apparatus such as chalks, textbooks, paying of the support staff and building and improvement of infrastructures. Nzoka and Aluko (2014) observed that although some secondary schools in Kenya had started income-generating activities, these were not very effective in supplementing the Government capitation grants through free day secondary education initiatives in the country. They found out that school facilities in some schools remained un-conducive to effective learning hence poor academic performance in examinations. This shows that there exist challenges in financial planning on running of schools around the country. This research determined the influence of financial planning dynamics on the performance of upgraded secondary schools in Western Kenya.
School management in Africa is faced with a number of challenges. While some school planning initiatives have succeeded, others have not been successful. In South Africa, Potterton and McKenzie (2014) note that after the transition from apartheid, there was much interest from different educational constituencies in finding out the characteristics of effective and improving South African schools. A number of school development, school effectiveness, and school improvement initiatives were initiated, both by the government utilising donor funding, and by non-governmental organisations. The programmes touched different aspects of school life in individual schools: school management, teacher development in subject content and teaching methodology, learner assessment, and organisational development. However, studies of school development projects in South Africa have revealed that they have not had a significant impact on teaching and learning and subsequent learners' performance (Potterton & McKenzie, 2014). Potterton and McKenzie (2014) suggest that one of the main reasons for the relative failure of these national school projects in South Africa, despite their good intentions and excellent content in many cases was the implementation of single change programmes or the lack of integration of many programmes initiated in schools. In addition, it was generally found that those schools that did make improvements in some aspects, and whose learners subsequently improved their performance, could not consistently maintain that improvement in subsequent years. Many of these projects, aside from having single change programmes, tended to be "supply-push" interventions, either focusing on inputs or on improved schools' processes and that was natural; they generally did not focus on "demand-side" and on accountability for final results. They were based on the notion that there was some input or process deficit, and that fixing that deficit would more or less automatically lead to better final results.
Kenya has three tiers of government secondary schools. The elite government schools, national schools are the most prestigious secondary schools in the country preferred by the majority of pupils who finish primary school level of education. In 2004, these eighteen single-sex boarding schools admitted approximately 3000 of the top primary school candidates from across the nation (Lucas & Mbiti, 2014). Relative to other schools, they have better facilities, offer a larger variety of subjects, and provide a higher quality peer group learning. However, with the introduction of free primary education and private school performance in Kenya Certificate of Primary Education increasing in the last twenty years, the eighteen national schools could not accommodate all learners. This led the Ministry of Education in the year 2011 to increase the national schools from 18 to 96 in order to address inequity experienced by pupils from private schools who were denied equal chance to be admitted to the prestigious 18 schools in addition to children from counties that had no national schools. This led to the upgrading of eight provincial schools in the Western region (former province) which were; Lugulu Girls, Bunyore Girls, Friends School Kamusinga, Butula Boys, Kakamega Boys, Butere Girls, Kolanya Girls and Chavakali Boys. These schools were expected to improve on performance to match the previous eighteen schools that provided the best students in Kenya National Certificate of Secondary Examinations (KCSE). Most upgraded national schools in Kenya have inadequate facilities like classrooms, workshops, and laboratories (Nyawira, 2019). UNESCO (2014) points out that few schools and colleges have access to computers, the internet and email facilities which are essential for the research and learning process. During the national conference on education and training held in Nairobi in November 2003, the issue of availability of facilities and resources in educational institutions in Kenya was debated. Technical and Vocational training institutions were cited as grossly underfunded, making it difficult for them to acquire modern and relevant learning facilities to provide quality education (UNESCO, 2014).
According to Okumbe (2011), no additional classrooms have been built to cater for the increased numbers. UNESCO (2015) reports that in most primary schools in Kenya, there is poor school infrastructure. There is also a major shortage of desks Okumbe (2011). According to UNESCO (2014), most schools in Kenya lack water and sanitation facilities Ongowo and Indoshi (2013) contend that upgraded extra county schools have inadequate sanitary facilities; they lack latrines and safe water for drinking. This is detrimental to effective learning in that it makes children vulnerable to common preventable diseases such as diarrhoea. Substantial learning time is wasted if the rate of absenteeism from these diseases is rampant. Crawford (2016) adds that there is rarely any formal leadership training and principals are appointed based on their teaching record rather than their leadership potential. Induction and support are usually limited and principals have to adopt a pragmatic approach to school management. Investing in the training of school managers would help by equipping them with the necessary skills for school planning.

