The BEAM project recognises that the improvement of the financial management skills of School Heads is a critical component of its package of support to improve school based management.

The Implementing Rules and Regulations of Republic Act No.9155 (Governance of Basic Education Act 2002) placed significantly more authority, accountability and responsibility on the Regional and Divisional Offices as well as on schools themselves. Under Rule VI, Section 6.2, School Heads are specifically granted the authority, responsibility and accountability to develop the school education program and school improvement plan. They are mandated to administer and manage the school’s fiscal resources in the light of national, regional and divisional objectives.

BEAM therefore clearly recognised that there was a need to upgrade the skills of School Heads who generally have not had experience and training in the area of financial management.

Given the changes to the accounting and finance system within DepEd, financial management skills will be crucial to the provision of quality basic education in Mindanao into the future. A new E Learning School Financial Management training package needs to be developed to meet these needs.

To start addressing this problem, BEAM has conducted Training Needs Workshop on School Based Financial Management for Region XI Principals on October 22, 2007 at the REMCO boardroom. The workshop was attended by 18 principals from all over Region XI.

As a result of this workshop modules will be developed for the school based financial management program. This set of modules was presented to School Heads and discussed at length. It was agreed that these modules represent the training content needs of School Heads at this time.