NOTES, COMMENTS... (CHILD, FAMILY, COMMUNITY)

Digest No. IX

PRINCIPLES AND PROBLEMS

OF EDUCATIONAL MANAGEMENT

by

MANDA W.P. GURUGE

and

DIETER G. BERSTECHER

Reproduced from Basic Training Programme in Educational Planning and Management, September 1977 in consultation with Unesco Regional Office for Education in Asia, Bangkok, Thailand

ED-84/WS/28

INTRODUCTION

The book VII of the Basic Training Programme in Educational Planning and Management, which was originally issued by the Educational Planning and Management Service of Unesco Regional Office for Education in Asia and the Pacific, is reissued in the form of a Digest in the Notes, Comments (Child, Family,Community) New Series as a companion volume to Digest No. VIII in order to meet the requests made by several UNICEF offices for multiple copies of this Training Programme for use in national training activities. The cooperation of Mr, Raja Roy Singh, Assistant Director General who concurred with the proposal, is gratefully acknowledged.

This Basic Training Programme in Seven volumes was jointly developed by the writer with the cooperation of Dieter G. Berstecher (now at HEP, Paris) over a period of four years from 1974 to 1977, It has been evaluated by successive groups of its users in Asia and the Pacific as well as others. An evaluation made by Dr. Anthony R. Kaye, Deputy Director, the Centre for International Cooperation and Services and the Professor of Educational Technology of the Open University of Britain contains the following observations :

"Most readers of this report will undoubtedly have had personal experience of training workshops which take people out of their normal working milieu for a period of intensive training, which seem -within that period- to have been successful, and yet appear to have little or no medium or long-term results when the trainees return to their working milieu. The lesson surely is that workshops and stages of this sort need to be seen within the framework of a longer term programme of independent learning, with preparatory and follow-up activities ocurring before and afterwards. In this respect the Basic Training Programme in Educational Planning and Management prepared by the Unesco Regional Office in Bangkok, with its combination of independent study, correspondence tuition and short, integrated, face to face workshops, is an exemplary model,"

(i)

"Examples of texts showing these features (i.e. essential elements in self-instructional materials) can be found in the correspondence texts of the British Open University, or of Costa Rica's National Distance Teaching University. More re­levant to this project are the excellent self-instructional texts which make up the Basic Training Programme in Educational Planning and Management produced by the Unesco Office in Bangkok (referred to from now on as the ''Bangkok Course'). Each of the lesson units is preceded by clear statements of learning objectives, are written in a stimulating style, and contain 'student-active' self-assessment questions both in the next and at the end of each unit. Some even contain a simple 'branching' structure, where trainees are directed to different comment/answer section (yellow and green) at the end of the text, depending on the nature of their response to an in-text question."

The reference in the last sentence in Dr. Kaye's comments is to the text of Digest No. VIII.

HOW TO USE

The lesson units may be used in two ways :

(i) In a self-study programme, either at the learner's own initiative or as a prescribed task by an appropriate authority.

Here, the learner may follow the sequence of lessons or select only those in which he is interested. He will also choose his own pace of study unless otherwise required.

(ii) In a correspondence tuition programme wherein all or selected lessons would be prescribed by the agency conducting the programme for self-study .

(ii)

Here, the learner would adhere to a time­table for the despatch of set written work to the agency concerned.

In either case the basic principle of the training programme is self-learning. The lesson units present selected facts and data relating to each subject, provide guidance in relating them to one's own experience and raise issues to generate analysis and investigation.

The following steps are suggested:

Step I -Read the lesson unit at a stretch to get an overall idea of the subject covered by it.

Step II -Study the statement of objectives at the beginning of the lesson, asking one's self such questions as "Do I know it? or "Can I do it?"

Step III -Undertake a detailed study of the lesson unit, taking a section at a time. (A lesson unit is divided into several, usually 5-7 self-contained sections. Each section would entail 20-30 minutes of study). In such a detailed study, special attention should be devoted to examples (both real and simulated) which are used to explain a particular point. Learner should analyse his own national experiences by asking such questions as the following:

"Does this example apply to my country?" "What exceptions could I think of and what causes such exceptions?" "Is the point supported by the example valid in respect of my country?" "What evidence in support or against the point could I provide from my experience?"

Ciii.)

Step IV -Attempt answering the self-evaluation questionnaire at the end of the lesson either orally or in writing. The latter is preferred unless the learner has problems with time. In either case, the relevant sections of the lesson may be referred to.

Step V -Compare the answers with those given.

Step VI -Organize a programme of in-depth study with the aid of the recommended readings.

A bibliography is provided at the end of each unit to facilitate learners who wish to pursue further studies into the themes discussed in the Book.

Ananda W.P. Guruge Chief, Unit for Co-operation with UNICEF and WFP Education Sector

Paris, 15 April 1984

Civ)

PRINCIPLES AND PROBLEMS

OF EDUCATIONAL MANAGEMENT

Contents

Financial Management by Ananda W.P. Gurugé 1

Personnel Management " " " " 23

Institutional Management by Ananda W.P. Gurugë 43

Supervision in Education - Administrative and Academic , , , T7 _ „ .. rc by Ananda W.P. Guruge 65

Participatory Planning and Management by Dieter G. Berstecher..95

Training and Orienting Educational Personnel by Ananda W.P. Gurugë....113

I FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT

OBJECTIVES

When you have studied this unit, you should be able to

- understand the aspects of accounting and financial management which have a bearing on the functions of educational planners and administrators;

analyse the constituent elements of financial management and identify major problems relating to each of them;

recognize the importance of cost data;

project the future behaviour of unit costs realistically;

- differentiate between post-review and pre-review in incurring expenditure and analyse the problems relating to post-review;

- understand the importance of mastering financial rules and regulations as a means of enhancing one's administrative effectiveness; and

- identify the ways and means of effecting structural changes in the accounting system.

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I

FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT

I. INTPCDÜCTIQN

1. The principles of management, we have so far discussed, apply to the general function of planning, organizing, direct­ing and controlling any activity in any organization. There are a few aspects of management, which we shall take up for further study because they have a special relevance to the work of an educational planner or administrator.

2. In educational planning we address our minds to the nature of an education plan as a financial statement. We emphasize the practical uses of financial analysis and costing techniques. Similarly, our attention is directed to the role of the budget and the significance of budgeting as a link-activity between planning and plan implementation. In this lesson unit, let us review some of the overall content and processes of financial management so as to gain some insights into the organization, utilization and control of financial transactions and procedures in an organization. Although most organizations have financial specialists (i.e. accountants, cashiers, book-keepers etc.) to handle this work, the educational planner or administrator should know the basic principles of their operations, the major stumbling blocks and opportunities for collaboration in the solution of implementational problems.

II. ELEMENTS OF FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT

3. All the functions constituting financial management may be grouped under three sequential categories as follows:

I. Pre-Planning

(1) Financial Analysis

(2) Compilation of Cost Data, including Trends and Fluctuations in Cost.

II. Planning

(3) Costing Projects/Targets

(4) Budgeting

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Diagram I

Functions of Financial Management

Acquisition of Propertyf

t supplies and

Compilation of Cost Data

services

© Incurring Expenditure

(¿J Costing Frojecte/Targets

Budgeting

'e3C -To

.../

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III. Implementation

(5) Incurring Expenditure

(6) Acquisition of Property, Supplies and Services

(7) Payment and Handling of Cash and Negotiable Articles

(8) Accounting or Book-Keeping

(9) Auditing

The interrelationship of these functions may be illustrated as in Diagram I. The last four functions are fairly routine and are usually handled by specialist accounting personnel.

4. The real problem areas in financial management, as evident in educational administrative organizations of Asia, are the first five functions. They are problem areas due to the following main reasons :

Problem area Main reasons for being a problem area

Financial analysis

Compilation of Cost Data

a) not yet recognized as essential operational functions ; hence relegated as purely historical research of only academic interest.

b) past data are either not available or are recorded in a form not con­ducive to analysis.

c) not enough trained personnel.

3. Costing Projects/ a) lack of reliable cost data. Targets b) reliance on rule-of-thumb methods.

c) resource allocation is governed more by availability of funds or political pressure than by careful project formulation or refinement in costing.

4. Budgeting a) not yet fully recognized as the determinant of the entire process of financial management (please see Chart I of Lesson Unit 33)

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b) inadequately co-ordinated with planning.

c) recognized only as a formal (legal) document and not adequately developed or used as a management tool.

the tendency in some countries of changing budget provisions often and not regarding them as firm commitment,has taken away the sense of seriousness in budgeting.

remains in most places a "grey zone" in which roles of policy­makers, administrators and accounting specialists are unde­fined, and consequentially, authority is overcentralized.

b) procedures tend to be too rigid resulting in "red-tape"

c) decision-making time is overly long with difficulties in fixing responsibility for delay.

Let us, first of all, deal with the two problem areas of cost data and incurring expenditure.

III. COMPILATION OF COST DATA

5. We have noted that the educational planner begins his operations with some idea of the maximum financial outlay he could expect over the plan period. Either it is given to him as an indicative planning figure by the central economic planning organization of the country or it is calculated on the basis of projected resource availability. Thus with the total outlay known, his task is to determine which kinds and quantities of goods and services he could buy with it for the purpose of accomplishing his objectives. If the situa­tion is static, (say as in the case of your trying to decide on a satisfactory four-course lunch within a given budget), the decision is simple. You find out the cost of each dish and make necessary permutations and combinations until you satisfy your criteria of quality, quantity and cost. But in planning, no one places before you a menu with list prices for you to select 11 ! Nor are you always in the happy posi­tion of being able to limit the number of your guests ! ! !

d)

5. Incurring a) Expenditure

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6. The task of both constructing a "menu" of alternative project activities and establishing the cost of each alter­native is your own. We have discussed on several occasions the problems of "dreaming up", testing, evaluating and choos­ing alternative goals/targets/project activities. The main point we have repeatedly emphasized is that we operate in a flux - a situation in which change is the only permanent element.

In planning, one has to bear in mind that costs of goods and services have a tendency to change both due to normal inflationary trends and more so due to sudden political or economic decisions.

The inflationary increases in costs are to be expected even if the rate of increase is not always predictable. The changes in costs due to political and economic decisions can be nightmarish to a planner: the effect of recent events (like the energy crisis - the oil price - and fluctuating exchange rates) on plans has been so drastic and devastating as even to shake one's faith in planning as a means of making decisions for the future.

But those in favour of planning have consistently empha­sized - and that too quite correctly - that planning is the most effective means of being prepared for such shocks and minimizing their disruptive effects. In a planned enterprise, one is in a better position to know what can be jettisoned from among various projected activities without causing confusion and risking a total standstill.

It is a very old saying, datable to the days of the Roman Empire that "It is a bad plan that admits no modification" (Publilius Syrus). Every good plan must have a built-in contingency plan.

7. How does one cost the targets or the projects of an education plan in a manner that contingencies of changing prices of goods and services are adequately provided for? This is a question asked by every serious planner. But no cut and dry answer is available. All we can do is to consi­der two helpful steps:

First, the usual direction in which prices move is UP. But all elements constituting a price do not go up at the same rate. Hence Unit Costs should be analysed into as many details as possible, so as to identify the different rates at which different elements go up in price.

-../

Example ; the Unit Cost of producing a high school graduate in science may show an increase from $120 in 1970 to $175 in 197 5. On analysing these costs into constituent components one finds the position to be as follows:

Teacher Cost

Replaceable Equipment

locally made

imported

Chemicals/Consumables

local supplies

imported

Books/Resource Materials

Administrative Costs

Others

1970

$

87

2

4

3

5

4

13

2

120

;975

$

103

3

9

4

26

9

17

4

175

% increase

18

50

125

33

420

125

30

100

46

Second. the projection of Unit Costs into the future must be realistic. For this purpose, it is important to consider

(a) the behaviour of the cost of each item into which the Unit Cost is analysed

(b) the known or possible causes for such behaviour

(c) the possibility or otherwise of such causes to persist into the projected time span

(d) alternative solutions to check spiralling cost through import-substitution, use-efficiencv. innovative methodologies etc.. and

(e) repercussions of installing such solutions.

This is more than a mere computational exercise. Each choice among alternative courses of action involves policy decisions with far-reaching con­sequences.

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Example¡ In the above example, the Unit Cost showed a 46% increase from 1970 to 1975. On this basis, one would attempt a simple projection of the Unit Cost in 1980 to be $256 (i.e. 175 x 146) . But the components

Too" , , showed increases at different rates. If these rates are used for a projection the result would be as follows :

Teacher Cost

Replaceable Equipment

locally made

imported

Chemicals/Consumables

local supplies

imported

Books/Resource Materials

Administrative Costs

Others

197 5

$

103

3

9

4

26

9

17

4

175

Increase

%

18

50

125

35

420

120

30

100

Proiection

1980

$

121.54

4.50

20.25

5.32

135.20

20.25

22.10

8.00

337.16

A closer scrutiny of this projection reveals that the Unit Cost of $175 in 1975 is almost doubled by 1980 to be $337.16. Such an increase of a Unit Cost will certainly be beyond the reach of most countries. There can be other difficulties. More than half this amount is for imported items. If the country has a problem of foreign exchange, it will be very unrealistic to expect so much to be met from hard currency. Questions to be asked at this stage would include the following:

Can more of the replaceable equipment be made locally? Can the quantum of practical work requiring chemicals and other consumables be reduced? Can more pupils be made to use the available equipment and resource materials either by centralizing them or by rendering them mobile? Can the class-size be increased to reduce per pupil teacher costs? Can the pattern of supervision and management be changed to reduce administrative costs? etc. etc.

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After a careful consideration of all such questions, the projected Unit Cost, that will be decided for costing purposes, will be far more realistic than the one computed by either methods of simple or analytical projection.

8. ,The principal cost data we need for costing targets or projects, is a set of projected Unit Costs, prepared for every programme and project, according to the above steps.

Such cost figures are usually called "Standard Costs".

All that one has to do after working out relevant Standard Costs is to multiply each such figure by the number of units; e.g.

Item Standard Cost

High School Graduates in Science x

Teacher Educators p

Primary enrolments etc. s t st

Number o Units

y r

f Total Cost

xy

pr

Like many other operations in planning and management, costing is also an iterative process - you have to come right back to the beginning over and over again as every set of results proves to be untenable or unsatisfactory or as new approaches, strategies or policies come to light.

A planner.must be ready to try out several costing exercises before he accepts a workable version for the current plan or activity. It cannot remain unchanged too long. Hence the need to revise it even while the plan is being implemented or an activity is in progress.

IV. INCURRING EXPENDITURE

9. This phase in financial management which, in Diagram I, is interposed between "budgeting" and acquisition of property, supplies and services is almost unrecognizable as a management step and hence it becomes a peculiar stumbling block in the execution of projects. Have you ever experienced a situation like this:

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The budget of an organization has provided certain funds for a given activity. The organization is, in every respect, ready to carry it out. But nothing happens for months.

If you have experienced such delays and had probed into them, you would have discovered one main cause of delay: namely, someone in authority in the organization had failed to incur expenditure on the budgeted provisions.

The failure may, sometimes, be due to the incompetence of the particular authority. But, more often than not, the trouble is caused by lengthy, time-consuming procedures of approvals which have to be obtained from various external authorities before any expenditure is incurred.

10.' Procedures for approvals to incur expenditure are usually spelled out with meticulous care in the Financial Orders/Regulations of the country. The problems you exper­ience arise possibly from three causes:

(i) The financial regulations prescribe a very complicated process of subjecting budget provisions to a post-review.

Example: They require that every item of expenditure included in the budget should be re-examined by the Ministry of Finance or its equivalent before any expenditure is incurred. Thus the budget, for instance, provides for 10 scholarships at $600 per year. But the scholarships cannot even be announced until the Ministry of Finance or the Treasury has further examined the proposals of the Ministry of Education on the basis of a set procedure. This is called the POST-REVIEW of budget proposals. The result often is that the actual scholarship system comes into operation only after 5-6 months after the financial year begins. The effect: upto 50% of the budgeted sum not spent. The remedy for this is two-fold: '

(a) to be undertaken by higher authorities: revise the regulations to replace post^ review with pre-review. (Let all the scrutinies precede the inclusion of the item in the budget so that the authority to incur expenditure becomes operative on the first day of the financial year)

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(b) to be attempted by you: be thoroughly conversant with the procedure and have all your proposals carefully worked out in requisite form well in advance so as to forward them for post-review immediately the budget is passed. (Experience shows that as much as 3-5 months can be saved by this advance action).

(ii) The executing officials lack confidence and want prior approval for everything from higher autho­rities within the Ministry or from the Ministry of Finance/the Treasury etc. Here, the financial regulations have made no stipulation for a post-review of the budget provisions. But the lack of initiative, timidity or bad experience in the past lead the concerned authority to impose upon himself a voluntary post-review. The remedy, again, is two-fold:

(a) by higher authorities; refuse to entertain such requests for prior approval and even count such requests as proof of incompetence.

(b) by you: be confident that you really do not get into trouble for exercising your autho­rity, unless you permit or leave room for fraud.

(iii) The budget provisions are so unclear (i.e. they lack details of activities envisaged) that you have no clue as to what you should do. This is often the case when budget proposals are made by an agency other than the executing agency. But the same situation can occur when your own budget proposals get so mutilated and transformed during the process of being included in the budget that you do not recognize them any more. The remedy for this is in the budgetary process itself. A better designed format (e.g. P.P.B.S. format) is a good safeguard against this problem.

