Assessing the Impact of Language Use on Financial Management Practices in Zimbabwean Schools: A Study of Kwekwe District

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the linguistic accessibility of financial management policies and practices in documents in Zimbabwe’s education system. The study was guided by two research questions: how does English become a barrier to financial management policies in Zimbabwe? What strategies can Zimbabwe use to solve language related barriers to financial management policy implementation in the Zimbabwe education system? The study adopted a qualitative research approach. The research population was school heads, teachers, school inspectors, accountants, auditors and treasurers of development committees. The sampling technique was purposive sampling. The sample size was 19. The data was analysed using thematic approach. The study illustrated that finances are mostly mismanaged and language barrier is one of the reasons as interpretation of some English concepts become a barrier leading to financial malpractices. Additionally, the study found out that the use of the colonial language English as the legal and official language for government financial management documents in schools was one of the barriers to effective use of documents to guide financial management and practices in schools. The documents should be written in local languages for better understanding of the financial documents so as to put up to ideal financial practices. The study recommends linguistic accessibility of language used to write policy documents through training, simplification of the documents and use of local vernacular language when writing the documents as a strategy to promote effective use of policy documents in schools.