Keywords ; Meaning
Administration, Educational
Administration, School
Organization and Management, Functions of School Administrators
School Organization and Management
Meaning
Administration
Administration
is derived from Latin word ministiare which mean to serve, so administration
mean to serve. In broad view it mean to support the people in an organisation
to help them to achieve there goals. In other words it is the art of managing
organisation resources and provides support to those who needed to achieve the
aims and objective of organisation.
Today we have
different types of administration in different filed. All differ from filed to
field. Every organisation have their own way of administration to reach their
goals by supporting there professional staff and to communicate the line
agencies.
Educational
Administration
Educational Administration is a discipline
within the study of education that examines the administrative theory and
practice of education in general and educational institutions and educators in
particular. The field ideally distinguishes itself from administration and
management through its adherence to guiding principles of educational
philosophy.
In educational
administration the aim of the organisation is to organise the administration at
different level of organisation to help the staff to achieve their aims which
lead to the goal of organisation to facilitate the educational institutions to
provide better education.
The concept of educational administration may not be totally different
from what we are familiar with in the concept of administration. Education at
different levels has its objectives, the most important of the objectives that
cut across all the levels of education is teaching and learning. It is the
function of the school to produce educated and enlightened human beings who
would be able to contribute positively to the development of the society. This
formed the opinion of Olaniyi (2000) who describes school as a social
institution which does not exist in a vacuum. He said further that a school is
a micro-community, existing within a macro community to mould the habits, interest,
attitudes and feelings of children and transmit from one generation to another.
The school also comprises certain personnel i.e. teaching and non-teaching
staff as well as the students. These human resources in the school work with
some materials, such as instructional materials, equipment, and financial
resources in order to achieve the objectives of the school.
Administration is very useful for the realization of the school’s
objectives indeed, the success of the school system depends largely on the
administration of the school it handled.
The teachers, students, non-teaching staff and resources must be
efficiently arranged, monitored and controlled, so that they would work
harmoniously according to plan (educational plan). Even the National Policy on
Education emphasizes the success of the entire educational system on proper
planning, efficient administration and adequate funding. School administration
is the process by which principles, methods and practices of administration are
applied in educational institutions to establish, maintain and develop such
institutions in line with the goals of the institutions. Akinwumi & Jayeoba
(2004) define school administration as the scientific organization of human and
material resources and programs available for education and using them
systematically and meticulously to achieve educational goals.
Basically, educational administration implies the arrangement of the
human and material resources and program available for education and carefully
using them systematically for the achievement of educational objectives.
Thus educational administrator, whether in
the ministry of education, the schools board, or in a school is essentially the
organizer, the implementer of plans, policies and program meant for achieving
specific educational objectives. The educational administrator may contribute,
one way or the other, in planning, policy–making and program designing, yet his
major role rests with the effective and efficient implementation of such plans,
policies and program for the benefit of education. Viewed from this angle,
educational administration is concerned with organization and implementation –
it may be categorized under broad areas of:
Planning and Policy
Implementation
Although such a categorization is essentially arbitrary and broad and
these aspects of management are closely tied, inseparable and inductive, it is
possible to separate the functions of administration from that of planning and
policy–making in education. For example the administrator is concerned with
formulating general plans and policies for education.
Functions of School Administrators
Obemeata (1984) referred to a school head
as an administrator who is responsible for running a school and also
responsible for policy decisions, and determining the direction and objectives
of the school. The function of a school head, according to Obemeata, is more
than mere controlling the staff of the school, its finances and curriculum; it
also includes the management of resources towards the achievement of
educational goal. Fadipe (1990) however, highlighted the major functions of the
school head as: interpretation of policy, execution of instructional programs
and the selection, induction and retention of personnel, and in Cranston
(2002), the duties of the school administrators include: the demonstration of a
variety of management and leadership abilities and, making complex decisions in
collaboration with other staff in the school.
The
function of the school administrators could be summarized as follows:
- production and management of resources (human and materials) needed to support organizations and its program
- supervision of instructional activities in the school system
- obtaining and training personnel
- providing leadership for curriculum
- maintaining peaceful co-existence between the school, the community and the external agencies
- influencing staff behaviour
- discerning and influencing the development of goals and policies
- evaluating the effectiveness and efficiency or otherwise of the school
- initiating work activities
- grouping the tasks into activities
- defining the task to be done
- taking remedial action if the objectives are not being met
- Supplying incentives to stimulate productivity.