The Scope of Educational Administration

The scope of Educational Administration is broad. Eight functions fall within the school administrator’s responsibility: planning, budgeting, organising, communicating, coordinating, controlling, decision making, and staffing. Most have been treated separately as management topics; pulled together they describe the administrator’s specific work.

The breadth of EA

The handout begins with the broader framing.

The scope of EA is quite widespread. It includes all types of activities that take place in the field of teaching-learning task. Administration must first conceive all round development of education and then ensure the maximum development.

EA is broad. The administrator’s job spans everything that happens in the school. No major function falls outside her remit.

This is uncomfortable for administrators who would prefer to focus narrowly. The reality is that the school administrator must hold the whole picture, even if she delegates pieces.

Function 1: Planning

An activity which leads to future course of action.

Planning is covered in detail in an earlier chapter. In EA terms, planning ensures:

Recognition of goals. Proper use of resources. Prevention of wastage, overlapping and haphazard efforts. Definiteness and orderly execution.

A school without planning suffers from all four problems: unclear goals, wasted resources, duplicated and missing work, chaotic execution.

The administrator’s planning work spans:

1. Strategic planning. Multi-year direction.
2. Annual planning. The current year’s specific work.
3. Operational planning. Term and week-level activities.
4. Contingency planning. What to do if things go wrong.

Function 2: Budgeting

Quantitative expression of a plan for a defined period of time. A process of giving an estimated account of revenues and expenditures. Expresses strategic plans of the organisation’s activities or events in measurable terms.

Budgeting was covered in the financial management chapter. In EA terms, budgeting translates the plan into financial reality.

The administrator’s budgeting work includes:

1. Annual budget development. With the senior team.
2. Budget approval. From the board or owner.
3. Budget execution. Through the year.
4. Budget monitoring. Variance against plan.
5. Budget reporting. To stakeholders.

A school without disciplined budgeting drifts financially. A school with disciplined budgeting can connect resources to outcomes.

Function 3: Organising

The handout splits organising into two categories.

Material equipment

Buildings, furniture, libraries, laboratories, workshops, etc. to supplement learning.

The physical infrastructure. Where students learn, what materials they use, what equipment supports the teaching.

A school’s physical organisation matters. A classroom with good lighting, decent furniture, and proper acoustics supports teaching. The opposite undermines it.

Human equipment

All persons involved in teaching-learning situations to contribute: students, teachers, HM (Head Master).

The people. The administrator organises who does what, who reports to whom, what each person’s responsibilities are.

Human organising includes:

1. Roles. What each position does.
2. Reporting lines. Who is accountable to whom.
3. Teams. Working groups within the school.
4. Coordination. How teams relate to each other.

Function 4: Communicating

Includes all the means, both formal and informal, by which information is passed up, down, and across the network of bosses, managers and staff. Internal communication is vital for relations and getting the job done; external is critical for survival.

Communication was covered in detail in the communication chapter. In EA terms, the administrator manages the school’s communication systems.

Two domains:

1. Internal. Among staff, between sections, between management and teachers.
2. External. With parents, government, community, media.

A school with broken internal communication runs on rumour and confusion. A school with broken external communication loses parent trust. Both must work.

Function 5: Coordinating

The task of inter-relating various parts of the work. Division of labour exists in the working of an organisation. As such, overall work is divided in components. Each component is a responsibility of an individual or a group. Coordination needed for goal accomplishment.

Coordinating is the work of making the parts fit together. The primary section’s work has to coordinate with the secondary section’s. The academic side has to coordinate with the admin side. The teaching has to coordinate with the assessment.

The administrator’s coordinating work:

1. Across functions. Academic with admin with operations.
2. Across sections. Primary with secondary.
3. Across grades. Grade 4 with grade 5 with grade 6.
4. Across time. This term with next term.

A school without coordination has good parts but a fragmented whole. The administrator’s coordinating work makes the parts add up to a school.

Function 6: Controlling

Ongoing activity to verify whether things are progressing as planned. Goals are expected to be achieved as specified in time, quantity, place, etc. Necessary to ensure compliance with set plans and curb / restrain deviation; use authority.

Controlling was covered in the control chapter. In EA terms, controlling is the administrator’s monitoring and corrective action work.

A school’s control system includes:

1. Academic outcomes. Test results, learning progress.
2. Operational outcomes. Attendance, financial performance, parent satisfaction.
3. Quality indicators. Lesson observations, parent feedback, alumni outcomes.
4. Compliance. Meeting regulatory requirements.

The administrator who controls well catches problems early. The administrator who does not control well discovers problems at year end, too late to fix.

Function 7: Decision making

Reaching a judgement or conclusion regarding an issue. Organisation decision making is an institutionalised process: end product of combined efforts of people at diverse levels. Decision is made from alternatives submitted to the decision maker.

Decision making was covered in detail in the decision making chapter. In EA terms, the administrator is the school’s primary decision maker.

The administrator’s decision work spans:

1. Strategic decisions. Long-term direction.
2. Tactical decisions. Annual and term-level priorities.
3. Operational decisions. Daily and weekly choices.
4. Personnel decisions. Hiring, promotion, exit.
5. Crisis decisions. Unexpected situations.

A school’s quality reflects the quality of its administrator’s decisions over time.

Function 8: Staffing

Whole personnel function of bringing in and training the staff, and maintaining positive work conditions. Includes recruitment, dismissal, resignation, and retirement, staff health, safety and welfare, training, salary and wages, etc. The manpower needs.

Staffing covers the entire human resource function. This is where the administrator most directly shapes the school.

Staffing work:

1. Recruitment. Finding and hiring new staff.
2. Onboarding. Bringing new staff in well.
3. Development. Ongoing training and growth.
4. Performance management. Evaluation, feedback, improvement.
5. Compensation. Salaries, benefits.
6. Welfare. Health, safety, working conditions.
7. Transitions. Resignations, retirements, dismissals.

A school is its people. The staffing function is therefore one of the administrator’s most consequential.

How the eight functions interact

The functions are not separate. They reinforce each other.

A school administrator who is strong on all eight produces a well-run school. One who is strong on some but weak on others has predictable weaknesses.

Most administrators are stronger on some functions than others. A useful self-assessment: rate each of the eight functions. Where am I strongest? Where am I weakest? The answer points to development priorities.

Flashcard

What are the eight functions within the scope of Educational Administration?

Tap to reveal

Answer

Planning, Budgeting, Organising, Communicating, Coordinating, Controlling, Decision making, Staffing.

Each function has its own work and connects to the others. A school administrator must attend to all eight, even if she delegates parts.

1. Planning. Future course of action.
2. Budgeting. Quantitative expression of plan.
3. Organising. Material and human equipment.
4. Communicating. Information flow.
5. Coordinating. Inter-relating parts of work.
6. Controlling. Verifying progress against plan.
7. Decision making. Judgements on issues.
8. Staffing. Personnel function from recruitment to retirement.

A useful self-assessment: which of the eight am I strongest at? Which am I weakest at? The honest answer points to development priorities.