Statement of the Problem
Analysis of performance data from the year 2013-2017 showed that the performance of the upgraded extra county schools to national status in the Western region has been on a downward trend compared to some extra county schools that were upgraded from the District level. This led the researcher to examine whether financial planning dynamics could have influenced the performance of the upgraded national schools in KCSE examinations.

LITERATURE REVIEW
No institution or school has ever succeeded in history without proper utilisation of its resources. Poor management of finance results in financial misappropriation, embezzlement, diversion of finance for different projects and so on. School finances are used for the day-today running of the organisation. It is of paramount importance to note that every school manager or headteacher needs to plan the school budget either termly or annually to achieve optimal school objectives and for the effective management of finance. It is solely the responsibility of the school administrator to see to it that the necessary funds regularly solicited to, meet the demands of their schools. The availability of such funds will help handle school projects, which will go a long way to enhance better learning and teaching (Bua & Adzongo, 2014).
School managers are supposed to generate funds internally to run their schools as well as ensure that funds provided by stakeholders are properly managed (Bua & Adzongo, 2014). In most cases, some principals claim they lack enough funds to run their schools, but the reality sometimes might be the manner in which the little funds available to the principal is managed hence a great management problem. The acute shortage of teaching aids and seats etc. could be determinants of the negative effects of financial management on secondary schools. Most of the roofs of the classrooms are blown off without receiving the attention of principals. Inadequate supply of instructional materials like audio-visual equipment, laboratory equipment and even standard textbooks are speculated to be instances of the effects of financial management on secondary schools. The growing interest of both the public and government on how funds provided for the implementation of secondary school programmes are managed hence making financial problems become a central issue. The public and the relevant stakeholders in education expect school principals to ensure proper management of the funds provided for the implementation of school programmes. This is because the effective and efficient implementation of any school programme depends on the proper way financial inputs are managed. Ayoti et al. (2016) noted that there is no institution that functions effectively without finances. There is a need to raise and manage funds appropriately in teaching and learning. Funds are required for purchasing of teaching materials. Uwezo (2011) points out that fee collection varies from school to school. It is noted that where collections are not enough, the state of infrastructure will be developed poorly, compromising content delivery, and this ends up putting a lot of pressure on existing resources thereby compromising the academic performance of the school. Because of the inadequacy of school funds, various schools have adopted a range of techniques of acquisition of extra funds among them being investing in Income Generating Activities (IGAs) to complement school budgets. Funds earned through IGAs are used to develop school infrastructure or/and acquisition of stationery to support learning activity (Kiveu & Mayio, 2009). A study done by Selina (2012) revealed that schools that have IGAs generate income that is used in the promotion of motivational programmes for teachers and acquisition of educational resources. Such schools end up posting better results in examinations compared to schools that do not have such arrangements. Inyanga (2015) looked at factors that hinder formulation and implementation of school strategic plans in the East Wanga Division, Mumias Sub County. The research was guided by a strategic thinking approach, which assumes that any formal plan is open to change, and refinement. This study established that most schools in East Wanga do not have strategic plans and several factors including lack of funds and knowledge embed its formulation. Notably, a significant number of stakeholders in education in East Wanga are not involved in the running and management of schools. The study concluded that strategic planning provides the big picture of where schools are, where they are going and how they are going to get there. To get there, schools require solid financial and human personnel.
