Advanced Diploma in School Financial Management

Purpose:

• The purpose of the qualification is to strengthen and enhance an existing skill in support of teaching and learning in education. The qualification offers intellectual enrichment, intensive and focused specialisation, which meets the requirements of a specific niche in education, for example in the case of new roles such as school leadership and management.

School Financial Management will provide learners with a deep and systemic understanding of current thinking, practice and theory in the area of School Financial Management. The qualification is targeted primarily at School Management Team (SMT) members who have management experience and who are current, or aspirant school principals. Financial management is fundamental to the efficient and effective use of finances in schools.

School Managers are often assumed to have financial management skills in which they were not formally trained, ranging from capital budgeting to cash flow analysis. The qualification is specifically intended to assist school and education district managers with obtaining these skills so that they may function in practical finance and accounting capacities. These skills are especially important since most managerial decisions have financial implications, which can have severe consequences should school managers not have a general understanding of an organization's finances.

The qualification will introduce learners to financial terms such as corporate finance, financial planning, budgeting, procurement, and finance decisions. The qualification will enable learners to be competent school financial managers. This qualification presents a practical guide to learners who are practicing or aspiring school financial practitioners/managers. The qualification aims at equipping learners with the requisite financial knowledge and skills essential for managing school finances and with financial tools ready for immediate application in their work environments. It is tailor-made for all those who aspire to be or are involved in school finances including education officials, members of governing bodies, principals, and staff members.

Upon completion of the qualification, qualifying learners will be able to:

1. Promote and develop dispositions and competencies to organize school finances among a diverse range of educators in diverse contexts.
2. Deepen their knowledge and understanding of financial issues and concepts to help society and the economy at large.
3. Cultivate a practical understanding of a diverse range of South African schools, concerning School Financial Management.
4. Foster self-reflexivity and self-understanding.
5. Nurture commitment to the ideals of the teaching profession and an understanding of teaching as a profession generally and School Financial Management in particular.

Rationale:

• All South African schools are granted Section 21 status which requires management of their own finances. The Department of Basic Education (DBE) and education stakeholders raised a concern that school managers lack school financial management skills. The qualification aims to provide school managers with financial management knowledge and skills. This qualification seeks to strengthen and enhance professionally qualified teachers who wish to become school managers. It will also contribute to the development of school managers and leaders by equipping them with relevant knowledge, digital learning and basic research skills as well as School Financial Management competencies.

The qualification will further provide intellectual enrichment, intensive and focused as well as applied competence in School Financial Management. It will serve as a route for the learners who wish to pursue postgraduate studies such as a Postgraduate Diploma in Education or a Bachelor of Education Honours. All decisions in schools and education districts have financial implications, but many managers, who might be highly skilled within their specific disciplines, might lack the financial literacy required to perform at an optimum level.

This qualification has been designed to provide middle and senior managers in schools and those who are office-based in schools and education districts with knowledge and skills in budgeting, financial statement analysis and cash flow analysis, to function effectively in those areas of accounting and finance that are encountered daily in schools and education districts. It will provide learners with an understanding of the impact of making appropriate financial decisions in the best interest of the school.

The qualification will provide teachers with opportunities to strengthen or supplement existing roles or develop new specializations or interests to improve their financial management capacity. The qualification will not only contribute to the satisfaction of the national needs to empower/enable educators, education leaders and managers to develop the financial skills and knowledge needed to lead and manage schools but also to contribute to improving the delivery of quality education to all learners thereby making the schools and education districts more effective in producing top results.

This qualification will not only benefit the region but South African education as a whole in terms of financial management skills development. More educators, with postgraduate education at the level of an Advanced Diploma, are needed to provide education policy developers and managers. The qualification will provide teachers with opportunities to strengthen or supplement existing financial management roles or develop new ones to improve their capacity to engage in School Financial Management.

The qualification has been designed and developed taking into account the requirement of Knowledge Mix as per the Policy on Minimum Requirements for Teacher Education Qualifications (MRTEQ) Guidelines; Government Gazette, 19 February 2015). The qualification is responsive to the envisaged learner and stakeholder needs as well as to local, regional and national development priorities in terms of the modules/courses that it will offer. It is geared towards equipping educators/managers/leaders in the education sector with relevant financial knowledge, skills and competencies of the highest quality.

Once graduates are employed, the qualification will benefit schools and communities. Due to the advanced knowledge and research skills that the qualification will offer, learning and teaching, as well as the development of educational policies related to School Financial Management, will be enhanced. The qualification will ensure competencies that are responsive to the needs of the learners, society, the economy and the region.

The qualification will provide clear key performance areas for school and educational leaders and managers that will set out what is required of them in terms of school financial management. Principals working with school management teams (SMTs), school governing bodies (SGBs), representative council of learners (RCLs) and wider communities will effectively manage school finances, support and promote the best quality teaching and learning, the purpose of which is to enable learners to attain the highest levels of achievement for their own good, the good of their community and the good of the country.

The Department of Basic Education South African Standards for Principalship (18 March 2016) were consulted in the development of the qualification. The qualification has included the following standards and learning outcomes in the curriculum to improve the professional standards of School Financial Managers for the benefit of learners and the quality of education as a whole.

1. Procedures for the effective and equitable allocation and deployment of human, financial and physical resources and all other assets, including procurement processes, in pursuit of the school's educational priorities.
2. Procedures and good practice for the acquisition, maintenance and management of all school assets.
3. Informed decision-making.
4. Financial and budgetary planning and management, including the means of more specific supplementary income generation with the strategic financial and budgetary plans.
5. Manage the school's financial and material resources and all assets efficiently and effectively following departmental and SGB policies to achieve educational priorities and goals.

Embedded in the leadership and management of the school are core societal, educational and professional values which are reflected in the way leaders and managers should deal with all matters pertaining to school financial management. These values, inform the core purpose of school leadership and, together with financial knowledge and skills, shape the nature and direction of leadership and management in schools.