V. VIREMENT

11. Closely related to the function of incurring expendi­ture are:

(i) approval of deviations from budgeted/estimated/ contracted expenditure patterns

and (ii) virement or transfer of funds from one item of expenditure to another.

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Both these can be problems if one is not thoroughly familiar with the procedures laid down by the relevant financial orders/ regulations. In every organization, deviations and transfer are provided for as essential means of ensuring flexibility of action — a factor so important for the effective function­ing of the organization. But the mechanism of approval can sometimes be either too complicated (for which simplification is the solution) or outdated (in which case updating is called for) .

12. The multi-tiered approval mechanism in financial con­trol acts continuously as a means of reducing administrative authority. The financial rules are generally not as restric­tive as one would wish to complain. But the problem is that they have not been updated as conditions change. For instance, a financial rule which empowers an administrative officer like a Head of Department to vary a contract upto Rs. 1000/- with­out prior Treasury authority has a strange way of reducing the power of the officer as devaluation and inflation change the purchasing power of the rupee. If in the 'thirties, when the rule came into existence, he could, within the authorized ceiling change the entire design of the roof or internal par­titioning, or even build an additional room, what he can do today is perhaps to add only another window!

The reduction in authority which has mere passage of levels but also trivial matters them.

time not only causes clogs the that were

machinery

thus taken frustration

place by at

at higher levels never intended to come up

lower with to

13. A revision of regulations and re-definina the delega­tion of financial authority will, no doubt, be the obvious solution to all these problems. But the reluctance shown by those in authority to attempt them shows that the over­riding problem is one of attitude rather than administrative difficulty. Those who derive their power and influence by being able to exercise financial control over even trivial items may, quite naturally, be reluctant to renounce them, specially in highly stratified administrative hierarchies as we find in many developing countries. Some of them are con­vinced that their roles are indispensable to proper manage­ment of public funds and establish their claims with im­pressive accounts of funds saved and frauds averted.

14. While accepting the importance of the "checks and balances" to prevent excesses and abuses in any form of ad­ministration, one should examine the steps generally taken in the name of financial control and evaluate them not only against savings and economies but also in relation to the efficient achievement of the objectives of the administration.

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What one expects is a change in the attitude of the finan­cial administrator towards looking at the whole picture — to see himself not only as a brake but also as part of the steering and traction mechanism. But attitudes do not change unless correspondingly strong forces militate against them. And one such force can be generated by introducing certain structural changes in the accounting system.

VI. STRUCTURAL CHANGES IN THE ACCOUNTING SYSTEM

15. It is important that the educational planner or admi­nistrator develops a fair understanding of the accounting system of his organization. The usual tendency is to leave accounting or, more specifically book-keeping, as a routine operation to be handled by accountants. In fact, most edu­cational administrators tend to regard it as a tedious acti­vity with little management value — conceived and designed to satisfy prying auditors! This attitude to accounting has a number of repercussions, detrimental to educational develop­ment; viz.

(a) the educational administrator throws away unwittingly all the opportunities he has for getting the maximum benefits of the financial allocations made to his organization or in­stitution;

(b) he becomes overdependent on his accounting colleagues whose objective could be very different from what he wants to achieve for his organization;

(c) he loses the chance he has to use the accounting system as the generator of vital financial and cost data which he needs for his planning and management functions ; and

(d) he fails to use effectively a very useful control mechanism by which the rate of progress of his organization or institution could be watched, regulated and enhanced.

Whenever you are faced with the problem that funds are not available for a particular activity that you propose, you should ask yourself the question: DO I KNOW THE ACCOUNTING SYSTEM WELL ENOUGH NOT TO HAVE MISSED THE POTENTIAL SOURCES OR MEANS FOR GETTING THE NEEDED FUNDS?

16. One should not be surprised to discover the financial procedures of any country give a fair amount of latitude for

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15 -

(i) application of savings from one activity to another ;

(ii) requisition of new funds for special purposes from emergency or contingency funds ;

(iii) incurring liabilities against funds due to be available in the future; and

(iv) inter-departmental or inter-agency loaning and transfer of resources;

and so forth.

All that one should know is the prescribed procedure with its series of forms and approvals. Here the educational adminis­trator needs personal knowledge and understanding. If he relies on his accounting staff all he may hear is that there is no precedent for such action. This argument only means: the rules allow it but we have not done it before. Why rock the boat now? It is to be remembered that all departures from established routine are inconvenient and troublesome to the originator and suspected by his superiors particularly when money is involved. But an effective administrator would balance the importance of achieving his objectives with such inconvenience or risk. After all, inconvenience and risk are inevitable professional hazards in the life of an administra­tor.

17. The other main reason why the educational administra­tor should be familiar with his accounting system is that the accounts provide the most reliable of educational data. Data gleanable from books of accounts, relating to numbers of schools and teachers, teachers' qualifications, condition of facilities etc. have often been found to be more accurate than data collected through statistical surveys. As we have already pointed out in our discussion on financial analysis, these very valuable data remain unutilized or underutilized by most educational planners and administrators. To them the accounts books might appear to be unconventional sources of statistical information. But they are the only good ones for financial and cost data. The more one uses the data obtainable from the accounts, the greater the chance for the accounting system to be developed into a regular generator and provider of the required information. That is one of the points where structural changes in the accounting 6ystem would be required.

18. Another point demanding structural changes in the accounting system would arise when one identifies bottle­necks, obstructions and other impediments to smooth execution of an activity caused by the accounting procedures. Delays

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in the acquisition of property, supplies and services and the contribution made to such delays by equally complicated payment procedures are far too well known to be recounted in detail. The delays are invariably caused by a complex accounting procedure, which remains complex and time-consum­ing simply because no one had tried to streamline the opera­tions .

Rationalization or simplification of procedures is a re­gular function of an administrator. The accounting system and its financial procedures would be a high priority area for reform in any country or agency.

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TEST AND APPLY YOUR KNOWLEDGE

How exhaustive is the list of nine functions of financial management discussed in this lesson unit?

What is the importance of cost data in planning and management? What main considerations apply-to the "calculation of "standard costs"?

Why is "incurring expenditure" described as a peculiar stumbling block? What safeguards should a manager take?

What is your attitude to financial rules and regulations in your organization? Do you agree with the position taken in this lesson?

Why should the educational administrator be aware of and concerned with the accounting system?

COMPARE YOUR ANSWERS WITH THOSE OVERLEAF

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SUGGESTED ANSWERS

Go over the list as given in paragraph 3. You may wish to see some items like banking, negotiations for extra-budgetary resources and foreign aid, loan arrangements included in this list. The list of nine consists of the basic components of financial management and most items you could think of will go into one of them.

Cost data is basic information for all plann­ing and management decision-making. Without a realistic use of that information, no or­ganization could use its resources effectively to achieve the organizational aspects. Stan­dard costs are refined unit costs which are carefully calculated so as to give a basis for costing plans or projects. Costs depend on policies. So in projecting unit costs, they must be analysed into components and each component considered in the light of relevant policies. (See paragraphs 7 and 8).

Because it tends to get overlooked, resulting in delays (See paragraph 9), a manager has to be fully aware of the procedures with regard to incurring expenditure — particularly as regards post-review procedures. Paragraph 10 suggests remedial action where problems are likely to be encountered.

Your attitude may possibly be negative. It is possible you consider these rules and re­gulations to be obstructive. To what extent is it due to your own lack of mastery over the rules and regulations? A very thorough study of them would help to change your attitude.

Because it would improve his efficiency considerably. See the four reasons given in paragraph 15. Read also paragraphs 16-18.

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ADDITIONAL READING

Edding, F., Methods of Analysing Educational Outlay. Unesco, Paris, 1966.

Reifman, L. (éd.). Financing of Education for Economic Growth, OECD, Paris, 1966.

Weston, J.F. and Brigham, E.F., Managerial Finance. 3rd éd.. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York, 1970.

Nouic, D. (ed.) Program Budgeting. 2nd éd., Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York, 1969.

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II

PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT

OBJECTIVES

When you have studied this unit, you should be able to

get a broad overview of various types of action that constitute personnel management;

assess your role in personnel management whether specifically charged with such responsibility or not;

identify major principles of action relating to main elements of personnel management; and

analyse the major problems relating to personnel management and evolve solutions.

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II

PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT

I. INTRODUCTION

1. Every manager deals with several subordinates. As such he has to perform certain functions of personnel manage­ment. Whether he is in charge of an institution like a school or a college or an office or is responsible for insti­tutions in a given geographical area, a fair portion of his time and energy has to be devoted to the management of educa­tional personnel — both teachers and non-teaching supportive staff. Invariably the success or otherwise of the manager is determined to a very great extent by his capacity to maintain an efficient, devoted and coopérative staff. Hence the im­portance of personnel management.

2. Personnel Management is a specialized field demanding from the manager several important qualities of both mind and heart. Whether you are specifically designated as a personnel manager or not, you have to perform some functions in personnel management. The purpose of the lesson unit is to give a broad overview of various types of action that constitute personnel management. We will also discuss some of the management prin­ciples which contribute towards greater efficiency in personnel management.

II. WHAT IS PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT?

3. In short, it is that aspect of management which deals with the people who constitute an organization. All organi­zations are constituted of people who choose to work in it primarily because it enables them to satisfy some at least of their personal needs. These personal needs are not ne­cessarily congruous with the needs and objectives of an orga­nization. Sometimes, they can even be conflicting. But, ordinarily, a person works for an organization as long as the balance between his own personal needs and those of the orga­nization is in his favour.

Hence, one of the basic objectives of personnel manage­ment is to ensure a fair balance between the personal needs of employees and the needs of the organization.

4. Personnel Management deals with following elements relating to the personnel of an organization:

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(a) Job Analysis and Description

(b) Wage and salary administration

(c) Recruitment

(d) Placement and promotion

(e) Transfer

if) Training and professional growth

(g) Performance assessment and report

(h) Discipline

(i) Trade Union Relations

(j) Welfare

Let us examine the content of each of these elements.

III. JOB ANALYSIS AND DESCRIPTION

5. Whenever an organization is created or expanded and whenever new functions are assigned to an organization, the first task is to determine how many persons are needed, of what skills and qualifications and to do what work. The criterion is organizational efficiency and effectiveness.

Efficiency demands that the least number of persons with the least operational costs should do the work, while effectiveness necessitates that the objectives of the organization are achieved fully with the highest consu­mer satisfaction.

6. Job analysis and description is the process by which a personnel manager determines the number as well as the kind and qualifications of employees to be recruited to an organi­zation. The tasks to be performed are compiled and time-scheduled. Then those that require the same skills, qualifi­cations and experience are grouped together. The number of man-days required for each such group gives an indication as to whether the organization needs full-time or part-time personnel and for what length of time. Each group of func­tions which required a 'person (full-time or part-time) con­stitutes a post.

Job analysis results in identifying the posts that an organization needs.

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7. Job description is the phase when tfc? qualifications expected of a person to be recruited to the post are worked out. Qualifications for a post range from age, language skills, and educational level to experience in similar or related jobs. Some qualifications are obligatory while some others may be specified as advantageous or preferred. Job description begins with a statement of the functions which, on the basis of job analysis, have been identified for the post concerned.

8. The net result of job analysis and description is a short document which is generally called a "Job Description". In some countries of the Asian Region, a Job Description is referred to as a "Scheme of Recruitment". Whatever it is called, it contains the basic information to

(a) enable a person interested in the post to assess himself as an eligible candidate;

(b) enable the appointing authority to determine that the person it selects is the most suitable to perform the functions of the post; and

(c) provide a reference point for both the employer and employee as regards expectations and obliga­tions connected with the post.

As such a Job Description is a very important document and calls for great care in its preparation.

9. A part of a Job Description relates co salaries, allowances, perquisites ("perks") and such other compensa­tions attached to the post. Decisions relating to these are taken on the basis of what is sometimes called Job Evaluation. Usually an organization operates on the basis of certain cate­gories and grades of personnel. We are used to categories such as Staff Officers or Professional Staff; Secretarial or Clerical Staff, minor 6taff and so on. In each category are grades or classes. What a personnel manager does whenever a new post is created is to locate it in the appropriate category and grade or class. If the post does not fit an existing grade, his effort is to equate it to the nearest so as to fix the salary, allowances and perquisites. In doing so, several factors, besides the functions of the post, are taken into consideration: among them are age and educational qualifications; nature and length of experience; relative popularity or hardships of the duty station; the market value of the skills demanded and the availability of persons with the required qualifications.

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IV. WAGE AND SALARY ADMINISTRATION

10. Job evaluation results in fixing salaries, allowances and perquisites for posts in an organization. This is not a once-for-all affair. Posts keep on changing according to growth and functional transformation of an organization. New jobs are added. Old jobs are abolished or modified. New demands are made by the market value of the skills required for such posts. This necessitates the continuing function of Wage and Salary Administration. In most organizations, there is a Personnel or Establishment Unit, which handles requests for changes in salaries, allowances and perquisites. At the national level, the function is often centralized at the level of the Ministry of Finance, Public Administration or the Civil/ Public Service Commission. But each Ministry or Department has its own Establishment or Personnel Division in order to examine and formulate its requests.

11. One of the more complex functions under this element of personnel administration is to authorize ad hoc or special allowances to personnel doing some special work or working under certain circumstances. The main difficulty here is that such allowances should not upset the salary structure or create discontentment among others who handle similar work or work under similar circumstances without the benefit of additional allowances. The same applies to bonuses and special perks relating to housing and transport.

The task of Personnel Management, in this respect, is to compensate the deserving without upsetting the prevailing balance in salaries and allowances.

E. RECRUITMENT

12. Recruitment is the process of employing the most suit­able person to fill a vacant post. This consists of

(i) labour market survey, to ensure that places where eligible candidates exist are located;

(ii) scientific selection procedures, to ensure that a process of identifying the best candidate is put in operation; and

(iii) employee orientation which ensures that every new recruit is inducted into the organization's working procedures.

13. In educational management, the main market from which personnel is drawn appears to be the teaching service. In recent times. Universities are proving to be important sources of personnel particularly at the higher levels. Quite often

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one hear? of the need to infuse "new blood" into the educa­tional management machinery. Specially in r ¡lation to voca­tional and technical education, the importance of interchang­ing personnel between educational institutions and industrial/ business/agricultural enterprises is repeatedly emphasized. To find out as many sources of personnel as possible is an important task of personnel management.

14. Selection procedures are often designed for the purpose of "short-listing" candidates through a process of elimination. Thus, unfortunately, criteria not related to the professional effectiveness of the candidates receive greater weightage. For example, a decision like excluding from the "short list" all those with less than second class honours or deans honour list at the first University degree is based on such a criterion. It is quite possible that the best person for the job is among those excluded on such a criterion. Sometimes, written exami­nations are used for the same purpose of elimination, specially if the examination is designed to test scholastic attainment. Similarly, interviews are utilized with criteria such as per­sonality, presentability, speaking skills as the deciding factors. Private industry has concentrated on perfecting methodologies for selection. Some of them are known to go through a very elaborate procedure involving psychological and aptitude tests, simulated exercises and even a period of living under observation. How much of these are feasible in educational management depends on the recruiting procedures in each country. But one thing is important. Most organiza­tions need to change their selection procedures in order to improve the quality of the personnel.

15. Employee orientation is dealt with htre as a part of the recruitment function, although, sometimes, it is connect­ed with training. What is done as employee orientation is not so much to train the new recruit as to giving him a basic understanding of the nature of the organization, its rules and regulations, systems and procedures and the rights and obligations of employees.

F. PLACEMENT. TRANSFER. PROMOTION AND DISCHARGE

16. Following the recruitment is the function of placing the new recruit in his working situation. This is often a formality if an individual is recruited to a particular post. But where a batch of new recruits is selected for a number of parallel posts, then placement calls for the settlement of criteria and assessment of each recruit against such criteria.

17. Transfer, promotion and discharge are day-to-day operations of personnel management and consume most time and energy.

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Transfer can be a very complex operation in most countries where educational institutions are far-flung and most of them located in remote rural areas. In a number of Asian countries, the transfer of teachers forms a major manage­ment activity, having enormous administrative as well as political implications.

Promotion can be an equally difficult task in view of the large numbers involved and the keen competition for the few jobs at the higher echelons.

A major concern of educational to rationalize guarantee fair ference

procedures for administrators has transfer and promot

play and to minimize political and external pressures •

been ion

inter-to

G. PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT AMD REPORT

18. Connected with transfer, promotion and discharge is the function of performance assessment and report. Every organization has some mechanism for periodic evaluation of employees ' performance, which is recorded in the form of a confidential personal report.

The usual system is to get the immediate supervisor to fill the bulk of such a report. Comments of higher officials are then added progressively until the final note, which is by the most senior official of the Divi­sion or Department, summarizes the assessment in terms of the employees' eligibility for promotion or special assignment.

In some countries, the report has to be discussed with the employee concerned. In others, adverse comments are brought to his notice. In almost all cases, the employee has the right to protest wherever he feels that the report is not fair or adequate.

19. Performance assessment involves merit-rating. Again in private industries, merit-rating, which goes hand in hand with rewards for good work, receives more attention than in government service. Techniques with complex.systems of testing and reporting have been devised for this purpose.

H. TRAINING AND PROFESSIONAL GROWTH

20. Another very important element in personnel manage­ment relates to Training and Professional Growth. This in­volves several specific activities, namely:

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1. formal training activities

pre-eervice pre-assignment (orientation) pre-promotion

- on-the-job in-service off-the-job in-service

2. informal training activities

study tours, lectures, seminars, workshops etc. - correspondence programmes

manuals and guides technical literature

3. exchange of knowledge and experience

periodicals/bulletins forums/discussion groups

Staff development, as these activities may be collectively called, is fundamental to the efficiency, the effectiveness and the continuity of an organization.