Kaguri, Ibuathu and Thiaine (2014) study sought to address financial planning, reports and control challenges that need to be corrected in order to have an improved and sustainable FSE program. Data collected shows that in financial planning; budgeting is either often done in a caress fashion or not done at all with minimal involvement of education stakeholders in the budgetary process, financial reports are poorly prepared while auditing is done in an arbitrary way. The study established that 100% of the respondents responded that government subsidy funds were not remitted on time and these delays affected educational managers in carrying out their managerial roles concerning FSE. The study also established that the government funds were inadequate to meet the school needs throughout the year and the managers devised strategies to cope with the inadequacy. Olatunde and Omondi (2010) in their research found out that government financial support was also significant. The implication of this finding is that without government financial support to the schools, most of the infrastructures like classroom buildings and other learning materials may not be available for use by the students. Therefore, it is necessary that the government should increase its support both financially and materially towards supporting teaching/learning of mathematics in all schools in Kenya. Bua and Adzongo (2014) study investigated the impact of financial management on secondary school's administration in Zone A senatorial district of Benue State-Nigeria. It was found out that prompt payment of staff salaries and allowances significantly impact the management of secondary schools. More so that school fees and other revenue generated a significant impact on the provision of instructional materials in secondary schools in Zone A Senatorial District of Benue State. Ayoti et al. (2016) argued that resource utilisation is an integral part of the overall management of the school. Education in a school is explored by the provision of resources, their maximum utilisation and management. Proper management of resources enhances students' performance and achieves the educational objectives. The success or failure of any organisation, business or enterprise depends highly on proper management of human and material resources. The purpose of this study was to establish the financial determinants of management of educational resources for enhancing students' performance in secondary schools in Vihiga County. The findings of the study revealed that the inadequacy of financial resources in schools in Vihiga County had a negative impact on the acquisition of relevant and adequate educational resources and this influenced negatively on the performance of students in KCSE exams. From the study, it is concluded that procurement of resources mainly depends on fee collection, proceeds from incomegenerating activities, fundraising activities (Harambee), bursaries, donations and government subsidies which is never attained in time thereby having a negative influence on the performance of students in KCSE exams. Kiprop, Bomett and Jelimo (2015) investigated the challenges in the adoption of strategic planning in public secondary schools in Kenya and suggested mitigation strategies. The study was conducted in Nakuru Sub County. The study revealed that the adoption of strategic planning in schools was greatly hindered by leadership, resource, and policy challenges. The findings hence indicate a need for training on strategic planning and proper resource and financial management in schools to allow for continuous improvement. Kisembe and Were (2014) investigated the challenges affecting the implementation of strategic planning in the management of secondary schools in Kiambu County. The study revealed that the availability of organisational resources affects the implementation of strategic plans and the management of secondary schools in Kiambu County. The study established that school leadership plays a critical role in the implementation of strategic plans, which affects the management of secondary schools in Kiambu County. The study found that training was required for the implementation of strategic plans in order to enhance the management of secondary schools. The study also revealed that stakeholders were important in the implementation of strategic planning and management of secondary schools in Kiambu County. Ochieng and Oloka (2015) study sought to find out the factors affecting strategic management implementation practice in public secondary schools in Uriri District, Migori County, Kenya, the study established that when school managers are effectively trained on strategic planning, they facilitate a proper strategic plans implementation practice in public secondary schools. This is because they are normally given the duties to monitor the whole exercise by the school heads. Nzoka and Aluko (2014) study sought to analyse the strategies school managers apply to improve the academic performance of students in schools under free day secondary school education in Embu District, Embu County, Kenya. It was established that school managers used various strategies to improve students' academic performance.
The strategies included inconsistent monitoring of instructional processes and student assessment; subsidising government funding through free day secondary education using income-generating activities; and un-coordinated guidance and counselling programmes. Despite these efforts, the expected improved students' academic performance was not realised due largely to the fact that most school managers had not undergone management skill training. Hence, since managers who are conversant with management practices would be more worthwhile partners of the Government of Kenya in the implementation of policy, it was recommended that school managers should undergo intensive leadership training on all aspects of school management for enhanced students' academic performance to be realised.

Wanjiru (2014) investigated how the institutional factors influence the students' performance in the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) in Lari Sub
County. The study's findings were that many of the schools' Board of Management (BoM) members are not trained in financial management, the headteachers are inadequately in-serviced in financial management, many of the schools have inadequate facilities and resources and many of the teachers are not able to enhance their professional skills. The gap created in the Wanjiru study is that it looked at factors while this study looks at the relationship between financial dynamics and institutional performance of secondary schools.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The study was carried out in Western Kenya Counties; Vihiga, Bungoma, Kakamega and Busia. They are located in the western part of Kenya bordering Uganda. There are eight upgraded national schools with an estimated student population of 5,600 have 295 teachers employed by Teachers Service Commission. The study utilised a mixed-method research paradigm. The study was based on a descriptive survey research design. The design was appropriate since there was no manipulation of the independent variable in the study. The study was conducted eight in the upgraded national schools in the Western region; Lugulu Girls, Bunyore Girls, Friends School Kamusinga, Butula Boys, Kakamega Boys, Butere Girls, Kolanya Girls and Chavakali Boys. The target population for this study comprised the 8 principals and 295 teachers totalling 303 respondents which comprised 8 principals and 295 teachers. The final sample size for the study involved 170 teachers and 8 principals. The teachers were selected using systematic sampling and principals using purposive sampling.
