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FUNCTIONS OF ADMINISTRATION AND SUPERVISION

Educational administration is regarded as total processes inclusive of all

responsibilities and functions necessary for running the school. It provides and manages

various elements of the teaching-learning situation such as the learners, the teachers,

the curriculum and the socio-physical environment.

There are different functions of administration in school management

programme. These are planning, organizing, directing and controlling. In the absence of

these functions, the school cannot function effectively. Let us now analyze these

functions briefly.

The four major Functions:

(a) Planning:

Planning is an essential component. It is an useful exercise to be undertaken by the

administrators. It involves systematic, organised and an articulated scheme of working.

So planning can be thought of at the beginning of the session.

(b) Organization:

Organization is also an important function of good administration. The effective and

efficient work of the school depends upon the good organization. The essential element

of the organization is people: what they do and how they work together.

So for good organization, the administrator should define the purpose, analyze and

identify tasks required to meet these objectives, allocate related activities to other staff,

provide for management and coordination of activities at each level of responsibility and

lastly establish a reporting and communication channel.

c) Direction:

Direction is an important function of educational administration. Direction involves

getting the work done through instructions and orders. There should be proper

supervision, motivation and communication on the part of the administrator for getting
the work done. The ultimate aim is to see that work is accomplished according to

policies and programmes and given instructions. Directing involves exercising

leadership motivating people, determining accountability and developing guidelines for

action.

(d) Controlling:

Controlling involves measuring and monitoring performance, comparing results with

plans and taking corrective action when required. It indicates how far the goals have

been achieved and to what extent there is deviation from the plans. The basis of control

is measurement. Control deals with the difference between planned and actual

performance.

So administration is concerned with managing resources, allocating tasks, making

decisions and solving problems. The function is to create favourable conditions for the

educational process and their maintenance at an effective level. For effective

organization, good administration should involve planning, organizing, directing,

motivating, controlling and decision-making.

Brief outlines of the eight functions of educational administration

1. Development of Human Personality:

As educational administration is a process of human relationship it is much more

influenced and controlled by the various factors that are essential for having smooth

administration of an educational programme. These are: philosophical, psychological,

sociological, historical and political.

So it is necessary to highlight here that educational administration is different from

other types of administration as it considers every human resource as an asset and

valuable potential through which the development of their personality as well as of the

programme will be ensured. So development of human personality should be the first

and foremost function of educational administration.

2. Provide and Ensure Proper Utilization of Human and Material

Resources:

Before organizing any educational programme it should be the first task and

responsibility of the educational authority to involve and activate all the human
resources who are directly or indirectly linked and involved in this process. Because due

to their activeness and readiness they would be able to utilize the material resources

properly. For this purpose, it is the responsibility of educational administration to see

that all the parts are coordinated into a whole.

3. To Make the Learner Active in the Educational Programme:

It is an established fact in the modern educational theory and practices that the child or

educand is the central figure of every educational programme. To actualize this, it

should be the responsibility of educational administration to frame rules for admission

and promotion for the students. Besides this, there must be description for the children

or students in accordance of their variety of needs, requirements, capacities and

demands and implement them accordingly in a socially desirable and acceptable

manner.

4. Provide Adequate Physical Facilities:

The educational administration has to pay deep insight with the problems of provision
and maintenance of the school plant, equipment’s, play materials, library, hostel

building and other co-curricular activities etc. Because without this facility the

administration of any educational programme will never be a successful one.

5. To Adhere the Legal Provision of the Programme Strictly:

It is an as usual practice that a set of rules and regulations have been strictly framed for

every programme in the joint venture of the competent authorities and the legal

advisors dealing in the concerned field. The same situation occurs in the field of

educational administration.

In this field the types and standards of educational institution, powers and functions of

the controlling authorities, their responsibilities and obligations have been set

accordingly. Here it is the task of educational administration to see whether these works

are being done according to rules and regulations meant for these.

6. Decision Making In Respect of Finance:

It has been revealed from the research findings of a noted economist that the

educational system must contribute to national economy by improving human and

material resources in the long run.

For this, it is the responsibility of the educational administration to concern

with the following things as its functions in this regard:

(a) Problem of income and expenditure, their accounting and auditing.