21. Where a variety of duties, responsibilities, skills and attitudes is involved as in educational management, the training and retraining of the personnel is extremely im­portant as they move from echelon to echelon. Besides, the rapid advances in concepts, methods and techniques call for continuous upgrading.

What appears most urgent in educational management are informal training activities and opportunities for ex­change of knowledge and experience.

1. DISCIPLINE

22. The maintenance of discipline is another important function of personnel management. Every organization has its own rules and regulations on the conduct of its employees — what they cannot do and what needs the approval of higher authorities. These rules and regulations make provisions for punishing those who violate them. In addition, they also provide the manner in which inquiries are to be conducted. In some instances, there are also codes of conduct, deter­mined and enforced by the employees themselves. These, too, provide for procedures of investigation.

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23. Like transfer and promotion, disciplinary procedures consume a fair proportion of management times. In one Asian country upto 40% of the working time of educational adminis­trators of the regional level was found to be taken up by inquiries, reports on appeals and such other matters relating to discipline. The need to adhere to tenets of natural jus­tice demands that the accused be given every opportunity and facility to exculpate himself. Hence the usual provisions for a long and complicated procedure. Appeals against punish­ments are similarly provided for. A hierarchy of authorities, reaching sometimes to judicial courts and the highest national authorities, is connected with these appeals.

Servicing these authorities with reports, clarifications and justifications also forms a significant load of work in personnel management.

J. TRADE UNION RELATIONS

24. If the employees of an organization have organized themselves into trade unions or staff associations, the function of maintaining relations with them is a responsibi­lity of personnel management. Employees have problems and grievances, both individual and collective, for whose redress they make representations through their trade unions.

An experienced personnel manager usually welcomes active trade unions in his organization and they can be useful "sounding boards" for policies and decisions affecting the staff. Their advice can help him to draw the maximum cooperation of the employees. Further, an atmosphere on mutual trust and understanding, once established between the personnel office and the trade unions, is a signifi­cant asset.

25. Good relations with trade unions require not only a friendly attitude towards them but also a serious effort to develop an effective machinery for grievance handling. Joint Committees comprising personnel managers on one side and trade unions on the other have proved to be effective in many organizations. Consultations with representatives of trade unions on major decisions affecting employees have become a common feature* In some organizations, even appointments, transfers, promotions and disciplinary action are subject to the advice of trade union. There are instances when trade unions handle programmes of training and professional growth as well as staff welfare.

26. Two aspects of trade union relations demand skills of negotiation and tact. They are (1) collective bargaining when terms and conditions of service are subjected to

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negotiation with a view of evolving an agreed settlement and (2) arbitration when :disputes are to be resolved through quasi -judicial procedures. In both these, the qualities of the heart have a greater .'impact.

K. WELFARE

27. The last, but not the least, important element of personnel management is welfare. This includes the provision and the administration of the following:

(i) Health and safety

(ii) Housing

(iii) Food and recreation

(iv) Mutual aid at times of distress

(v) Education of children

(vi) credit services and

(vii) Pension and Provident Fund benefits.

Welfare of employees is not to be regarded as a social service or a charitable activity. It is an investment in improving the morale of an organization.

L. PROBLEMS IN PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT

28. We have so far discussed in some detail the elements which constitute personnel management. Theve are a number of common problems which educational management systems face in many of the countries of the Asian Region. They can be summarized as follows:

(i) Inadequacy of attention paid to personnel management — Often it is not regarded as a specialized function. Every administrator is expected to be a good personnel manager. Without the qualities of the head and the heart, we discussed, and the skills of ne­gotiation, tact and sympathetic involvement, most administrators fail in personnel manage­ment. Examples are adequately frequent in all our countries to need further elaboration of this problem.

(ii)• Absence of a Human Relations Approach — Personnel Management is the real testing ground for principles of Human Relations. Most grievances have a highly personal — hence emotional — ring. In handling them, much can be gained by sympathetic listening, friendly persuasion, and a resilient and flexible attitude to rules and regulations.

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(iii) Narrowness of personnel management functions — Personnel management is often confined to recruitment, transfer, promotion, discharge and disciplinary action. The other important functions such as training and professional growth and welfare do not figure at all. In the absence of a comprehensive coverage of all functions, the more constructive aspects of personnel management tend to be neglected.

(iv) Absence of Personnel Policies — Overall personnel policies are necessary for personnel managers at different levels to make homogeneous decisions. In their absence, contradictory decisions which, when applied to individuals, give the impression of unfairness and discrimi­nation become unavoidable. Apart from the adverse affect they have on the morale of an organization, remedial action in the form of grievance handling and redress consume too much time and energy.

(v) Inadequacy, inaccuracy and unreliability of personnel records — As in the case of personnel policies, records have a major role in ensuring uniformity of personnel decisions. When records are faulty, such action as transfer, promotion and disciplinary action can be founded on wrong premises — resulting in discontentment. In wage and salary administration, in particular, records play an important role. Retrievability of information for comparison is as important as the accuracy of the records. The use of modern techniques of record-keeping for ready retrieval cannot be overemphasized. Education specially has such large numbers of employees as to warrant the use of computers for this purpose.

(vi) Non-involvement of employees in decisions affecting them — Participatory management has its greatest relevance in personnel management. Employees want to know that the "Game is fair" and the best way to let them know it is to involve them in personnel decisions. This also means that cooperative attitudes have to be adopted toward trade unions.

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M. CONCLUSION

29. The above discussion on the nature and problems of personnel management would have shown you the importance of streamlining this aspect of educational management. Every­one of you functions as a personnel manager every time you handle the functions discussed in this Unit. In fact, your role as a personnel manager becomes overshadowed by your role as a programme manager, who has other criteria in mind than a satisfied and contented staff. These need not be in conflict.

What we emphasize here is that the morale of an organiza­tion is an extremely important pre-requisite to its effi­ciency and effectiveness.

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37

TEST AND APPLY YOUR KNOWLEDGE

Question 1: Why is personnel management the most crucial aspect of managing an organization?

Question 2: Could you add to the list of ten elements of personnel management discussed in this lesson unit? Are there any elements which you consider superfluous or irrelevant?

Question 3: What is employment orientation? What is its importance with regard to organizational effectiveness?

Question 4: Analyse the use of your working time. How much of it is devoted to personnel management? Analyse your personnel management functions into the ten elements discussed in this lesson unit. Which elements consume most of your time? Why?

Question 5; What problems do you encounter in personnel management? Compare your problems with those listed in the lesson unit.

COMPARE YOUR ANSWERS WITH THOSE OVERLEAF

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SUGGESTED ANSWERS

To Question 1:

To Question 2:

To Question 3;

To Question 4:

To Question 5:

People constitute the most important component of any organization. People work in an organization as long as there is a balance between their indi­vidual needs and the needs of the orga­nization. If there is no such balance and the people feel that their individual needs are not taken care of, either they leave the organization or their morale deteriorates. Personnel management is charged with the responsibility of main­taining this balance.

It would be useful to examine the list in paragraph 4 with your own experience. It is possible that some of these elements do not receive adequate attention where you work. It is important to find out how that has happened.

However well qualified and experienced a person is he has to be oriented to the new organization at the time of his recruitment. In fact a similar orientation must take place every time a person is assigned a new job or a responsibility or transferred to a new unit or place. Unless this is done systematically, one spends for too long a time learning things about the new job or place. In the meantime, he could also be making mistakes, which he would have avoided if he was properly oriented.

This is a very useful exercise. You may find that you devote for too much of time to displinary matters and transfers and for too little to training and professional growth or welfare. Once you recognize personnel management to be a positive morale-building operation, you would change your scale of emphasis.

In paragraph 28 are given six common problems. Compare your problems with these.

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41

ADDITIONAL READING

Most standard textbooks on management would have a chapter on personnel management:

e.g. Albert Lepawsky: Administration (Oxford Univ. Press) - Chapter 14.

Leonard D. White: Introduction to the Study of Public Administration (Eurasia Publishing House) - Chapter 21-30.

Morris E. Hurley: Business Administration (Prentice-Hall) Chapter 11.

If you are only interested in a general knowledge of the subject, you may read some of these chapters. If a thorough knowledge is aimed at, the following would be useful:

Strauss & Sayles: Personnel (Prentice-Hall)

Martina & Halford (eds.): Management and its People (T'r- porevale, Bombay)

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III

INSTITUTIONAL MANAGEMENT

OBJECTIVES

When you have studied this unit,you should be able to

understand the importance of clarifying the external links -- legal, conventional, procedural or functional - which an institution has to maintain;

analyse the causes of friction between an institution and its supervisory agencies;

recognize the significance of institutional planning ;

- understand the concept of "multiple resource" and use it to advantage in institutional planning;

- identify problems of interpersonal relations in an institution and evolve solutions for them;

recognize the advantages of participatory manage­ment in relation to an institution;

- understand the importance of renewing the organi­zational structure of an institutions as objectives And function change ; and

identify skills to be acquired to ensure neatness and efficiency in the house-keeping functions of an institution.

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III

INSTITUTIONAL MANAGEMENT

I. INTRODUCTION

1. In this lesson unit, we take a closer look at the management problems of educational institutions. A system of education comprises a variety of institutions:

i.e. administrative (e.g. bureaus/offices)

research and development (e.g. Curriculum Development Centres, Textbook Production Services, Research Institutions etc.)

teaching (e.g. Universities, Colleges, Polytechnics, Schools etc.)

Supporting Services (School Building Services, Planning Offices etc.)

Management problems of each type of educational institutions could be many and specific. We shall, therefore, consider only some of the common elements, which apply to almost all institutions.

II. INSTITUTION IN RELATION TO THE REST OF THE SYSTEM -LEGAL AND FUNCTIONAL LINKS

2. No institution exists in isolation. The administra­tor's first task, therefore, is to understand the manner in which his institution is linked with the rest of the educa­tional system. His basic source of information would be the legal document (e.g. charters, education laws, decrees or orders) by which the institution was established. Such a document would invariably define

(a) the source from which the institution draws its authority, including the nature of its account­ability - to whom and in what manner;

(b) the management structure provided for the institution - i.e. the advisory/executive bodies with their constitution and functions and th officers of the institution with their functions and the mode of appointment;

(c) the lines of authority;

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(d) the sources of finance and its accounting and auditing procedure; and

(e) the boundaries of its autonomy and procedures for the exercise of that autonomy.

3. If an institution is not founded on a legal document, it is still necessary that the administrator should acquaint himself with conventions and precedents relating to these matters. For instance, a private educational institution would have grown over several decades with none of the pro­cedures specifically defined. But the administrator would soon find that it still has links with external agencies to which it is accountable and on whom it depends for its au­thority and resources.

To know them thoroughly is to

(a) Maximize his freedom for initiative and decision-making;

(b) Enhance his capacity for quick action by proper use of procedures and exceptions; and

(c) Identify for correction such difficulties as may be unintentionally created by laws or conventions.

4. In respect of some institutions, the authority struc­ture could be quite complex. Consider the following examples:

(i) A School-building Unit, administratively account­able to the Ministry of Education and technically supervised by the Public Works Department.

(ii) A Textbook Production Unit, jointly controlled by the Curriculum Development Centre and the National Book Production Corporation.

(iii) A private College/School, managed by an indepen­dent board of management but strictly supervised by the Ministry of Education.

Friction among such multiple supervisory agencies is a major problem which could complicate the administrator's work. To know where such friction could arise and how to cope with them while maintaining the neutrality expected of him is vital to the effectiveness of an institutional administrator.

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5. Besides the links relating to authority, accountabi­lity and resources, there are functional 1Lnks which bind an institution with the rest of the educational system. In some instances, such links are easily identified but in others the pattern could be quite complex. In an institution like the Textbook Production Unit, the functional links may be with the Curriculum Development Centre which provides the curricula, teams of textbook writers and illustrators who produce the manuscripts, selected schools where the texts are pretested, the printing agency which prints the books and a vast number of commercial outlets through which the books are distributed. Yet, its links are more easily identified than those of a public primary school, where the head of the schools has to maintain functional links with several echelons of the educa­tion ministry for various purposes (e.g. staffing from head­quarters, payments from regional office, stores from local supervisor), besides being supervised by an inspector/super­visor of schools as regards instructional aspects, and in­spector of school works regarding the condition and use of school facilities, and a health inspector with reference to health and nutrition of pupils. In addition, he has to main­tain functional links with a variety of local officials who are increasingly making the schools the centres of their operations and the teachers and pupils — their main inlet to the community; such officers deal with important nationaJL services like national savings campaigns, food production, cooperative movement, family planning etc. etc. It is also, possible that he also handles a feeding programme which would bring him under the supervision of a bilateral or multilateral aid-giving agency.

6. Sometimes, the functional links extand to institutions outside the educational system.

When functional links are created, the institutional administrator has to undertake a twofold responsibility:

(i) To regulate the impact of various demands made on him by these agencies so as to ensure that the primary objectives of the institution are not jeopardized; and

(ii) To afford maximum facilities for these agencies to operate effectively within the framework of the institution.

These apparently contradictory responsibilities are bound to consume a fair amount of the time and energy of the administrator. Firmness of purpose and tact are both necessary for him to minimize the difficulties created by them.

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III. INSTITUTIONAL PLANNING

7. Once the legal and functional links which the institu­tion has to maintain with external agencies are clearly under­stood, the administrator should proceed to plan the function­ing and the growth of his institution. However small an in­stitution is, its functional effectiveness can be enhanced with institutional planning. Even where an institution's activities are intertwined with those of several others and hence subject to unforeseeable contingencies, an effort at planning would provide very useful insights. Institutional planning is indispensable when the institution is large and involves the coordination of many interacting components to achieve its objectives, (e.g. a University, a textbook or teaching aids production unit).

8. The fundamental aim of institutional planning is to optimize the utilization of all available resources for the accomplishment of institutional objectives.

The process of matching objectives with resources at the institutional level has a special dimension which is not as much pronounced in other areas of planning. The inti­mate contact which the institutional administrator has with his resources enables him to maximize the use of a particular item by exploiting every possible application.

Example I : An educational planner would go on conven­tional teacher-pupil ratio and given a teacher to a particular institution — no more than just a cipher as far as the educational planner is concerned. But inside the school, he assumes the role of a multiple resource. He has special qualifications in science and mathematics. He is interested in music and his hobby is to compose musical plays. He is an expert gardener. He is also a social worker in his spare time and takes a special interest in environmental sanitation. When all these abilities and interests are catalogued, the single teacher stands out as a multitude of resources, which the institutional admi­nistrator could, with necessary organization and in­centives, utilize for the accomplishment of a variety of institutional objectives.

Example II; For forty additional enrolments, a planner assigns a classroom to a school. But once the classroom is constructed, it is not merely forty teaching places. It could provide a corner for a class library. Enough room could be had in another corner for a mobile demonstration table for general science. The wall facing the courtyard would provide the best location for a wall newspaper while the

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outer wall on the other side could be developed into a blackboard for an open-air class. All these faci­lities are further available after school hours for programmes of community education. Thus to the in­stitutional administrator, the single classroom is a multiple resource.

This phenomenon can be summarized into a simple statement: An institution has many times more resources than are offi­cially allotted to it and most of them lie hidden to be dis­covered and exploited bv an imaginative and observant insti-tutional administrator.

9. The first step in institutional planning is to inventorize all these open and hidden resources, category by category: viz.

(i) personnel - qualifications

abilities

interests

hobbies

social activities etc.

(ii) physical facilities

planned uses

possible uses

availability for extended use

flexibility for modification

possibility for extension

Such an inventory would also reveal ways and means of generat­ing further resources for the institution. The availability of land for growing vegetables and of a teacher keen on start­ing it would lead to a new source of revenue to the school. A teacher's interest in musical plays would enable the school to stage cultural shows to finance some of its recreational activities. Similarly, a teacher's capacity to involve a school in social welfare activities would result in better school-community relations and direct help from the community to the school.

10. When all these possible resources are inventorized and assessed, the institutional administrator is in a better posi­tion to spell out his targets for the future — targets of expansion, improvement and diversification. All institutions

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would have their explicit or implicit objectives. It is the responsibility of the administrator to elaborate them into specific targets: i.e. this to be achieved by this date. The nature of the targets which an administrator identifies depends on how thorough an inventory of open, hidden and potential resources he could develop. The difference in performance of administrators managing similar institutions with similar resource allocations is entirely due to this factor. The thorough and imaginative administrator stretches his resources to a point that he achieves more impressive and meaningful targets within the same apparent resources than a less effective administrator.

11. The mere inventorization of all resources and the de­velopment of an optimum set of targets, by themselves, do not produce results. For results to be achieved, the resources have to be skillfully used. This requires a series of strate­gies. It is idle to think that anyone would part with his hidden resources unless there is some compensation for it. The teacher in our example I would ungrudgingly perform his allotted teaching functions, say, for twenty hours a week as regulations might demand. But for him to place his other talent — musical, horticultural and social — at the disposal of the school, he would expect, if not demand, certain rewards or incentives. It is a significant experience in educational management that most of the people with special talents do not always try to sell them for money. But even if the adminis­trator has to buy them by payment of special allowances from the school or by arranging participating students to pay, he should be prepared to do so, where such talents really maxi­mize the effectiveness of his institution.