Questionnaires, interview schedules and document analysis were used as the main instruments for data collection. The questionnaire was for teachers, interview schedule for principals and document checklist used by the researcher. Quantitative data was coded, entered and analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) Version 21. Data analysis was done using descriptive statistics; frequencies, percentages, means and standard deviation. The inferential analysis used was Karl Pearson Correlation to determine the relationship between different planning dynamics and performance of upgraded secondary schools in Western Kenya. Qualitative data was analysed using thematic content analysis.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
The objective of the study endeavoured to establish the relationship between financial dynamics and performance of upgraded national schools in Western Kenyan counties of Bungoma, Busia, Vihiga and Kakamega. The school fees in national schools are Kshs. 53,540/= (around USD 560 per year) meaning that schools do not have the power to add any fees unless directed by the Ministry of Education. To address the funding shortfall, it is expected that there have to plan on how additional money can be raised by schools to ensure full implementation of quality secondary education. At first, teachers were asked to indicate which financial dynamics practices were prevalent in their schools. The results of the analysis are illustrated in Table 1. Research results in Table 1 revealed that 74 (46.8%) of teachers strongly disagreed that their institutions had initiated incomegenerating initiatives to provide more funds for running of school activities. As part of addressing the Ministry of Education capitation grant shortfall, the upgraded national schools' board of management has not taken up initiatives of starting income-generating activities to supplement the resources that they have. This could explain the reason as to why few developments were evident in the schools that were visited by the researcher. In line with the study findings, Nzoka and Aluko (2014) established that only, half of the schools had income-generating activities and that they were practised on a small scale. This shows that as part of the planning strategy for income generation, the majority of schools have not taken this initiative. Nevertheless, some secondary schools in the county of Vihiga have been found to upscale the rate of incomegenerating ventures. Research by Ayoti et al. (2016) observed that 86.2% of teachers that their institutions had generated income from IGAs to enable them to acquire sufficient educational resources. This situation appears not to have taken root in upgraded national schools in the western region.
When asked as to whether their institution mobilised additional financial resources through fundraising initiatives to construct and expand the existing facilities, 72 (45.6%) strongly disagreed and 26 (16.5%) disagreed (see Table 1). The result shows that most of the respondents appeared to disagree (M = 2.30; SD = 1.43) with the statement that their schools regularly hold fundraising initiatives to construct and expand the existing facilities after the upgrade. The result implies that the BOM do not have the capacity for initiating such mobilisation efforts or they do not have a strategic plan that could have identified ways and means of raising additional funds to bridge the shortfall from government capitation grants to each student in each school that in most cases is usually inadequate. Nzoka and Aluko (2014) support the findings by establishing that out that few days secondary schools had alumni to help them raise funds to subsidise the free secondary education funds; thus, performance has remained poor. This shows the low level of financial resource mobilisation in schools.
Research results also showed that 93 (58.9%) of respondents strongly disagreed that their institution increased school fees to meet the demands of new national status (see Table 1). This is because the Ministry of Education has set up the fixed fee payment for all national schools across the country and therefore, school administrations have to comply with or face disciplinary action. Even in most cases, parents are usually aware of the Kshs. 53,540/= annual fee for national schools. Nevertheless, due to contingencies and emergencies, some parents are forced to make extra fees so that other budgetary areas can be facilitated upon and the majority of parents in the region always meet this with resistance. The teachers also appeared to strongly disagree (43.0%) that the money they receive from MOE is enough to facilitate the expansion and construction of new infrastructure facilities in their schools (see Table 1). Earlier, the research found out that most schools had not yet developed or expanded new structures and this could be due to this situation where the money received from the government capitation is not enough to support the expansion and construction of new facilities.
On whether their institutions regularly sought CDF support to expand their facilities to national standards, 54 (34.2%) strongly disagreed, while 42 (26.6%) disagreed (see Table 1). This implies that the majority of eight schools do not regularly (M = 2.35; SD = 1.30) apply or write funding proposals to their constituency development funds for expansion and construction of new facilities. During interviews, some principals mentioned that due to politics and corruption incidents (kickback cases), most of the schools write proposals to the CDFC committee, but they do not receive the support required. In contrast to the above results, Ayoti et al. (2016) research found out that 53.8 % of teachers reported that schools received financial support through CDF. This shows the role that CDF support can play in improving institutional performance. Therefore, failure to meet the new national standards could be also be related to the fact that some CDF committees feel that a bigger chunk of the students enrolled in such institutions do not come to their area so it would not provide adequate returns (through votes during the election) as a result of them committing development funds to such institutions. Further, the research outcomes showed that close to half 74 (46.8%) of teachers strongly disagreed that their institutions hired school facilities (when not in use and during school holidays) to add more finances to supplement recurrent and developmental votes in their annual budget.
