School administration and education administration are intimately related. In fact, school administration follows the same principles as followed by educational administration, which is concerned with the ad-ministration of education at various levels i.e. central level, state level, local level etc. School administration is concerned with the administration of education primarily at the school level.
But educational administration is concerned with all the levels of education – school, college, university etc. According to the Encyclopedia of Educational Research, “Educational administration is the process of integrating the efforts of personnel and of utilizing appropriate materials in such a way as to promote effectively the development of human qualities, it is concerned not only with the development of children and youth hut also with the growth of adults and particularly with the growth of school personnel”.
School administration may, therefore be define, as the process of integrating the efforts of the school personnel, i.e., the members of the staff, the students and their parents and of utilising appropriate materials, i.e., the school plant, school property, etc., in such a way as to promote effectively the development of human qualities as envisaged by educational philosophy based on the ideas of socialism, secularism and democracy. It is concerned with the growth of the pupils and the school personnel.
Nature of School Administration
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Educational administration occurs whenever and wherever there is an educational institution. The members of the community, the government officers, the teachers, the educational administrators and the students are involved in this process of administration. The nature of educational administration in a democratic community is different from a totalitarian state or socialistic regime. But this process is concerned only with educational institutions.
The management of the educational institutions are of two types -internal and external. Internal control is concerned with the day to day work of the school and the external control is concerned with control exercised over centers of learning by the community, the state or any other agency. Those controls are exercised for the effective implementation of educational plans, policies and programmes.
Educational Administration as a special field of study
Education, being a complicated task, needs specialization in its activities. Therefore, educational administration has become an independent study and the activities gradually become systematic. It has developed its own field and scope. At every level of educational administration, decisions have to be made on such valid questions as: How many are to be educated? How much education should be received? For how long? By whom should it be imparted? By what means? Who and how are the sources in terms of men, money, machines and materials to be allocated to achieve optimum results? Thus educational administration, as a special field of study takes major educational decisions in a systematic manner.
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School Supervision
Supervision has several meanings. People interpret its meaning according to their “past experiences, their needs and purposes Super-vision for supervisor is a “positive force for programme improvement, for a teacher it is either a threat to his individuality or an assistance and support to his profession. Teacher’s feelings about supervision differ because of various ways in which supervisions have interpreted their role.
Commonly the term supervision means “to superintendent or to guide and to stimulate the activities of others with a view to their improvement.” In education, supervision carries the same general concept, but is usually applied to the activities of teaching the supervision of instruction.
Instruction implies that “there are persons to be educated, teachers to carry on education and there arc materials and methods by which education may be accomplished.” Since society maintains schools in order that youth maybe educated for participation in the society, the educational organization organizes supervision to maintain, change and improve the provision and actualization of learning opportunities for students.