Most people with special talents would seek other compen­sations like recognition, social acclaim, victory in com­petition, travel and study abroad, improved promotion prospects etc.; providing the appropriate incentive to each person and the requisite organization through which such talents are to be utilized is a primary task of the institutional administrator. Thus, the most important aspect of institutional planning relates to the develop­ment of strategies for the provision of the required or­ganization and incentives.

12. A question would arise here as to whether institutional planning is a formal activity, necessitating a step by step adherence to the planning process and leading finally to a formal plan document. Experience shows that institutional planning tends to be most successful where the approach is informal. Here we deal with ways and means of intensifying personal involvement in a creative process and less formal we are the better the commitment we draw from all parties.

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13. In the majority of the educational institutions (schools and colleges in particular), institutional planning should IK; a collective effort of not only ti ase inside the institution but also as many of the outsiders connected with it. In a school, for instance, not only teachers and parents but also parents and the general community should have a part to play in planning its development. There is no other aspect of planning more suited to participatory planning than insti­tutional planning.

IV. INTERPERSONAL RELATIONS

14. At the institutional level, interpersonal relations assume a greater significance than at any other level. Here, the people are so closely associated day in day out that in­tense friendships as well as hatreds could develop. Personal jealousies and rivalries are inevitable and, pervading the institutional organization, there exist such informal organi­zations as cliques and factions. The institutional adminis­trator has a difficult task in hand: namely, to evaluate the existing interpersonal relations within the institution and to steer clear of possible pitfalls that might result in con­fusion and disruption. To begin with, he has to recognize that an institution, as a human organization, is bound to have all the failings of humanity. To assume that his institution is an exception is to court trouble or, at least.disappoint-ment.

Knowing the informal organizations within the institution enables the administrator to use his judgement in dealing with them and, thereby, prevent rifts and rivalries which lie do-mant from coming to the foreground. His task is all the more difficult because he has to be impartial and fair to all parties and maintain the equilibrium and the integrity of the institution in order to achieve its objectives.

15. A fair portion of an institutional administrator's time and energy is devoted to the resolution of interpersonal problems. All of them may not be equally serious. Fort­unately, a fair portion of the people in an institution would subordinate their personal grievances to either their needs of security or to a magnanimous gesture of forgiving and for­getting. But too many instances of such subordination tend to convert an energetic, dedicated and hardworking member of an institution into a lazy, disinterested time-marker. It is to prevent this malaise, whose main symptom is very low in­stitutional morale, that the administrator has to be alert. It is best to sort out and resolve every interpersonal problem at the earliest possible opportunity.

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16. The morale of an institution is too vague an element to be defined. While a high level of morale may not even be noticeable, its absence could be detected from a number of symptoms: e.g. absenteeism, irregularity, unpunctuality, casual or unenthusiastic approach to one's duties, and envi­ronmental and personal sloppiness. The Human Relations Movement, which once dominated the management scene in indus­try and business, had evolved several formulae for dealing with members of an organization or institution. One of them, formulated by Roethlisberger,runs as follows:-

(a) People like to feel important and to feel that they are doing important work.

(b) They are more interested in the size of their pay packets relative to those of others than in the absolute amounts of pay.

(c) They want to be treated well by their supervisors, to be praised rather than blamed and not to have to admit their mistakes — at least not publicly.

(d) They like to know whether they are meeting ex­pectations - how well they are doing.

(e) They like to be listened to,consulted about changes that will effect them or at least warned of changes before they take place.

V. PARTICIPATORY MANAGEMENT

17. To ensure desirable interpersonal relations and to maintain a high level of morale wi thin an institution, a very promising strategy is to adopt the principles of parti­cipatory management. By this is meant a process of collec­tive decision-making in which the institutional administrator functions as the "first among equals" and adopts such leader­ship styles as are conducive to free and frank discussion. An institutional administrator could adopt several leadership styles. He could be authoritarian and lay down the law for others to follow. He could also be consultative and seek others ' views and suggestions, reserving the final decision to himself. But the kind of leadership style which ensures the highest degree of cooperation and goodwill among insti­tutional members is the democratic style.

18. The main characteristic of the democratic leadership style is that the institutional members are taken into confidence and involved in the decision-making process. Not only are matters discussed from various points of view but the final decision is hammered out with due consideration to differences of opinion and approach.

.../

- 53 -

It is often a time-consutiing process. But the advan­tages of a higher degree of commitment of institutional members outweigh this constraint. |

19. Educational institutions have .traditionally, favoured participatory management. Most University charters provide for a hierarchy of councils, boards, committees etc. enabling the participation of a large cross-section of university members in the decision-making process. In recent years, the tendency has been to extend this right of participation to representatives of students as well.

20. In institutions where a charter or a constitution does not provide for organisms of participatory management, it is advantageous to form them even informally. Some of the best managed schools operate through a network of commit­tees, each in charge of some curricular or co-curricular activity or service. (Ad hoc committees are set up when special activities like exhibitions, school functions come up).

They go outside the school and involve parents and members of the public. It is important, to bear in mind that these committees operate not so much on what powers a constitu­tion grants them but on the range of real opportunities provided for them to undertake and be responsible for a concrete job of work.

VI. INSTITUTIONAL ORGANIZATION

21. What we have so far discussed relates to a number of basic principles of management which are of jpecial advantai.2 to the administrator of an educational institution. We shall now direct our attention to a continuing operation which is of vital importance. As we have already discussed under the topic of "What is Organization?", any institution which an administrator inherits from the past or sets up by himself/, is an organization designed to provide the operational frame­work for a given set of activities.

As time goes on, the objectives change and the activities to be performed by the organization undergo corresponding transformation. Besides, the initial grouping of re­sources— buildings, men, materials -- is continually changed. Similarly, technological advancements and méthodologie improvements modify the modes of operation and procedures. As a result of such continuous and rapid changes, an institution is constantly undergoing change.

../

- 54 -

22. It is the responsibility of the institutional adminis­trator to maintain the organizational and procedural structure of the institution abreast of all these changes. This has to be achieved through a process of continuous reorganization and renewal. A major complaint against educational institutions — mainly schools, colleges and universities — is that they had remained stagnant and unresponsive to change. .

23. The process of continuous reorganization and renewal of an institution begins with a careful analysis of the new objectives and targets which it is required to accomplish. Very often, such objectives and targets are not explicitly assigned to an institution. Hence it is necessary for it to have a mechanism by which the needs, wishes and aspirations of the clientele are analysed with a view to identifying emerging objectives and targets. The usual method has been to appoint advisory councils or periodical commissions of inquiry for this purpose. While their usefulness is not de­cried, periodical analysis of such factors by the institutional members, themselves, has to be recommended as more effective.

24. The emerging picture of new objectives and targets would dictate the nature of activities which the institution has to undertake. At this point, the administrator's taks is to match the available personnel — their skills, experience and insights — as well as their organizational grouping with the new acti­vities. The question to be answered by him is: how well can the available resources be regrouped to undertake the new activities? Sometimes, the activities, by themselves, are not new and the newness comes in as a result of changes in metho­dology or technology. In that case, he has to ask a further question as to whether the institution needs new knowledge and skills. Are they to be acquired by recruiting new personnel or retraining the existing personnel? The same kind of ques­tions have to be formulated in respect of buildings, materials, methods of work and procedures. How far should the existing ones be modified and what has to be developed anew? Renewing all these aspects of an institution in terms of answers to such questions has to be a regular function.

25. If educational institutions are to be change-responsive in the manner described above, they would find a need to group and re-group in quick succession their personnel and other resources to meet various challenges as they arise. Most mo­dern institutions are experiencing the need to operate through task forces of highly skilled personnel, organized into an outfit for a short duration of time and disbanded after the job is done. They, in another combination, would form similar task forces to tackle other jobs.

.../

- 35 -

This principle, known as "Ad-Hóp-Racy", i assuming a greater significance in relation to educational institu­tions. Thus the administrator has to be a purveyor of skills and talents which he has to group together for special tasks. Similarly, he has to exercise great vigi­lance to ensure that skills and talents of his own insti­tution are not taken away from him at times he needs them.

VII. BUSINESS ASPECTS OF INSTITUTIONAL MANAGEMENT

26. The bothersome aspects of institutional management relate to such mundane affairs as purchase of materials, financial transactions, maintenance of buildings, vehicles and equipment, disbursement of travel expense etc. Due to the large number as well as the relative smallness of educa­tional institutions, the institutional administrator has to assume these responsibilities even if neither by training nor by inclination he is capable of attending to them. The resulting confusion is too well known and the principal victim is the professional work of the institution.

It has to be emphasized that neat housekeeping contributes immensely to the smooth running of an institution. Hence an institutional administrator has to acquaint himself with procedures, rules and regulations, forms and account­ing formats which govern his housekeeping functions. They are usually not as complex as one would wish to imagine.

27. There are two aspects of business mnagement in whirh the institutional administrator's (as well as his professional colleagues') involyement is vital: they are -

(i) Budgeting; and

(ii) Design of buildings, furniture and equipment.

Both these are management activities with far-reaching impli­cations. The budget, as we have discussed, is the instrument by which authorization is obtained for the application of cer­tain resources over a certain period to achieve the institu­tional objectives. Budgeting is a creative activity in the sense that it provides opportunities for change and innova­tion. If an institution does not get a budget which is de­signed for its current programme, pace of work and modes of operation, its progress can be hampered for the entire du­ration of the budget. Hence the need for high level involve­ment.

.../

- 56 -

28. Similarly, in the provision of physical facilities, the constraints, which could a'ffect the entire working of the institution, its future activities and potentiality for growth, have to receive the due consideration of the admi­nistrator and his professional colleagues. Here, the impli­cations go far beyond those of the budget, because facilities once erected could by utilized for several decades and alter-, ations are both cumbersome and costly.

VIII. SPECIAL PROBLEMS OF SOME EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS

29. Research and Development Institutions; The adminis­trators of such institutions are often hampered by the appli­cation of regular administrative regulations of governments, which tend to be rigid and hence unsuitable for the nature and pace of their work. To achieve flexibility of action within such regulations, suitable internal procedures have to be developed. Participatory planning and management have a special significance to these institutions. (See lesson unit no. 47)

30. Institutions of Nonformal Education: These institu­tions face similar problems as above. The problems created by administrative regulations could be further complicated by rigid academic practices such as formal examinations, cer­tification and awards, which some of them have adopted. Pro­cedural, reform to guarantee the nonformality of Nonformal Education would appear to be urgently needed in such cases.

IX. CONCLUSION

This discussion on institutional management highlighted

(1) the importance of having a first hand knowledge of the legal and functional links which an insti­tution has with the rest of the educational system as well as other related systems;

(2) the role of institutional planning and the importance of identifying open, hidden and poten­tial resources of an institution to maximize its programme of work;

(3) the part which an institutional administrator has to play in interpersonal relations for the purpose of maintaining a high level of morale;

(4) the invaluable contribution which participatory planning and management could make to the smooth running of an institution;

.../

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(5) the indispensabili^y of skills in business aspects of institutional management; and

(6) the importance of the involvement of the institutional administrator and his professional colleagues in budgeting and the design of physical facilities.

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59

TEST AND APPLY YOUR KNOWLEDGE

Do you agree that no institution exists by itself and that a thorough knowledge of its interlinkages is an essential prerequisite for the manager?

Why is the concept of multiple resource important to an institutional manager? How are hidden resources to be pressed into service?

What is the significance of interpersonal relations in an institution? What is the manager's role in regard to them?

What leadership styles could an institutional administrator adopt? Which of them is the most effective?

What is the principle of "ad-hoc-racy"? What is its significance in institutional management?

COMPARE YOUR ANSWERS WITH THOSE OVERLEAF

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SUGGESTED ANSWERS

Read paragraphs 2-6 wherein it is explained how any given institution has legal, proce­dural and functional interlinkages with the world outside. A thorough knowledge of these interlinkages is essential to a manager to fulfil his legal and procedural obligations, to maximize the services rendered by the institution and to make the best use of the opportunities available to it for development.

At the institutional level, we abandon the global approach to planning and go into details. One thing that comes out very clearly in this process is that every resource - human or material -- has many hidden dimen­sions which if known could be effectively used. The concept of "multiple resource" recognizes this fact. See paragraphs 8-10. As regards pressing them to service,a scheme of rewards and incentives becomes necessary. See para­graphs 11-13. A case is made here in favour of participatory planning as an incentive for drawing out hidden resources.

What was discussed in lesson unit 44 about the morale of organizational members applies to this answer. The manager's task is to smoothen interpersonal relations and avoid breakdowns which would lower the morale and, as a result, interfere with organizational effectiveness. Read paragraphs 14 and 15.

Three broad leadership styles are: authorita­rian, consultative, and democratic. The demo­cratic leadership style, which forms the foundation for participatory planning and management, has many advantages. Read para­graphs 17 and 18.

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"Ad-hoc-racy" refers to the concept that organizational members could be grouped and re-grouped in various combinations according to the demands of each job or problem. Such groupings could be either committees or task forces. The need for operating through such changing groups in committees or task forces is becoming more pronounced because of specializations of personnel as well as the technological complexities of jobs and pro­blems. A stereotyped organization is no longer tenable for an institution. See paragraphs 24 and 25.

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- 63 -

ADDITIONAL READING

Naik, J.P., Institutional Planning, Asian Inst, for Educational Planners and Administrators, New Delhi, 1970.

Lewis, James J., Critical Issues in Education: A Problem-Solving Guide for School Administrators. Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, 197 2.

Netzer, L.A. (éd.). Education. Administration, and Change: The Redeployment of Resources. Harper & Row, New York, 1970.

Trusty, Francis M., Administering Human Resources: A Behavioural Approach to Educational Administration. Mc Culchan, Berkeley, Cal., 1971.

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65

IV

SUPERVISION IN EDUCATION

- ADMINISTRATIVE AND ACADEMIC

OBJECTIVES

When you have studied this unit, you should be able to

(i) distinguish between administrative and academic supervision;

(ii) understand the concepts of unity of command, scalar chain and functional responsibility ;

(iii) analyse the component functions of supervision;

(iv) compare and contrast inspection and supervision in relation to educational institutions; and

(v) identify ways and means of ensuring effective academic supervision of educational institutions.

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IV

SUPERVISION IN

- ADMINISTRATIVE

EDUCATION

AND ACADEMIC

I. SUPERVISION AS A MANAGEMENT FUNCTION

1. In the Management Process of Planning-Organization-Direction-Control, SUPERVISION is conceived as a part of the function of Direction. Direction constitutes

1. initiating and taking leadership;

2. ordering and guiding;

3. motivating; and

km supervision

At the very outset, one important point has to be emphasized. That is, supervision is included along with such functions as initiating action, taking leadership, ordering and guiding as veil as motiva­ting personnel. It is not grouped under the management function of control « which includes evaluation, identification of deviations from plans or norms and corrective action.

This should clarify one of the main causes of confusion : i.e. whether supervision was a control function (i.e. evaluative in nature even if not overtly fault-finding), or a function categorizable with taking leadership and motivation.

2. This difficulty stems from a series of historical asso­ciations. What educational management developed at a very early stage of its evolution is an evaluative-cum-directional function, more appropriately called INSPECTION. Supervision is a much later concept in education and this is best demonstrated by referring to the vast literature directed at the main task of replacing the functional preferences and attitudes of inspection with more humane, understanding and cooperative attitudes of supervision. This literature keeps on contracting inspection and supervision so sharp­ly that one is left with a feeling that inspection is an unpardonable intrusion while supervision is a friendly function. The hackneyed phrase "friend, guide and philosopher", used so frequently to describe the role of an educational supervisor, conveys the content of this new concept most poignantly.

In Management, Supervision and Inspection are not alternative functions. One cannot be given up in preference to the other.

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But they have different objectives and come at different stages of the management process! supervision at the stage of Direction and inspection at the stage of Control. In order to get a better understanding of these two very essential, complementary and sequential management functions, let us forget for a moment the controversy raging in educational circles and concentrate on the management theory relating to the two functions.

3- We have often stressed that management is the process of obtaining the participation, the cooperation and the intervention of others in the accomplishment of one's organizational objectives. In this process, the ultimate organizational objective is the supply of a certain typé and quantity of goods and services. In order not to get too closely involved with industry, let us leave the production of goods out and think of the management processes of an organisation which provides -- as education does -- some kind of service to a particular clientele. In such an organization which provides a particular service, there are two important persons at the two ends of the operation. At one end is the goal-setter, the manager, who spells out the objectives, assembles the resources, sets up the working organization, energizes it into action with direction, leadership and motivation, evaluates progress and instáis remedial measures when deviations take place. At the other end is the operator, the worker, who provides the service for which the organization exists. This is the minimum possible organization, which may be illustrated as follows '•-

Manager

Operator

/But such an organization would be very unrealistic. A manager-operator ratio of 1:1 would mean that the manager for as much as 80% of his time is doubling for an operator unless he chooses to idle : e.g. a restaurant manager who also takes orders and waits at rabie. Research has shown that on an average a manager could supervise effectively and get work out of 5 to 6 operators. Beyond that number of operators, the effectiveness of supervision begins to diminish. So a full-time manager must run an organiza­tion like the following :-

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CHART I

Operator

Manager

Operator Operator Operator Operator Operator

k. If the number of operators increase, each group of five or six has to£§rought under the control of a supervisor. But this does not mean that another manager would take over a parallel organization* Here what operates is the principle of unity of command. A single organization works as an integrated whole because there is a focal point at which all goals, objectives, policies and decisions get unified. There is one person or a corporate body like a board or council that ensures that the entire organization works towards a common set of objectives and. makes, in the process, consistent policies and decisions.

