Yimam, Melaku (PhD)Hussien, Temam2019-01-172023-11-102019-01-172023-11-102008-06http://etd.aau.edu.et/handle/12345678/15861The purpose of this study was to assess the practices and challenges of planning and budgeting in govemment primary school in Bale Zone. To CalT !J out the s tudy ques tionnaires and interviews we re used as ins trument of' clelf.n collection. The study was conducted in 25 primary schools randomly selecl:ed from 5 woredas in the zone. A total of 45 principals 64 KETB and 56 PT/\ members were involved in the s tudy. The data gathered were analyzed us ing frequ ency, percentage, and mean and standard deviation. The findings made it clear that there was low community involvement in the process of school planning· and budgeting. The s chool plan was regularly done by the principals. As the majority of respondents reported, having prepared their plan, the s chools sent them to WEO for approval. Although the plan for some activities could be approved at school level, for major activities and mainly the plan of annual budget was approved by WEO. Thus, as principals revealed, sometimes the schools were forced to adjust their budget plan to WEO budget ceiling. In this case, though the decentralization s y s tems were said to be practiced in schools, except management, other activities like budgeting was highly centralized to woredas . The budget dis tributed to s chools was detennined by the WEO cabinets without the involvement of the representatives of the s chools . The schools were uns atisfied on the way the budget was allocated to them, which was mail/ly in kinds. This is becaus e, according to most of the respondents, the mate rials dis tributed to schools were poor both in quantity and quality. Since the budget allocated to schools was inadequate to cover the exp ense of the schools, problems such as s hortage of educational materials were very common. In order to solve the problems mentioned above, the s tudy recommends the community has to be initiated to participate actively in their schools planning and budgeting proces s. Similarly, the WEO has to allocate budgets according to the manual of the MoE which states the number of students as a criterion to allocate budgets for s chools.enassess the practicesand challenges of planningThesis