) To take decisions about the sharing of the cost of education among the center and the

states.

(c) To frame rules for budgeting, spending and controlling of funds and resources.

(d) To see that education is being made within the financial and human resources

available in the country.

(e) To see that education is duly financed to provide equality of opportunity in the field

of education.

ADVERTISEMENTS:

(f) Attempts must be made to provide special groups facilities of physical activities,

libraries and reading rooms.

7. To Keep and Maintain Co-Operation with the Society:

As education is imparted in a social institution to the social elements it should keep

relationship with the society. It is the function of educational administration to co-

operate with the members of the society in their programme as well as need their co-

operation while organizing an educational programme.

Then the educational administration of any programme will be meaningful. Because

education is essentially a social affair and the educational institution may be a school or

a college is charged by society, with the responsibility of training and bringing up the

youth. So education is not an isolated activity rather it is related to life and society. To

make the society worth living, educational administration should develop co- operation

with society.

8. To Deal With the Problem of Curriculum Construction:

Curriculum is the means through which the goals of an educational programme can be

realized in one point and the students become able to achieve their goals and aspirations

of life in another point. So the curriculum of any educational or academic programme

should be perfect and appropriate which creates a problem in the educational process.

This can be solved by proper and effective educational administration.

although the purpose of both school administration and school supervision in an

efficient functioning of the school system, yet the two differ from each other.

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN ADMINISTRATION AND SUPERVISION

1. Educational administration provides and manages these various elements of the

teaching-learning situation and the business of educational supervision is to assess

continuously their adequacy and to bring about necessary improvement.

2. Administration executes, directs and supervision advises, stimulates, explains, leads

and guides. Administration decides and orders execution, while supervision helps to

decide and order execution and asst. in improving instruction.

3. Supervision should be functionally related to administration. Administration provides

the physical and material conditions for education, such as building, equipment and the

like. These are part of the education setting or the teaching-learning situation.

Supervision is concerned with improving this situation.

4. The basic purpose of administration is to organize and operate the educational

institution, so that instruction may take place. The purpose of supervision is to bring

about a continuing improvement in the instructional programme. Administration

represents the whole enterprise of educational management and supervision represents

a portion of it.

5. Administration precedes supervision. It means that some form of organisation and

some supervision for management of the institution are essential before any programme

of instruction is instituted. Many of the activities in administration have definite

supervisory implications. Corrupted administration becomes ugly and soul-killing. It is

only effective supervision that can save us from the victimization of soul-4dlling

administration.

So the soul purpose of supervision is to achieve qualitative improvement in the

teaching-learning situation of a school. The aim is not to administer the school, but to
bring about improvement in the education of the pupils and the professional growth of

the teachers.

Glen G Eye & L.A. Netzer have rightly remarked that ”even though supervision is

assigned quite specific tasks within the area of administration, it is considered an

integral part of it. Supervision must be primarily a non-managerial service within the

total responsibilities of administration. ”

It clear that both administration and supervision are closely related and functionally

related. They coordinate and supplement each other both have the same function. The

function is the creation of favourable conditions for the educational process and their

maintenance at an effective level. One cannot go on without the other.

Administration provides the educational setting or the teaching-learning situation and

supervision studies it, evaluates its strength and weakness and continuously improves it.

In this connection A.S. Barr said that “Administration and Supervision considered

functionally cannot be separated a set off from each other. The two are coordinate, co-

relative, complementary, mutually shared functions in the operation of educational

systems.”

Educational administration and supervision are now regarded as total processes

inclusive of all responsibilities and functions necessary for running the schools. Good

inter-personal relationships between the administrator and supervisor, the supervisors,

teachers and pupils and also inter-institutional relationships between the school and the

state, the school and the community, group dynamics etc. are receiving greater

emphasis.

All these factors have resulted in a new philosophy, according to which administration is
concerned with managing resources, allocating tasks, making decisions and solving
problems and Supervision is concerned with their improvement as well as that of the
whole teaching- learning situation. In modem educational thought. Supervision is a
phase of administration with particular emphasis on the products of teaching and
learning activities.