5> This Unity of Command is exercised through a hierarchical system oi supervision called the Scalar Chain, otarting from the highest person in authority in an organisation and going down to the operator, who is at the lowest level. The principle of limit­ing the number of subordinates supervised by a person to five or six would start from the highest authority and would go down step by step, as illustrated in Chart II.

With each of OMs, AMs and SDs supervising six subordinates each, a structure like this would cope with as many as 1296 operators. For this number of operators the number of supervisors forming the Scalar Chain is 259- The supervisor : operator ratio thus is 1:5- Some management specialists would consider this structure a little to ambitious and even unpracticable. They would argue that all functions do not require the same number of persons and, as such, the number of subordinates supervised by a particular DM, AM or SD could be less than the maximum of six. This would mean that in an organization where effective supervision is given a very high priority and the division of work and the allocation of personnel are rational, the supervisor : operator ratio could be as low as 1:4 and even 1*3.

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70

CHART II

Manager

Deputy Manager

DM DM DM DM

Assistant Manager

AM AM AM AM AM

Section Heads

SD SD SD SD SD

Operators/Workers

- 71 -

II. FUNCTIONS OF SUPERVISION

6. Supervision, as we have pbserved abov , is a function which each echelon in an organisation exercises in respect of its immediate subordinates»

So every-one other than the operator or worker is a supervisor.

The supervisor and his subordinates constitute a unit or a cell and every organization is composed of such units or cells. These units or cells, however, are not disconnected, floating entities in an organization. Each unit or cell is integrated into the organization because every supervisor, other than the highest authority, is a subordinate of a higher supervisor.

7. Each unit or cell would, however, have a functional iden­tity. Each supervisor is responsible for a set of activities, designed to accomplish a particular sub-objective of the organi­zation. Let us illustrate this with reference to a text-book printing organization : (Chart III)

By examining the devolution of work in the Composing Manager's Department, we see how each lower level becomes more and more specialized and takes responsibility for a particular activity. Thus when each composer has done his allotted task of setting the 'type' for, say, illustrated texts, their supervisor and they themselves have together accomplished the sub-objective of having the plates or 'matter' of illustrated texts ready for printing. When the two supervisors of illustrated and unillus-trated texts complete their tasks, the Foreman,

•-./

- 7¿ -

CHART III

Manager (Overall management)

Composition Manager

(Composing, Proof­reading, setting pages and preparation of plates or 'matter')

Binding Manager

Works Manager

Foreman (English Composition) Foreman, (National Languages Composition)

Supervisor (Illustrated Texts)

Supervisor (Unillustrated Texts)

Composers Composers

- 73 -

(English Composition) accomplishes his sub-objective of having all the English text-books ready for printing. When the two Foremen of English and National Language Composition have completed their tasks, -̂ he Composition Manager accomplifches hi sub-objective. It is when each of the three Department Managers have achieved their sub-objectives in a synchronized and coordinated manner that the Manager of the Printing Organisation accomplishes the organizational objective of making available to schools a pre­determined number of text-books in a specified number of copies.

In such a process of integrated accomplishment of sub-objectives by each echelon] contributing progressively to the achievement of the organizational objective, what exactly does a supervisor do?

(Now stop for a moment. Do not proceed to the next page. In the space below, jot down what you think are the functions of a supervisor)

- 74 -

8. Now- check what you have identified as the functions of supervisor t

Most probably right on top of your list is coordination (l). Have you followed it up with technical guidance and back-stopping or demonstration (2)? Does your list include problem-solving (3) in respect of both technical difficul­ties and human relations? Have you thought of building or maintaining the morale of subordinates (4) as one of his functions'? Perhaps you have not thought of his representa­tional function (5) vis-a-vis the rest of the organization; that is, his function as the spokesman for the unit or cell in both technical and administrative matters. Have you assigned to him the disciplinary control (6) of his unit or cell? Does your list include orientation, training and professional growth of subordinates (7)? You could have thought of many more functions. But these seven constitute the basic minimum.

9- In the performance of the seven functions we have identi­fied above, the supervisor assumes what management theory calls a FUNCTIONAL RESPONSIBILITY. This means that the supervisor takes the full responsibility for the quality of the service that is rendered by his unit or cell.

In this respect, he is an active part of the process by which the service is produced. He is not a by-stander or spectator merely watching what his subordinates do. Nor is he a critic who criticizes the process, the procedures or the people. Nor is he an evaluator who finds fault with other's performance with a plenty of hindsight or after-the-event wisdom. Instead, the supervisor is actually a part of the total machinery taking full responsibility for every­thing connected with the service.

10. He uses his position of authority to coordinate the work of his subordinates, build and maintain the morale and exercise disciplinary control. He uses his specialized technical know-how to offer technical guidance and backstopping, solve technical problems, orient and train subordinates, and arrange for their professional growth.

• • • /

- 75 -

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11. The principle of functional responsibility makes the supervisor primarily .accountable for whatever goes wrong. He is answerable for faulty work of his subordinates, because either he has not oriented and trained his staff properly or the techni­cal guidance and follow-up is inadequate. It is also possible that he cannot inspire confidence in people and draw out of them the best of their ability. Management text-books attempt to list the characteristics of an efficient supervisor. Here is one such list :

The Efficient Supervisor :

Sees each job as an important job

Expects a lot from people

Views mistakes as part of growth

Makes accomplishment the basis for security

Helps subordinates get oriented

Sets the stage for mutual trust

Recognizes that development breeds development

Makes work experience meaningful

WorKs for a climate of mutual concern

Aims at freedom

Recognizes the values in change

III. SUPERVISION IN EDUCATIONAL MANAGEMENT

12. We have dealt with the characteristics of supervision as a management function in some detail because the educational administrators sometimes tend to think that SUPERVISION is limited to the function of overseeing the organization and instructional activities of schools. This aspect of supervision, which will be discussed later is undoubtedly very important. But the educational administrator has also to recognize the supervisory function which each echelon of the educational management machinery performs in respect of the immediately lower echelon. From the minister right down to an institutional head, each level supervises the next level.

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13- To summarize :

(1) SUPERVISION is a pervasive function which extends from the highest to the lowest echelons of an organization. School supervision, though very important in its own right, is only one aspect.

(2) Supervision is a function of Direction and not of Control.

(3) Supervision is a friendly function and is distin­guishable from inspection. Further, supervision and inspection are not alternative functions. They are complementary.

(4) A low supervisor: operator ratio is a regular characteristic of a good organization.

(5) Functions of a supervisor range from technical guidance and backstopping and problem-solving to coordination and human relations.

(6) The guiding principle of supervision is functional responsibility which the supervisor assumes for the quality of service of his unit or cell.

(7) In educational management machinery, too, the pyramid of supervisors from the highest echelon to the lowest performs the same kind of supervisory functions as in industry and business.

(8) The recognition of the importance of supervision at every level is important to evolving a sound organizational set-up and efficient working procedures in educational management.

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IV. SCALAR CHAIN OF SUPERVISION IN EDUCATION

14. As discussdd in the earlier section, the educational management machinery of a country is also organized in a series of echelons each supervising the work of the echelon below it.

The last link in this scalar chain is the one joining a field supervisor of schools with a particular school, or rather its teachers.

The designation of the field supervisor of schools varies widely. In most places he has been called an Inspector of Schools. Some countries try to avoid the word Inspector because of its narrow functional connotation. They prefer terms like Circuit Education Officer, Education Officer, Supervisor, Organizer of Schools etc. Some call him a Superintendent of Schools or, sometimes, a Councillor. Whatever be the designation, his role in the educa­tional management machinery of the country is clear. His is the supervisory echelon just above the point from which the service, for which the entire organization exists, is given. That is, by and large the service rendered by ah educational system is dis­pensed in the form of instruction at the schools by the teachers. The teachers, then, are the operators of the service and their immediate supervisor is the supervisor of schools.

15. Even though this is his real position in the educational management machinery, he suffers from a number of drawbacks, brought about by certain historical factors -- all of them too well known to necessitate discussion here. If we examine the organizational chart of the educational management machinery of any country, we would find that the supervisory pyramid is so constructed that each senior officer supervises the work of 3 to 6 (and .ery rarely more than that) subordinatt . In this respe t, the principles of supervision, which we discussed in the previous section, are adhered to with a surprising regularity. But once you come to the last link in the chain, that regularity ceases to exist. Suddenly, we discover that the field supervisor of schools is entrusted with the supervision of 100 to 500 teachers distri­buted over a land area of two or three km to even as high as a hundred km .

16. Can a field supervisor of schools perform effectively the seven functions which we identified as the basic minimum for a supervisor? The answer has to be an emphatic m>. But what is the remedy?

Three alternative remedies present themselves immediately. They are as follows :-

(1) Reduce the number of schools (and thus the number of teachers) supervised.

(2) Tate away from him such functions as are not direct­ly related to education and, in education too, restrict his work to technical guidance and back-stopping.

(3) Develop a scalar chain of supervision between him and the teacher by creating a series of supervisory echelons inside each school itself.

Let us assess these remedies.

17. Reducing the Workload : In every Asian country, a very strong case exists for reducing the area covered, the number of schools supervised and the teachers dealt with by a field super­visor of schools. As far back as 1959~6o, the Karachi Plan urged a supervisor : teacher ratio of 1:144. Difficulties of transport and communication, apart from any other reason, warrant such a reduction of workload. But only a very few countries has come anywhere close to this ratio. It is urgent that something is done to improve the position. But that would still be a partial solu­tion. There would still be very little of what we could call effective supervision.

All we could expect from this solution is that the field supervisor would perform his representational function a bit more effectively than he would do with a bigger work­load.

18. Separating Administrative and Academic Functions : As a solution, this has been widely advocated. Some countries or regions within countries have even tried it out. In effect, it is a measure of reducing the workload. Two separate field super­visors would attend to administrative and academic aspects of the work of a school. A question to be asked is whether these two aspects can be so divided.

.../

- 79 -

Experience in most places is that such a division of func­tions is not feasible due to practical difficulties: First, it amounts to doubling the number of field supervisors of schools; second, it places the teachers under the supervision of two persons, violating a very important management prin­ciple that no person should have inore than one .supervisor; an<3 third, in the inevitable rivalry for influence, the supervisor with administrative functions tends to command more influence over institutions and teachers -- and even parents and the public -- than the purely academic supervisor -

Vithin a very short time of experiment ing with such a division of functions, the tendency has been to return to the earlier position where both administrative and academic functions are rested in one and the same supervisor. It is true that the result is unfavour­able to academic development because in a competition for atten­tion and time, administrative duties have an edge over academic supervision. So some other kind of solution has to be looked for.

19- Developing Supervisory Echelons Between the Field Supervisor and the Teacher : If the reduction of workload is impeded by inadequate resources and the separation of administra­tive and academic functions is not feasible from a management point of view, the next best arrangement is to delegate the super­visory function to a series of echelons between the field super­visor and the teacher. The next immediate level is the head of the school. Between him and the teacher, depending on the size of the school, it is possible to have section heads either by levels or by subjects or both. Such a supervisory pyramid would be as shown in Chart IV.

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In the school for which we have designed the above supervisory pyramid, the teachers in thfc secondary school are immediately supervised by a head of department representing a discipline of study- Such department heads could perform all the seven functions of supei vision more effectively than the field supervisor (who may visit the school once or twice a year) or even the head of the school.

The main factor which would make their supervision more effective is that the department head is able to assume functional responsibility for the quality of teaching of his subject. Similarly at the next higher level, the heads of the humanities and science-technical sections are close enough to and intimately involved with teaching to assume functional responsibility for the proper coordination and working of the departments. Xhe same would apply to the headmaster of the secondary school and ultimately to the head of the school.

In such a set-up, the task of the field supervisor would be to supervise the heads of schools and assume functional responsibili­ty for conducting the school properly.

V. ELEMENTS OF SCHOOL SUPERVISION

20. We have so far examined supervision in respect of all seven functions we enumerated earlier. To recall them, the seven basic essential functions are ï

(1) The representational function.

(2) Coordination.

(3) Technical guidance and backstopping.

(4) Problem-solving.

(5) Building and maintaining the morale of subordinates.

(6) Disciplinary control.

(7) Orientation, Training and Professional Growth of subordinates.

Now, let us narrow our consideration to items (3), (4) and (5) only.

• • • /

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In fact, this is what the educational personnel mean by supervision. Most books and articles written on educational supervision deal with this aspect oí supervision only.

Sometimes, the term inspection is brought in to comprise the other four functions. With a view to clarifying the concept further, some writers prefer to use the descriptive terms "acade­mic supervision" to mean the technical guidance and backstopping function and "administrative supervision" for the rest.

21. Let us see how the concept of academic supervision is defined. The Association for Supervision and Curriculum Develop­ment, USA,defines it as the dual functions of :-

(a) Providing leadership for developing, improving and maintaining effective learning opportunities for children and youth -- which means giving attention to content selection, teaching methods, materials, and evaluation, both inside and out­side the classroom;

and (b) Providing leadership in designing effective ways of working with teachers and other members of the school staff to achieve the first function.

In this context the term supervisor is used in a wide sense to include any one called in to help teachers,such as curriculum consultants, curriculum directors, assistant superintendents, principals and assistant principals. A Study Group on Supervision and Inspection, appointed by the NCERT of India, defined in more or less the same terms: that is,

professional guidance to teachers by the Principal/ Headmaster and/or senior teachers of a school, in addition to the external supervisors.

The Study Group further said "This connotation of supervision is, however, hardly in vogue in.our country."

22. From both definitions it is clear that the main character­istic of academic supervision is that it is a professional inter­action between the teacher and someone who has special abilities, insights and experience. If one were to apply the relationship that exists in industry between the technician and the skilled worker to the supervisor and the teacher, one would say that the teacher knows how to teach or, in the wider sense, to provide

- 83 -

superviseur knows not only how to do'; the work of the teacherbut also why a particular method is moré effective than another and why certain things should be done or not done. The popular way of saying this is that the supervisor is a teac sr of teachers. With the recognition of this status and role of the supervisor comes a practical difficulty» The teacher ha? no problem in considering the "outside supervisor" -- the field supervisor of schools -- who only visits his class literally once in a blue moon as a teacher of teachers- But he would be hesitant to accord the same status and role to the subject head or section head, who, like him, is a full-time teacher, taking time off to supervise his juniors. This may be a question of prejudice. But it has to be solved through a clear definition of roles by the appropriate authority,

23» Inherent in this technician-ski lied worker relationship is the function of technical problem -solving,*

The foundation teacher and his recognized tech the absence ference.

of

for a professional interaction supervisor has

nical problem. such a problem

, necessarJ Trying to

is nothing

ly, t offer more

between a o be gui

than

a felt, dance in inter-

But who identifies the problem? Either the teacher does, (e.g. in a class he experience a difficulty in getting the pupils to work out a particular mathematical equation. He tries it in several ways and then decides to consult his supervisor. In such a case, the teacher goes to the supervisor with a problem that could not be solved by himself. The degree of receptivity for the super­visor's uidance would certainly be very high). Or the super­visor has to find out. Here comes the delicate part of the whole operation. What mechanisms does the supervisor have at his dis­posal for the purpose? In industry, the technician either observes the process of production or examines the product. The academic supervisors, too, have the same mechanisms. He observes the teacher at work in the class-room situation. In addition, he examines the performance of the pupils through their regular written work or by means of written or oral tests.

24. Through both these means the supervisor has to identify specific problems which should be real and serious so that, when they are pointed out to the teacher, the latter accepts them as needing remedy. This is the most difficult part of supervision and, if one looks for the single most crucial bugbear of academic supervision, it is that the supervisor begins technical guidance and backstopping before the teacher is convinced that an actual problem exists. Most often under such situations the teacher's reaction is something like this : If I am asked to change my

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course, I should at least knov the relative advantages of the new course '• why backstop me when 1 haven't shown the slightest sign of sliding back? A supervisor, who takes up the position "I like it this way and 1 am bigger than you" only courts trouble. At the very least, such a supervisor would be anything but effective. All that he would engender is hostility.

25- As important as founding the supervisory function of tech­nical guidance and backstopping on mutually accepted real problems is the need to ensure that the methods of solving such problems are scientific and practical. Besides, the manner in which the solutions are evolved, should be consultative : an attitude of "here's your problem and here's my solution" never solves problems. An essential ingredient of the method of problem-solving should be that the teacher is never made to appear inferior in the eyes of his pupils.

VI. ROLE OF THE FIELD SUPERVISOR OF SCHOOLS IN ACADEMIC SUPERVISION.

26. We have argued strongly in favour of a scalar chain of supervision inside each school. If such a system is installed, what will the role of the field supervisor of schools (e.g. inspector, superintendent, district or circuit education officer etc.) be?

Four roles are identifiable :

(i) Diagnosis -- i.e. problem identification.

(ii) Information -- i.e. dissemination of relevant technical know-how.

(iii) Evaluation and progress control -- i.e. overseeing the problem-solving process.

(iv) In-service training of teachers.

27- We have adduced reasons for a reduction in the number of schools per field supervisor. But no country in Asia would be able to go down to the number of 5 - D which management theory would recommend. It is possible that for many years even a target like 20 schools per supervisor would remain unattainable to most countries. With such a number of schools and a list of duties combining administrative and academic duties, how can a field supervisor exercise his four roles? Let us examine some possible methods :

.../

iaqnOsi s

Administering periodically to a random sample of pupils a diagnostic test in selected subjects and using their r-jsults to (a) pinpoint deficiencies in the selection and coverage of curricular subject-matterj (b) identify short-comings ascribable to methods of instruction; (c) note common errors and gaps for special treatment in in-service training of teachers and (d) pick out the schools (or even teachers), that may require special attention by the supervisor.

