EDUCATION BUDGET PLANNING

EDUCATION BUDGET PLANNING A. Definition of Budget A budget is a plan of expenditures and income for a certain period of time during a one-year period. A budget is a written plan regarding the activities of an organization that is expressed quantitatively for a certain period of time and is generally expressed in monetary units, but can also be expressed in units of goods/services. In the context of education, schools need a budget for the following reasons: a) Planning expenditures and income for the next year. b) Considering resource needs from various elements, such as considering the School Development Plan commonly known as the School Development Plan (SPD) or School Improvement Plan (SIP). c) Setting priorities for the allocation of funds for each activity to be implemented. d) As a monitoring tool to ensure accountability. Any budget must be based on an activity plan as a benchmark. If the school has prepared a school development plan, annual plan, and school improvement plan, then the school budget must include these activities. However, in this context, the budget must be made as realistic and as careful as possible to avoid waste. B. Steps in Preparing a Budget Preparing an annual budget is an inseparable part of the education improvement cycle. It is an important step in the process of planning and implementing a school improvement plan. Thus, the annual budget must follow the School Development Plan (RPS) which is commonly known as the School Development Plan (SDP) or School Improvement Plan (SIP). Often the task of preparing the annual school budget is usually entrusted to teachers. However, the teacher should not act and make decisions alone but must coordinate with various parties. On the contrary, as part of the overall planning process, all education stakeholders must assist in every stage of budget preparation. Once the School Development Plan (RPS) is available, the budgeting process involves the following steps: a) Identify expected income in the current period; b) Identify proposed expenditure items; c) Estimate costs and priorities for spending goods; d) Prepare a draft budget; e) Submit the draft budget to the school finance committee for review before presentation; f) Present, discuss the draft budget, and make final revisions if necessary; g) Obtain written approval; h) Submit the Annual Budget for processing. i) Revenue Planning Grant funds are usually released three times a year. When budgeting, the preparer needs to consider the division of expenditures between 4 (four) main categories of expenditures, including: instructional materials, co-curricular activities, management and administration. Therefore, the first step in budgeting is to calculate the amount of budget that can be allocated to each category and consider how much needs to be allocated. This must be done before prioritizing expenditures within each category. If anticipated expenditures exceed the amount that has been determined, the school needs to plan to supplement that amount through fundraising. C. Revenue from the Board for Budget The School Improvement Plan (or School Development Plan) will include specific activities aimed at improving education in the school. Therefore, the Annual Budget needs to reflect the costs of these activities. In this case, it may be necessary to plan according to the authority and person responsible for each specific activity to prepare the budget, in collaboration with relevant stakeholders. The details of the activity costs are as follows: a) Description of the proposed activity b) Details of the expenditure items under that activity c) Cost of each item and the number of items required d) Time of the expenditure e) Estimated total anticipated cost. D. Planning in Budget Expenditure When preparing the budget, the SMC needs to prioritize the ‘need to have’ items over those that are ‘nice to have’. Finally, it needs to distribute the expenditure throughout the year. Experience will tell at what time of year each of the 15 Expenditure categories will be charged. For some expenditure items will be stable throughout the year, others will be Concentrated in certain months. E. Budget Approval Any school budget must have broad support. This should be directly related to the implementation of the agreed School Improvement Plan. The development and approval of the budget should be a transparent and consultative process. The resulting budget should be formally adopted by motion of the SMC. The budget should be signed by: • Principal • SMC Chair • SMC Treasurer • District Education Officer.