The majority of teachers seemed to disagree with this statement from descriptive data computed (M = 2.22 and SD = 1.36) (see Table  1). The lack of hiring of school facilities and buses to individuals and organisation could also be related to policies in place within the school or a previous bad experience that could have happened before. In one case, the researcher was informed that some individuals who had hired school promises destroyed classes and halls of residents (dorms) thereby making the school administration bar such events in their school in the future. In relation to vehicles, some schools reported that their buses had been arrested by the police for operating beyond the official hours leading to a payment of huge fines. To ensure prudent use of resources, 66 (41.8%) strongly disagreed that the schools had installed financial management systems to track income and expenditure hence good financial management. This implies that incidents of fraud and corruption could be prevalent in schools as there exist no funds for audit and monitoring procedures to ensure prudent use of resources. The lack of improvement in instructional and infrastructural facilities could be due to a lack of systems in place to ensure income and expenditure balances.
In terms of budget adjustments to align with the resources that are available in schools, 61 (38.6%) strongly disagreed that budget adjustments were made (see Table 1). The research, therefore, shows that most schools do not adjust their budgets (M = 2.34; SD = 1.33) and this may affect how school programmes are run because of rigidity. The delay by the government to disburse tuition funds on time makes schools experience delays in the delivery of essential resources and materials to support quality education programmes.
On whether schools were purchasing goods and services on credit in their schools, 70 (44.3%) strongly disagreed and 33 (20.9%) disagreed (see Table 1). This shows that schools do not have a good credit record and therefore, suppliers cannot supply materials and services to schools until they are paid. In some instances, some headteachers were forced to use their own money to purchase products and services as the government money often delays. Composite values show that the level of financial dynamics in upgraded public secondary schools to the national level was low (M = 2.25; SD = 1.36). This implies low-level use of planning strategies in establishing the survival and progression of upgraded national schools.
To establish the relationship that existed between financial dynamics and performance of upgraded schools, a Karl Pearson correlation statistic was computed. The research results are given in Table 2. The result shows that there exists a weak significant positive relationship (r = 0.191, p = 0.016) between financial resource dynamics and performance of upgraded national schools in the four counties of western Kenya. The result suggests that an increase in financial dynamics would result in the performance of institutions. In line with the study results, Nzoka and Aluko (2014) results showed that financial resource mobilisation through IGAs was on a small scale and cannot subsidise the free learning funds enough to improve facilities and the good performance of students hence the performance has remained poor. In addition, Ayoti et al. (2016) established that there was a positive correlation between financial determinants of educational resources management and students' performance (r = 0.069, p = 0.044). Therefore, school administration needs to seek ways and means through which financial mobilisation can be improved for their institutional improved performance trajectory in academic and nonacademic areas.

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
The objective of the study sought to determine how financial resource dynamics influence the performance of upgraded national schools located in Kakamega, Vihiga, Bungoma and Busia counties. These schools once upgraded, required the injection of money from the national government to support various projects that were initiated. However, from the look of things when the researcher visited those schools, more than half had not proper and standard facilities that would make them classified as national schools. Financial resources are key to ensure that all areas of the schools are functioning. This is because resources (infrastructure and materials) have to be purchased and also employees have to be paid using money. Because of delay and inadequate capitation grants from the ministry, it is expected that the school administration would devise a way of mobilising more financial resources to bridge the shortfall experienced in the budget.
However, the study found out that the level of financial resource mobilisation strategies was low in the eight upgraded public high schools in the region (M = 2.24; SD = 1.36). For instance, few schools took the initiative of applying for grants for infrastructure development as it was unlikely for them to receive due to their national status. In addition, not all institutions could adjust their budget to match the current resources at their disposal and this made majority of schools commit themselves to many projects which made them unable to fulfil on time as planned. As a way of ensuring prudent use of school funds, the study discovered that measures of financial management to control pilferage were not adhered to thereby making the school unable to fulfil its obligations to suppliers. Despite having resources that could generate more income (e.g., land, buses and also dormitories), income-generating activities within those schools were limited. This explains why a weak significant positive correlation (p < 0.05) was found to be existing between financial resource mobilisation and institutional performance of upgraded national schools in the western region. In recommendations, there is a need for school administration to work with stakeholders to identify profitable projects that can be implemented in their school to earn income. Moreover, there is a need for schools to consider ensuring that their budgets are flexible to change with the financial situation of their schools. This will help them address the debt situation that is currently being experienced in most schools.