Calling for and reviewing test papers and

scores of terminal tests in selected subjects

from a random sample of classes for the same

purposes as above-

Calling for scrutiny the written work of a

few of the pupils at the top and the bottom

ends of the class on a random sample of

classes, schools and subjects as a way of

evaluating content, methods and teacher's

attitudes.

N.B. All these are done by the supervisor either by circular instruction by post or at a periodical meeting of heads of schools* By doing this he is able to commence a fairly representative diagnosis of the instructional situation in his schools without waiting until he has visited them. It is important to note here that even when the supervisor visits a school, all he can do is a random sampling. The homework, which the supervisor does in the above manner, prepares him much' better for the school visits. Besides, such visits would be more purposeful when he knows in advance who needs help and in what form.

Information

(i ) Monthly Circuit Meeting when heads of schools of the supervisor's area meet him for consultation, exchange of information and organization of collective activities such as examinations, competitions, sports meets, exhibitions etc.

(i)

(ü)

(iü)

• • • /

- ee -

(ii) Circuit Newsletter giving information on actîviti es/experiences/experiments of interest to teachers, supplemented by an overview by the supervisor.

(iii) Special reports on innovative experiments and experiences of certain teachers, including the supervisor's comments on how such experi­ments could be replicated.

(iv) Abstracts or extracts of relevant publica­tions, called out by the supervisor with the assistance of teachers (note: the supervisor, thus motivates teachers to read professional literature and share interesting ideas with colleagues).

(v) Book circulation, (i.e. a form of circulating library service for teachers)*

(vi) Teacher's Journals, publishing articles, letters, notes and comments on teachers --a forum for them to exchange their views and experiences.

B. Once again, these are activities supplementary to visits. These maintain a liaison between him and the schools, during the long intervals between his visits. Needless to say that the sharing of informa­tion is one of the surest ways of enhancing the morale of school heads and teachers.

) Evaluation and Progress Control

The same modalities used for diagnosis, when applied at appropriate points, serve the purposes of evaluation and progress control.

e.g. tests at the beginning of the year are diagnostic and at the end of the year evaluative.

) In-service Training of Teachers

(i) Refresher Courses through "distance teaching methods" in selected subjects -- correspondence, radio etc.

(ii) Refresher Courses, seminars, conferences, lectures and such other contact sessions.

87

(iii) Workshop!- for special activities e.g. curriculum development; writing of modulée and self-1 earning kits; preparation of course guides; making visual aids etc. etc.

N.B. While the monthly meeting brings the heads of school in contact with the supervisor, these establish a professional liaison between him and the teachers.

28. The above list of modalities illustrateshow an imaginative and resourceful supervisor could exercise effective professional leadership despite his inability to visit schools more often. If even one only out of each of the four categories of modalities is tried out by a supervisor, his impact on the qualitative improve­ment of education in his area can be very high. It is not so much his physical presence in a school that matters but what he does beyond and outside his visits to a school.

VII. LIMITATIONS AFFECTING ACADEMIC SUPERVISION'

29- One of the investigators into problems of academic super­vision set two questions to a group of supervisors. The questions were as follows :-

Part that

I : both

evaluate

"List as rap er you about these items,

'acceptable1 thinqs t

Part II : "Set aside that YOU have listed, or situations bother about eac h problem."

idly as the doinq y o u r

do not 0 list.

a time Try tc

try

y occur •job as

to you all the thinqs a supervisor.

to determine if they Just list

in ) re

you. Write

which tc ason oui

them as they

examine the

Do not are

come."

problems wl. ;' these problems

out your reasons or hunches

On an analysis of the responses of 96 supervisions, it was found that the following problems affected supervision adversely. (The percentage in parenthesis refers to the frequency of response.)

Insufficient time to render all supervisory services in a satisfactory manner ... ... (20%)

unfavorable attitudes of teachers and principals toward change (l6%)

insufficient money for travel, study, and materials (15%)

insecurity due to lack of role clarification and scope of the job (14%)

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inability of the supervisor to organize himself and others for most effective work ( $%)

inadequate clerical assistance and vork space in office ( 9%)

communication difficulties with general public, the State University, State Department of Education and the local board of education ( 8°¿)

miscellaneous ( 9%)

The problems affecting supervision in each country could be quite different. But an analysis of the problems and instituting re­medial measures would be both important and urgent.

30. To recapitulate :

(1) The relationship between the field supervisor and the school head is the last link in the scalar chain of educational supervision. But it is also the weakest because workload in terms of magnitude, diversity and complexity prevents the field super­visor from assuming real functional responsibility for quality of education.

(2) Adding more links to the scalar chain is a feasible solution. For that a supervisory pyramid has to be built inside every school where it is possible.

(3) The inseparability in practice of administrative and academic supervision has to be recognized.

(4) Academic supervision consists of technical guidance and backstopping; problem-solving; and orientation, training and professional growth of teachers.

(5) Technical guidance and backstopping is meaningful only where the teacher himself has been first made to recognize the problem.

(6) Four roles are identifiable for a field supervisor of schools !-

Diagnosis Information Evaluation and Progress Control In-Service Training of Teachers.

(7) Personal visits to schools do not constitute the only means of fulfilling these roles effectively. Much can be done from the supervisor's duty station if he is only prepared to look for innovative means of extending his influence.

89

TEST AND APPLY YOUK KNOWLEDGE

Question l: Why is it appropriate' to consider supervision as a part of direction rather than oí control?

Question 2: Upto what level in the educational administration of your country could you recognize a scalar chain built on the ratio of one supervisor for less than six subordinates?

Question 3¡ What are the main functions of a supervisor? In what ways do functions of administrative supervision differ from academic supervision?

Question 4: What problems do you encounter in your country with regard to the supervision of educational institutions? What are the solutions that are being implemented or considered?

Question 5 s Do the supervisors of schools in your country adopt any of the methods described in this lesson unit to expand their area of influence?

COMPARE YOUR ANSWERS WITH THOSE OVERLEAF

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SUGGESTED ANSWERS

Supervision is a function of direction because the elements incorporated in it are initiating action, taking leadership, ordering, guiding and motivating personnel. It is not a function of evaluation or correcting deviations-See Chart II of the lesson unit. Prepare an organigramme starting with the highest authority in charge of education (e.g. Minister or Secretary). At the higher levels you will find the ratio between the supervisor to be around one is to less than six. It is closer to the district and school level, that the number of subordinates per supervisor begins to increase. It would be interesting for you to determine the point at which this change takes place. You will be correct in assuming that the problems of supervision begin at that point.

See paragraph 8 for a list of seven items which we have iden­tified as the basic minimum. One may add more functions to this list. These reflect the functions in administrative supervision. Regarding academic supervision, there could be a different combination of function. Read paragraph 20 where three items are identified as particularly relevant.

First read paragraphs Í5 and l6. Perhaps, the same problems are to be found in your country. If so, j' would be useful to read paragraphs 17~19 before you list tne remedial action taken or contemplated.

Read paragraph 27 carefully and check whether any of these methods are in operation. There could be others which have been developed in your country.

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ADDITIONAL READING

Marting and Macdonald •_ Management and its People, Bombay, Taraporevala. 1971 /article by John M. Pfiffner : a Pattern

for Improved Supervispry Leadership/

Mohammadi, A., and Guruge, A.W.P., School Administration and Supervision • A Report to the First Deputy^ Minister of Education, Republic of Afghanistan, Unesco, Bangkok, 1976

Lyons, R. and Pritcherd, M.W., Primary Schools Inspection : A Supporting Service for Education, Unesco : H E P , Paris, 1976

National Council of Education, Research and Training, Study Group on Educational Supervision and Inspection : Report, New Delhi, 1969

- 95 -

V

PARTICIPATORY PLANNING AND MANAGEK'ÎNT

OBJECTIVES

When you have studied this unit, you should be able to

(i) define, with illustrations, participatory planning;

(ii) understand its importance for the efficiency and morale of an organization;

iii) identify different forms of participatory planning and analyse their impact ; and

(iv) determine your role in relation to participatory planning.

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V

PARTICIPATORY PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT

I. AN EMERGING CONCERN

1. An experimental primary school in Sweden. Every school-day starts with pupils and teachers sitting together and discuss­ing what to do and learn during the day. One group decides to make papier maché puppets for a show the school plans to put on; another will study mathematics, and a third group wants to visit the local zoo. Groups vary in subject, size, composition and age from one day to the next. Teachers guide and animate the groups, and give individual tutoring wherever it is needed or asked for. Twice a month the teachers, parents and official sponsors meet to discuss the progress of this experiment in school democracy.

2. A rural adult education programme in Thailand. A panel of farmers, house-wives, agricultural experts and educators meets in the capital to analyse what practical problems and learning needs are paramount in the rural areas. Their conclusions are consolidated, rechecked by the panel, and eventually translated into modular programmed texts by a team of experts from the Ministry of Education. The materials will be used not only in adult classes but also for teaching rural adults by correspondence.

3« The University of Bielefeld, Germany, sponsors a model secondary school, with faculty recruited from both school teachers and university staff. Planning and management are shared between students, parents and scientists. They work out the school con­stitution, as well as architectural, financial, ducational and research plans which they defend before the Ministry, the univer­sity bodies and the State Parliament. They devise curricula, try out new teaching techniques and organizational patterns, and en­courage their use in other schools.

^« As far back as 19&1, an educational reform committee meets in Sri Lanka to discuss how educational administration and planning could be re-tooled to fit the changed and changing conditions of the country. It comes up with a striking recommendation: set up local school development committees and let them determine the educational needs of the community. Assign to these committees not only local dignitaries such as the mayor, the area's member of parliament, and the district revenue officer, but also experts such as the rural development officer and, last but not least,, five members of the public. Starting from these committees' re­commendations, initiate a bottom-upwards planning procedure which is to culminate in an educational planning council established within the Ministry of Education.

- 98 -

5» At face value, these examples have little in common. The settings, the actors involved, the roles they play and the goals they are trying to achieve are certainly quite different. Still, there is a unifying principle. "Participatory planning and management" has become the common but somewhat vague label under which these and many other experiments in educational self-determination are being launched, objected to, defended, and evaluated.

II. WHAT IS 'PARTICIPATORY PLANNING'?

6. The social and philosophical origins of the quest for participatory planning are found outside the educational realm. In fact, up to this day education is not a lead sector, but a lagging sector in the degree to which the principle of partici­patory planning and management has been recognized by official policy makers.

In its bution

b o

affected

roa dest sense, f decision-mak by decisions

participator ing power in should have a

y pi such sha

anning a re

way means di that all

in making th

stri-those em.

7- When stated in such general terms, 'participatory plann­ing' is unlikely to arouse much controversy. But, as always, the problem lies in the details. The agreement is shattered as soon as one asks such obvious questions as: who is affected by educa­tional decisions and who should, therefore, participate in plann­ing? What types of educational decisions should be open to parti­cipatory planning? What powers should those participating have, and at what stages of the planning process, at which levels of the educational hierarchy, should they exercise these powers?

8. It is fair to say that at present there are no generally accepted answers to these questions and, thus, no operational and practical definition of what participatory planning in education is, or should be. The reasons for such ambiguity are evident :

Participatory power lumped

issues, planning and

together. subj

is set

an ive

area value

in 3 which factual ndgements are

arguments inextricab

, iy

This point will become quite clear if we take a closer look at the ongoing debate on participatory planning in education.

-../

- 99 *

III. WHÏ PARTICIPATORY PLANNING IN E-DUCATION?

9. Firstly, there are those who rightly contend that there is a general and notable trend towards a more "participatory" society. With this evidence in hand, they argut that participa­tion should also be institutionalized in education. The opposite, however, may be equally true. Just as people are more obsessed with getting a suntan the fewer their chances are of being out­doors, so it may be that the ever louder call for participation is a proof that our room for manoeuvering decreases, in reaction to the awareness that the ordinary citizen's potential of partici­pation is ultimately being depleted. Thus, "the trend" is at best ambiguous.

10. Secondly, there are those for whom participatory planning means only a logical extension of democratic values and principles. Democracy, they argue, is not just a concept of constitutional law, it is a way of life. Hence, the procedures of political democracy must be transferred to and practiced in all other realms of social life. Or, in a slightly different vein: The electoral mechanisms of democracy and the executive machinery that supports them are insufficient as conveyors of people's needs, demands and creative powers. Therefore, a "second circuit of democracy" through parti­cipatory planning is needed.

11. Thirdly, are those whose plea for participatory planning is based on the specific nature and requirements of education as such. In some spheres, they say, human behaviour can be pre­planned by a central authority with great accuracy. Planning a city's traffic system is one example. By contrast, education is an activity in which planning must include programming for variance and self-determination. The task for pi inners mu3t be to provide a framework in which creative spontaneity can unfold. The very process rf participatory planning in the classr'om and the com­munity, involving different views, ideas and competencies, is of immense educational value -- it is, in itself, a learning experience.

12. Fourthly, the protagonists of participatory planning in education base their claims on the alleged weaknesses of the cen­tralized planning systems encountered today in most countries. Centralized' and authoritarian planning, they argue, makes for in­efficiency, inequity and irrelevance. Inefficiency because over­head costs are high, innovations are suppressed, and local resources are not mobilized. Inequity because the system notoriously deprives some segments of society and favours the urban elite. Irrelevance because central planners are emotionally and socially too remote from where education really takes place, and because they force pupils with vastly different learning needs into the Procrustean bed* of a standardized education system.

* The allusion is to Procrustes in Greek mythology - the giant who stretched or cut off limbs of travellers to fit his iron bed¡ --used to mean violently and ruthlessly forcing conformity.

•« 100 -

In sum, we find there are four types of arguments behind the movement for participatory planning in education :

An alleged trend towards more participation in all realms of society.

- The need to apply the principles of political democra­cy in other spheres of social life.

The nature of education which necessitates planning for variance, coupled with the intrinsic educational value of participatory involvement.

The critique of centralized planning procedures which are said to be inefficient, inequitable and irrelevant.

IV. FORMS OF PARTICIPATION

13. Participatory planning in education sometimes meets with dedicated support from teachers and education officials. The rule however, would be for the participation issue to face stubborn resistance from those who "run" education at present, loaded as this issue is with power interests, fear to take responsibilities, and conflicting values. Hence, not unlike many other innovative ideas in education, participatory planning tends to be introduced through scattered experiments on a small scale, qualified and toned down through inadequacy and political compromise, with a variety of different types or forms being tried out at different places. Participatory planning tends to develop into the following forms:

14. Consultative planning. Perhaps the first form of parti­cipatory planning is what one might call consultative or advisory planning. The second and the fourth of the examples given above would probably fall into this category.

In this form of participatory planning, bodies of parents, professionals, industrial representatives, ordinary citizens, or whatever the specific membership may be, are consulted by the official planning machinery, but are not given final decision-making power. If used in a proper manner, consul­tative planning can give the decision-maker a broader basis for planning.

Consultative/advisory forms of educational planning may differ :

the composilion of the advisory bodies

the level (single school, community, district, or higher) which the advisory body is established ,

in

in at

- 101 -

in the scope of the matters on which they are to advise

in the regularity with which they are convened.

15- Participatory planning through representatives. A second form of participatory planning may be sorae representation of 'outside' groups at strategic levels of an otherwise maintained hierarchical and centralized planning structure. For instance, a country's central council for educational planning might have elected representatives of industry, of the national youth associa­tion, of the teachers' union, or of a parental association, etc., as ex-o£ficio members with decision making powers equal to those of council members coming from inside the bureaucracy.

l6. This will mean an improvement of the delegation of autho­rity over the form of mere 'consultative' planning.

To the ext voice the the advant of time.

ent tha need of age of

t the the

various re gro

relevant up Pi

they annin

presen tatives do indeed represent, this form 9 done without undue

has loss

Moreover, central planners may use the existence of this partici­patory mechanism to get the plan widely accepted.

17» Direct participation at grassroots level. From the pre­ceding it is clear that participatory planning can be effective only to the extent that :

results of consultations and deliberations are taken into account,

participants are able to represent the various groups they are supposed to represent.

'Group' in this connexion can mean anything from single school or factory to district or region. The smaller the group the greater the opportunities for direct involvement of pupils, their parents, teachers, and other community members in the process of identify­ing problems, sounding out options, and planning educational strategies.

18. One desirable condition needs to be pointed out: those who participate in educational planning should have an obligation to participate in the educational processes as well. For example, local farmers should serve as resource persons when needed; the local factory owner should provide time to use his plant for train­ing; community leaders should make classrooms and school farms available; parents should be prepared to attend adult classes themselves or to help the school as teacher aids; etc. .

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V. EFFECTS OF PARTICIPATORY PLANNING

19- Even among those who support the principle of participa­tory planning in education, many have their doubts as to the practical consequences the introduction of this principle on a wider scale would entail- Let us present some of the issues that are being debated, stating the pro's and con's as impartially as possible.

20. Will participatory planning lower efficiency? Participa­tory planning, it is argued by some, distracts educational institu­tions from their primary business. It is costly because more people will have to devote more of their time. It is uneconomical, because the competence and special qualification of professional 'planners' is no longer being utilized. And it is slow, even slower than if we let the bureaucrats do the job alone.

21. Others, while admitting some of these points, would hold against them the fact that technical or economic efficiency is not all in education. They would contend that the gains in relevance and quality, the additional resources mobilized for education, the enhanced employability of students, that all these benefits likely to accrue from participatory planning would more than offset the presumable loss in efficiency. At any rate, planning through re­presentatives may be economical and quick.

22. Will participatory planning spread conflict? Participatory planning will involve many more people with divergent points of view, coflicting values and rival interests. Will this not provoke conflict and polarization to a point where educational decision­making will be throttled?

23» While this point no doubt has to be taken very seriously, sociologists assure us that participatory planning merely provides an 'institutionalized mechanism for conflict settlement', an out­let for conflicts and controversies that would otherwise remain latent or lead to withdrawal of necessary support or even to open sabotage. They point out that even in an authoritarian system, students, teachers and parents exercise informal decision-making power, choosing to give or withhold their energies, obeying or evading the rules, supporting or ignoring official policies. Thus, conflict is ubiquitous, and the question is only whether we let it go underground, or try to bring it out into the open and attempt to deal with it in a constructive manner.

24. One form of participatory planning, consultative planning, may avoid conflict and polarization by reserving final decision in the hands of planners or "development councils".

.../

- 103 -

25» Will participatory planning lead to parochialism? Those rejecting participatory planning ir education predict that it will foster parochialism and provincial! -m. If brokt.i down into many small units, each of them planning iccording to their own whims and ideologies, education will become a patchwork enterprise, with in­equalities, immobility and a degree of obscurity unparalleled in the history of education in any country.

26. In reply to this argument others will point out that if people all over the country countinue to study the same things in the same way, the result will not be equality, but uniformity and sameness. They will contend that as far as the learning needs of different population groups are different, giving all of them the same educational medicine will only make the illness worse. They will argue that a variety of innovative educational experiments, decided upon in different places, with different philosophies, but with active involvement of all those concerned, is required to lead education out of its present impasse.

27. Will participatory planning further mediocrity? Participa­tory planning will involve many people who are not formally quali­fied, particularly the students themselves. The professional planner's expertise will be subjected to majority rule and un­satisfactory compromises. Participatory planning will thus fall prey to mediocrity.

28. in contrast to this pessimistic prophecy, believers in participatory planning will claim that formal qualifications do not ensure genuine competence, that the creativity, ideas and first­hand experience of local people must be tapped if educational planning is to become more than an academic exercise masterminded from a cc tral desk. If professional competence is truly needed there is always the possibility of creating "tecnr.ical assistance" groups

29- Will participatory planning upset authority and control? Many teachers oppose participatory planning as they feel that it represents a loss of their own authority. Administrators and planners warn that necessary control in education would be dis­solved if participatory planning were introduced at the grassroots level. However, these arguments seem to be based on a misconception of what 'authority' and 'control' in educational matters really mean. The struggle for control should not be seen as a zero-sum game in which one man's gain is another's loss. Control, on the contrary, is an "expansive" phenomenon in which gains by one part result in gains by the others. At any rate, the "authorities" can still "control" the planning process by giving broad and general sets of directives without stifling local initiatives. In fact, this task of setting guidelines and defining boundaries of autonomy, for various levels of management as well as functions, becomes one of the most important integrative responsibilities of the authorities or supervisors. Participatory planning does not aim at control

- 104 -

over other people's behaviour, but at enhancing the control over a common activity, the degree to which all parties concerned achieve their common objective which is making the educational process as relevant, effective and individually satisfying as possible.

VI. CONDITIONS FOR PARTICIPATORY PLANNING

30. Any organization deciding to democratize its decision­making will have to strengthen certain integrative mechanisms, in order to prevent disintegration and to retain its nature as a 'system'. Introduction of participatory planning in education will therefore necessitate the following measures ;

a legal framework has to be devised within which autono­my and participatory planning in various forms can operate

school supervision has to be strengthened, in order to maintain quality standards and to keep all schools exposed to the public eye

information on all parts of the system has to be continu­ously collected and disseminated

vertical and especially horizontal communication and ex­change of experience between units has to be maintained

the possibility of unrestricted transfers between all parts of the system has to be ensured

a common ultimate goal structure for the system as a whole needs to be established.

31. These tasks are largely of a technical nature and, given the necessary political support, they should not present serious problems. Technicalities apart, however, one of the great stumbling blocks of participatory planning in education needs to be pointed outí participation presupposes a new mentality, a 'new man' pre­pared to subordinate his own interests, to devote long working hours, to express his ideas freely and, at the same time, to tolerate compromise. Yet this 'new man' may hardly exist at present. He is likely to evolve only through participatory practices, in education and elsewhere.

32. A caution has also to be sounded. While participatory planning does have all the merits, hitherto discussed, its exercise has to be a matter of discretion for the manager who is responsible for a given operation. There are certain decisions which have ultimately to be his own and which he has to take in the best exercise of his judgement. He cannot neglect this fact in the name of participatory planning.

.../

- 105 -

VII. A NEW ROLE FOR EDUCATIONAL PLANNERS

33. Participatory planning will by no means ake the educatioi al planner an obsolete figure. But his role will have to undergo a profound change.

The planner's task trol the carrying

will no planning function, out

resources for will aid parts of

the the

of it. those develo system

By who

pment

•

longer but t

becoming are of

doing

be to monopolize D serve others an act their

a planning

in or con-the

ivator and providing own planning, he function in all

34. The strengthening of 'integrative mechanisms' which we referred to, will, however, still figure very prominently in his work schedule¡ he will have to provide facilities for information and communication necessary if the grassroot level groups are to be effective planners; his help will be required for local units to engage in a constant process of action research, mutual com­parison and evaluation; he will have to ensure that transfers between schools remain possible and that a common goal structure, expressed in a compulsory core curriculum, is adhered to.

35. Thus, participatory planning in education will place the educational planner in a new centre of action. One does not have to wait until participatory planning or management (see lesson unit No. 45) are introduced as a matter of policy or administra­tive procedure. One can start where one is, and that is by far the best place to start.

- Iû7 -

ILST AND APPLÏ VOUR KNOWLEDGE

Question 1 : Con you define the term "participatory planning" in its broadest sense?

Question 2 : Please identify some recent trends which have prompted the need for more participatory involvement in educa­tion.

Question ~) : Hov would you justify the contention that participatory planning and management has an intrinsic educational value?

Question 4 : Name three principal forms of participatory planning and management.

Question 5 '• HOK would you see the educational planner's role in an educational set-up characterized by participatory planning and management?

COMPARE YOUR ANSWERS WITH THOSE OVERLEAFI

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SUGGESTED ANSWERS

I

In its broadest sense, participatory planning would mean dis­tribution of decision-making power in such a way that all those affected by decisions should have a voice in making them.

Paras 9-12 indicated four such trends : (i) a trends towards more public participation in all realms of contemporary societies; (ii) a trend to apply the principles and procedures of political democracy to other, non-political spheres of social life¡ (iii) the increasingly obvious ineffectiveness of centralized planning; (iv) the realization that participa­tion has an intrinsic educational value.

Education is no longer seen as teacher-centred, passive memo­rization, but as a student-centred learning effort that must involve the community's ideas,resources and contributions.

(i) Consultative planning, (ii) Participatory planning through representatives, (iii) Direct participation at grassroots level

For the planner's role as an activator and facilitator, please see paras 33-35»

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ADDITIONAL READING

OECD, Participatory P aiming in Education, Paris, 1974

Carr-Hill, R., Partie patory Planning in Education : Testing Some Concepts. UNESCO, D vision of Educational Policy and Planning, Paris 1976 (mimeo)

Castle, E.B., Education for Self-Help : New Strategies for Developing Countries. Oxford University Press, London 1972

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VI

TRAINIbG AND ORIENTING

EDUCATIONAL PERSONNEL

OBJECTIVES

When you have studied this unit, you should be able to

recognize the importance of continually training educational personnel;

identify the priority categories of personnel for training in educational planning and management;

determine the content of training programmes for each category and level; •

take stock of the available and potential delivery systems and methods ;

recognize the potentialities of distance teaching for the professional growth of educational personnel;

take note of the r.eed for research into content \nd methods ; and

participate effectively in the organization and conduct of training programmes in educational planning and management.

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•VI TRAINING AND ORIENTING EDUCATIONAL PERSONNEL

I. INTRODUCTION

1. Staff development — by which is meant the training and the orientation of the personnel of an organization — is vital to the maintenance and the improvement of the orga-nization's functional effectiveness. In education this fact assumes greater significance as the variety of personnel to be trained at frequent intervals and oriented as jobs demand is about the largest. We have often referred in the previous lesson units to teacher education — both pre-service and in-service — because teachers constitute the core element of the educational personnel. In this lesson unit, we shall concentrate on the staff development in the fields of plann­ing and management.

II. CLIENTELE

2. The diffusion of planning responsibilities in the educational set-up and the rapid turne.er of persons who hold planning positions at the national level have put an end to an earlier assumption that what a country needed was a small band of highly trained planning technicians to operate at the national level. Under that assumption, the clientele for training in educational planning could be easily determined as so many economists, manpower planners, statisticians, fi­nancial analysts, costing experts etc. etc. It could also be assumed that after the full complement of required personnel was trained, the training of their replacements would be a sporadic activity. It was on that basis that international and regional agencies, created for the specific purpose of training educational planners, were expected to be wound up in five tô ten years with their missions fully accomplished. But that was not to be.

3. At the national level, the need continues for a well-trained cadre of "planners" in the form of educational reform designers, innovators and change agents, as well as project formulators, management planners, budgeting experts and per­formance evaluators. According_to the current pattern of turnover, personnel handling these specialized functions would invariably seek their career prospects outside the planning service. As Buch, they have to be replaced by new personnel every third or fourth year. With most training efforts in educational planning and management being still

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modelled on earlier concepts, the chances are that the current performers of these special tasks have had no formal training or orientation. Therefore, both the present incumbents and the next line of personnel who could be earmarked to be their replacements within the next few years are a priority group of clienteles for training.

4. At the regional (= subnational) level, the number need­ing training in planning functions is legion. Among them, however, the head of the regional educational set-up is a key person. He and his immediate deputies, who are being increas­ingly given responsibilities in regional planning, would merit equal priority as the cadre of national level planners.

5. At both the national and the regional level, the task of monitoring the performance of the educational system, par­ticularly in relation to reforms and new measures, would con­tinue to be a specialized function, needing a trained body of persons. But, the need is not for statisticians, who merely collect data on number of schools, enrolments, teachers, buildings etc. etc. In fact, most countries have managed to set up the requisite machinery for the collection, the storage and the publication of these data and the staff, handling the duties, appears to be adequate. But the problem is with the analysis and the interpretation of data for specific purposes and thereby, providing information (meaning, selected and processed data) for planning and decision-making. A cadre of personnel, well-versed in the use of quantitative techniques for diagnostic and evaluative purposes, is a vital necessity and this may be urged as the second priority group of clien­teles for training.

6. Finally, other general educational administrators of the national and the regional level, not performing any plann­ing functions, and the institutional administrators of all levels as well as organizers of non-formal educational prog­rammes (in short, the entire managerial staff of the national educational system) would require orientation to perform effectively. Among them, too, the senior personnel, occupying key positions, need the exposure to new knowledge and skills more urgently before they reach critical decision-making points from which the ideas, work and output of other personnel can be controlled.

7. Thus three groups of clienteles for training are indi­cated in the following order of priority.

Priority: 1. (a) National level senior educational adminis­trators performing (and earmarked to per­form) educational planning functions.

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(b) Heads of regidnal education departments/ offices (t.nd their deput. >.s with specific planning functions).

Specialists in quantitative techniques for diagnosis and evaluation of education system both at the national and the regional levels.

(a) Other general educational administrators holding key positions and institutional heads.

(b) All others of the managerial staff of the national educational system.

III. CORE ELEMENTS OF ALL TRAINING PROGRAMMES

8. While the order of priority assigned to different groups of clienteles would be agreed to as applying to most of the countries, such an agreement would not be easy in respect of the contents of training programmes designed for them. Yet, it is in order to take note of a few broad indi­cations .

9. All three groups of clienteles are likely to consist almost entirely of specialists (as far as their training or experience or both go) in a particular level or type of education; a special educational service like psychometry, evaluation, counselling, pedagogy, educational technology; or a particular branch of science or humanities or professional studies. As administrators tiiey would be g neralists. A f> *r would have received some pre-service training or orientation before being promoted to administrative duties. Some would have, in their early training to become teachers, gone through a course in educational administration. For the most part, they have come up to these positions, irrespective of their aptitude or inclination, because they were good teachers and had to be .rewarded.

10. As such,the assumption madeinthe 'sixties when design­ing the courses of educational planning appears to be faulty: that is, the educational administrators were adequately con­versant with the educational as well as the educational admi­nistrative aspects and the "gaps" to be filled in their know­ledge and skills related only to planning. It has been abun­dantly clear to those who had worked with representative groups of these personnel from different countries, that they need a good grounding in both the basic concepts of educational development and principles of management.

Priority: 2.

Priority: 3.

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11. They need to be introduced to new thinking on educa­tional development because most of them have had their train­ing even as teachers so long ago that none of the current issues was envisaged for study in their days. This applies not only to the growing socio-economic demands made on educa­tion but also to types and forms of education, which are de­signed to meet them. More than that, the widening of their field of vision (what Philip H. Coombs in his "World Educa­tional Crisis" implies by the imagery of "wide-angle lense") is of fundamental importance. Without it, they are in no position to go beyond the confines of class-room teaching, with which they are most familiar, to mechanisms of national policies and strategies and innovations in structures, con­tents and methods through which the national educational effort is to be intensified and manoeuvred. Hence the advi­sability of providing in all training programmes a substan­tial amount of study and discussion on pedagogical themes such as learning theory, curriculum development and planning, reform and innovative process, emerging delivery systems, and evaluation procedures.

12. As regards the principles of management, most of these personnel come with very little background. Their working experience, for the most part, is in the routine execution of rules and regulations as well as orders emanat­ing from higher authorities. Some would have a little exper­ience in personnel and financial management. Those who had been heads of schools or other educational institutions would, occasionally, bring with them a remarkable grasp of problems of human relations, leadership and motivation. For being effective in their positions with or without planning responsibilities, they need a very sound understanding of the management process both in relation to the national adminis­trative power structure (i.e. how authority and power devolve through different echelons by virtue of various legal instru­ments) and the theory of management, which has developed quite a substantial body of knowledge.

13. When choosing the content in management for training programmes for the groups of clienteles we have identified, an important question that is often raised relates to modern management techniques. Much has been written and discussed about the need to streamline educational administration through the introduction of management techniques of proven effectiveness in industry and business. We would sound a note of caution, which has been dictated by experience. Even the first principles of management such as planning, organization, direction, control, decision-making, problem-solving, group dynamics, communication, leadership, motivation, human relations and information, when introduced to a group of educational ad­ministrators in a training course, evoke quite a surprising reaction, more or less expressed in the following terms: "All these may have a relevance in industry and business but cer­tainly not in education. They are simply not applicable in

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our work". It is only through a consistent effort to draw illustrations for every principle from the educational scene and to show how some of the major education .1 problems in each one's experience could be related to the neglect of one or more principles that the tutor succeeds in removing this impression from the minds of at least the more receptive trainees.

14. When it comes to sophisticated management techniques, the task is far more complex. In the first place, there are hundreds of techniques for which claims of varying degrees of efficacy are made. In one of our studies, no less than 320 such techniques (some only simple graphical aids but others so sophisticated as to demand the intervention of highly specialized professionals) were listed. While the application of any one of them in educational administration can be theoretically justified, their relevance in practical terms cannot be always established. It is, therefore, incum­bent on the organizer of a training programme to ensure whe­ther any of the techniques, which he chooses to include in it, is actually relevant, applicable with available resources and meaningful in terms of the results achievable. Even after such a selection is made with care, it is important to intro­duce them not in isolation but as an integral part of a spe­cific function in educational administration: e.g. Delphi technique in a process of collectively establishing educa­tional objectives; Systems Analysis as a tool in diagnosing the interacting components of the educational system; PERT/ CPM as an essential aid in project formulation; PPBS in rela­tion to problems of interpreting and evaluating plan targets through the instrument of the annual budget; Cost-Benefit/ Cost-Effectiveness Analysis in terms of relevant, practical decisions whose accuracy could be demonstrated to improve with the application of the technique. Even the less com­plex techniques, when presented in short courses, make a con­siderable demand on the intellectual capacities of most of the clientele, particularly if computations, algebraic notations, diagramming and reiterative processes are involved. Unless the tutor succeeds in making the mastery of a particular technique appear worthwhile for the day-to-day work of the trainee concerned, the inclusion of that technique in the course is a waste of time.

15. On the other hand, there are many aspects of practical management which are glossed over because they appear common­place and hence unimportant: e.g. report-writing; visual presentations; conduct of meetings; interviews; conflict-resolution; negotiation. Most educational administrators have found these to be more useful to them and have appre­ciated attempts made to provide guidance and practice in such subjects.

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16. All this has been said to emphasize the fact that principles of management and modern management techniques form a tricky subject, whose inclusion in training programmes for all groups of clienteles as a core element, requires a greater measure of scrutiny as regards the relevance and im­mediate usefulness of every topic. The reason, as already stated, is that an underlying prejudice against it has to be overcome by demonstrated practical results. The same strin­gent criteria would not apply to the padagogical aspects, which also was urged by us as a core subject, unless, of course, too much emphasis is laid on examples of irreplicable innovations of exciting novelty but doubtful relevance to the clientele.

IV. TRAINING PROGRAMMES FOR "PLANNERS"

17. Training Programmes for national and regional level educational administrators performing (or earmarked to per­form) educational planning functions, whom we identified as our first priority group, would appropriately concentrate on concepts and techniques of educational planning in addition to the two core elements discussed in the earlier section. The new role of the educational planner as a reform-designer, innovator and collaborator in reform implementation in rela­tion to all aspects of the national educational effort (at all levels, types and forms) widens his horizon from the earlier confines of economic considerations and linear plann­ing to issues and problems of an extremely complex nature. Knowing that the general educational administrator takes over planning tasks either temporarily for less than four years or only on a part-time basis, how much of the knowledge base and skills necessary to tackle these issues and problems could be acquire on the job? And how much through pre-assignment orientation and in-service training? The rapid turnover and the resulting shortness of serving time would stress on ex­treme economy in the time devoted to training (i.e. a national level planner with a maximum service-expectancy of four years cannot be given three years to do his Ph.D in a foreign uni­versity!). Such economy in time also means a careful selec­tion in the content of the courses.

18. The knowledge base (a substantial part of which is already subsumed in the core elements) would necessarily increase with the essential in-depth study of topics specific to planning, such as:

Concepts and mechanics of socio-economic develop­ment, with special reference to development plann­ing;

.../

i:-:

Economic, sociological, pedagogic&l, cultural and political considerations in educational planning, with the particular emphasis on the two-way interaction between educational planning and each of these fields;

Trends and patterns of financing education and mobilization of additional resources.

19. A corresponding reduction would be possible by jetti­soning some of the time-consuming quantitative techniques which are customarily included in courses of this nature. For example, this level of officers need not know anything more than the basic principles of student flow, internal efficiency and projection methods, which are easily mastered with a few matrixes made of simple figures. Detailed analysis of national educational statistics, refined methodologies of calculating repeater and drop-out rates and elaborate input-output analyses etc. would be of little use.

20. Saving time and energy from less useful elements is important, because the officers of this level have to acquire a number of urgently needed practical skills such as how to:

issue clear, adequate and effective guidelines to the regional/local/institutional levels where detailed planning operations would be taking place;

harmonize regional/local/institut'onal plans in progressive stages in an integrated, cohesive and implementable national plan;

identify and formulate projects in a comprehensive form (including budgeting in proper format) to ex­pedite their approval and efficient execution;

develop the management planning for implementation of individual projects;

- evaluate progress as well as outcomes and design corrective action to check deviations ; and

pilot through the different echelons of the approval mechanism legislative/administrative/ financial measures necessary for planned outcomes to be achieved.

21. It is in relation to these skills that the principles and techniques of management could be appropriately harmonized. Though indicated as three separate elements, the two core

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elements and the specific topics constituting the knowledge base and skills, specific to planning, would have to bè so organized as to ensure a synthesis and mutual reinforcement of related themes. The training objective to be so achieved would be to enable the officers of this level:

to understand and appreciate the interrelations between education and other major aspects of national life affecting it and affected by it;

- to gain insights into changes and innovations in education which would be conducive to overall national development over a specific time-horizon;

to acquire skills in designing and implementing such changes and innovations in harmony with developments in related national activities; and

to evaluate the impact and results of such changes and innovations.

V. TRAINING PROGRAMMES FOR OTHER GROUPS OF CLIENTELES

22. Our second priority group is expected to be specia­lists in quantitative techniques, which are specifically needed for diagnosis and evaluation. Comments made earlier on the relevance and usefulness of quantitative techniques, hitherto emphasized in training programmes, would apply in this case as well. As an essential supporting service to those whom we designated "planners", the officers of this group would be entrusted with the preparation and supply of the essential quantitative information required for the wide spectrum of decision-making that the new dimensions of planning demand.

23. The preparation and supply of quantitative information for planning is a very different function from the unfocussed collection and storage of statistical data on the various elements of an educational system. The selection of such data as could, after due processing, yield the quantitative information required for a specific purpose is a more dis­criminating and technical function. But few really have attempted it. Hence, the continuing apathy (if not, distrust) of educational decision-makers towards all forms of statis­tical data.

24. What the training programme for this group of clien­tele has to emphasize, by actual demonstration, is that a certain quantity of selected statistical data and a fair amount of well-directed number work in the application of tested analytical processes are essential. But, bearing in mind that the turnover of this group would also be rapid and

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hence it could not go through too long a training period, particularly, if it is pre-assignment, a judicious selection of the basic quantitative techniques is an essential pre­requisite.

25. To our mind, the following appear to be the main pur­poses for which simple, well-tested quantitative techniques should be found and taught to this group:-

PURPOSE NATURE OF TECHNIQUES NEEDED

The pre-planning activity Techniques to be developed of "educational mapping' by which is meant the process of surveying the learning needs of the people locality by lo­cality; determining the nature and the magnitude of educational activities required to fulfil them; comparing the physical and other facilities re­quired for each such acti­vity and comparing needed facilities with existing ones to strike a balance sheet; and updating the balance sheet periodi­cally as new learning needs come to light and needed facilities are progressively supplied:

Diagnosis of a particu­lar institution, level, type or sub-system for internal efficiency:

would include those of quanti­tative survey, sampling; ex­trapolation and relevance tree.

Techniques to be evolved for this purpose already exist as the principal stock-in-trade of educational planners in the form of calculation of parti­cipation rates, stagnation and waste, graduation rates etc. the tendency has been to use them for projection purposes rather than for diagnosis and hence the reduction in credi­bility. The simplication of these same methods to produce a set of "indicators of satis­factory performance" is necessary.

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PURPOSE

3. Target-setting and testing the feasibility of targets.

4. Formulation of Plans

5. Plan Elaboration: Regionalization and school-mapping

NATURE OF TECHNIQUES NEEDED

Avoiding the present tenden­cy of projecting the current educational system into a specified future on the prin­ciple of "business as usual", the task of setting feasible targets according to needs, national policy and resource availability is to be helped with techniques of need ana­lysis, relevance tree, finan­cial analysis, costing and resource forecasting.

The manner of presenting a plan, whether it be of an institution, a region or of the entire nation, needs to be emphasized spedifically from the quantitative aspect, the plan firstly, as a set of targets already tested for feasibility-hence con­sistent and accurate in the delineation of interdepen-dencies- and, secondly, as a statement of financial out­lays over a time horizon, has to be formulated with clarity and accuracy as fun­damental characteristics. To ensure clarity and provide ready means of checking ac­curacy, plan formulation methodologies have to be developed.

Decentralized planning may eventually do away with the need to regionalize plans, programmes or projects. But as the need would continue for some time, quantitative methodologies of ranking lo­cations for a share of plan provisions (specially with regard to physical facili­ties as done in school-mapp­ing) would be most helpful.

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PURPOSE NATURE OF TECHNIQUES NEEDED

Even after complete decen­tralization into regions, school-mapping techniques would be' necessary to site facilities.

Evaluation of Plans -formative as well as summative-not only in relation to the rate of progress of implementa­tion but the relevance of steps undertaken.

The techniques for evalua­tion would include those of quantitative survey, con­struction and application of research designs, multi­variate analysis and such other statistical tools as well as management techni­ques of budgetary control, and evaluation and review techniques. The need exists for simplified versions of Cost/Benefit and Cost/Effec­tiveness Analysis to be evolved for the purpose.

26. Once again, to emphasize an overriding principle, the sole criteria should be that each technique:

a. is specifically focussed to the purpose;

b. tested through multiple applications in real situations;

c. simplified to serve the decision-making purpose; and

d. presented, as far as possible, without sophisticated formulae.

27. The training needs of the third group of clienteles, which constitutes the entire managerial staff of the national and the regional educational machinery, are more difficult to be identified. They would need two broad elements to be incorporated in their training:

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individualized, job-oriented preparation primarily based on their day-to-day problems to enable them to perform more effectively in their respective positions;

a grounding in the overall educational picture of the nation with particular reference to how national policies and strategies, plans and projects have an impact on his work, how his work contributes to the national effort and how he could enhance his contribution, by developing requisite attitudes, skills and knowledge base.

28. The contents indicated for the first group of clien­teles, but substantially reduced in details and complexity, would be the most suitable to provide this second element. But the first element needs to be separately developed at least for each job classification, if not for each indivi­dual officer. A further matter to be borne in mind is that this group would be the principal source of personnel for the other two groups identified by us and, therefore, the training that most of these officers receive would consti­tute the foundation for the more specialized studies envi­saged for those of groups I and II.

VI. DELIVERY SYSTEMS AND METHODS

29. Universities, Teachers' Colleges and National Staff Colleges ; Formal courses in educational planning and management continue to be given by universities and teachers' colleges. Some countries have established special institu­tions in the form of national staff colleges or academies for educational planners and administrators. Recent trends show the capacity of these institutions to get out of the rut and blaze new trails. Already evident are following developments :

(i) With a gradual departure from end-of-course assessment to continuous assessment (e.g. semester system), the course contents are revised at shorter intervals, enabling new thinking and techniques to be introduced almost from course to course;

(ii) The replacement of composite examinations with a battery of courses fulfilling, in different combinations, the scholastic requirements for

(i)

(ii)

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academic awards has enabled a wide variety of knowledge - and skill-oriented courses to be designed; non-degree courses off> red by staff colleges/academies, have shown a high degree of flexibility in problem-oriented training of critical clienteles.

(iii) The students are given greater latitude in both the selection of courses and pace of study, thus ensuring need-related choice.

(iv) Training programmes conducted by other agencies (e.g. Ministry of Education, or Unesco) are given credit as partial completion of University or college requirements for academic awards;

(v) In the design of the courses and in teaching as well as in conducting practical exercises, the services of practising educational planners and administrators are being enlisted with such regularity as to minimize the gap between theory and practice;

(vi) Similarly, most of the postgraduate programmes are actually patronized by serving educational administrators as opportunities to qualify for promotion or change of specialization.

With such developments, the role of formal courses in acquir­ing an increasing significance and the institutions which provide them are progressively becoming the centres of new thinking and experimentation. Nevertheless, the formal courses, in some places, continue to be as unrelated _o current needs as they had been for decades. While ad hoc programmes, orga­nized with national, bilateral and multilateral involvement, seek to fill the gap created by the conservatism of universi­ties and teachers' colleges, the impact, for obvious reasons, is very limited. The transformation of the academic conven­tions and practices of these institutions is indicated in such situations as a vital necessity.

30. In-service Course and Distance Teaching; While formal courses are being patronized by increasing numbers of serving educational administrators, the need for periodical in-service training programmes of an ad hoc nature continues to be uni­versally felt. Most officers are still unable to take advan­tage of the formal courses either due to the pressure of day-to-day work or distance from locations of these facilities. Short programmes, both in the country and abroad, are the only opportunities which they could use. Thus, Ministries of Education are not only taking greater interest in providing such programmes at regular intervals but also enlisting the participation of universities and colleges in the country as

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well as international agencies operating in the Region in the organization and the conduct of the courses. If the requests for assistance from multilateral agencies are a guide, the in-service training of educational planners and administrators could be ranked as a priority activity in the coming years.

31. The recognition that the large number of persons to be trained and oriented could not be brought into in-service training programmes has enhanced the' importance of distance teaching as a means of ensuring their professional growth. In distance teaching there is no face to face contact between the instructor and the learner. The instructor's task is to organize and direct the learning experience of the trainee from a distance. For this purpose, he uses a variety of com­munication facilities at his disposal. The written or the printed word remains in this methodology the basic instru­ment. Here, again, a variety of methods and devices, evolved through educational technology, can be utilized to ensure the best results. The written or printed text can be in the form of a programmed learning text or kit. Use of diagrams, photo­graphs, illustrations and even humourous cartoons would en­hance readability, facilitate comprehension and sustain in­terest. Texts could also be supplemented with "canned" spoken words. If facilities exist, we can use cassette tapes, instead of or in addition to written lessons.

32. A further aspect of distance teaching would be the utilization of mass media like newspapers and magazines for the written word and visual presentations, radio for the spoken word and television for a combination of the spoken wora, the written word and the visual presentation with an additional dimension of action and motion. With increasing use of technological devices, radio and television lessons can be recorded and preserved for replay according to the convenience of the learner. Video-tape, which enables a television lesson or programme to be replayed at will is a significant device at the disposal of distance teaching.

33. A combination of contact sessions and distance learn­ing is available in the form of tutorless tutorials. Here the learners residing close to one another and pursuing a programme of distance teaching are brought together occasion­ally for discussions among themselves either on the basis of a structured discussion plan or on an informal basis. Tutor-less tutorials can also be made more effective by assigning the Tole of discussion leader in rotation to each learner and by getting him or her to present a discussion paper.

34. Another methodology is the field visit or observational tour. The learners are taken to see relevant projects and ac­tivities in operation, meet the actual persons handling them and, besides being briefed by them, make queries on their problems, constraints,experiences and so forth. This is si­milar to a contact session but the main difference is that trainees learn from men in the field, who can really be called the "skill models".

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35. A more structured form of field visit could be a practical field exercise. Here the practical exercise differs from the ones that may be done in contact sessions in the lecture-room. The exercise involves visits to the field, collection of data from primary sources, interviewing people for both data and opinions, collaborating and consulting with local personnel.

36. Finally, a further method and a very effective one in­deed, is supervised internship in an institution where the trainee would learn by actually working in a real-world situa­tion under the direct supervision of the staff of the organi­zation.

37. So far we have identified ten main methodologies at our disposal in organizing training activities in educational planning and management namely:

CS - Contact sessions

DPW - Distance teaching through the written or printed word

DSW - Distance teaching through recorded spoken word

DR - Distance teaching through radio

DTV - Distance teaching through television

DVT - Distance teaching through video-tape

TT - Tutorless Tutorials

FV - Field Visits and Observation Tours

PFE - Practical Field Exercise

INT - Internships

With the resource constraint as perhaps the only restriction, we can use any of them in imaginative combinations.

38. What has been described so far would apply to training programmes in any field. Which of this are most efficacious for training educational planners and administrators? With experiences so far gained and evaluated, the following have a very high potentiality of success:

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Methodology

I. Distance teaching 1.

2.

II. Contact Sessions 1.

Methods

Individual work

(a) lessons in simple lan­guage, lucid in presenta­tion and short enough for an evening's study;

(b) assignments involving investigation into parti­cipant's working environ­ment for data and infor­mation;

(c) simple tests to assess mastery over computational techniques used in pro­cessing statistical data for planning purposes;

(d) guided reading of a few selected publications, preferably with main points emphasized in advance.

(e) guidance of a local tutor who assists in study and conducts group discussions and tutorials, particular­ly where the tutor is a senior officer of the planning unit who can supplement lessons with examples of local rele­vance and relate theory to practice.

Group work

(a) Group discussion on assignments

(b) Tutorless tutorials

Lecture-room situation

(a) Panel discussions in which practicising edu­cational planners and administrators as well as

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research scholars inter­act in elal crating the themes already learnt by participants through cor­respondence lessons.

(b) Debates in which partici­pants argue out controver­sial issues.

(c) Simulation Exercises in­volving role-playing.

(d) Research studies of a restricted nature where participants study a problem in depth and write a term paper.

Field situation

(a) Project work involving data gathering and con­sultation in the field, particularly where the exercise is designed for and conducted in a real-world situation and the end product is a plan for a specific operation, to be evaluated by actual practition rs of educa­tional planning and manage­ment.

(b) Field visits wherein par­ticipants could interact freely with authorities in charge of the institu­tions or projects visited.

Participant-organized activities

(a) Seminars conducted on participants ' own initia­tive, specially where the expected outcomes include the evaluation of course activity and the identifi­cation of further training needs.

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39. The integration of distance teaching with face-to-face contact sessions, participant-initiated activities, practical exercises and visits to the locations of action provides all the ingredients required (i) to cope with a varied and volumi­nous body of knowledge, and skills, (ii) sustain and develop the interest of adults of different backgrounds; and (iii) in­dividualize the learning experiences according to needs. But it calls for a considerable amount of preparation and organi­zation in which no detail is too small to be neglected.

VII. RESEARCH INTO CONTENT AND METHODS

40. As the training needs become clearer and modalities tried out experimentally begin to show results, the need for continuing research into content and methods is poignantly emphasized. As it is, very little has been done to test the relevance and efficacy of what is taught in training prog­rammes in the actual work-a-day situations, in the different countries. It is true that the international agencies, which at first designed the content of most of these programmes, had to work on the basis of a least common denominator. But more and more of the training activities are now done or to be done at the national level and it would be most appropriate for national authorities to c encéntrate on the development of specific contents and methods, relevant to national needs and conditions.

41. Besides identifying the subject-matter to be incorporated in courses, they should also proceed to produce locally relevant material, especially in the form of case studies. Much has been said on the effectiveness of case studies as a methodology for the study of planning and management. But case studies, rele­vant to education planning f>nd management, are almost non-exis­tent in the Region. If this set of lesson units could be supplemented by national authorities by (a) adding national examples, data and experiences to illustrate the points made in them and (b) developing case studies on specific experiences/ projects/activities to be incorporated as supplementary in­structional material, the usefulness of the courses would be substantially enhanced.

VIII. CONCLUSION

42. With deeper involvement in the training of personnel for educational planning and management over the last two decades, it has become very clear that

(i) much of the efforts had remained irrelevant and unproductive as the individual differences of countries, their specific training needs and techniques and skill levels applicable to the abilities of trainees had not been taken into consideration adequately;

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(ii) the demands made on education by powerful socio-political forces had entirely transformed the approaches to planning and management, with educational planners evincing the most dramatic change of role and functions, and the changes thus taking place have to be reflected in train­ing programmes ;

(iii) the turnover of personnel handling key planning and management functions in education is so rapid that continuing mechanisms for training successive waves of personnel have to be urgently installed at the national level;

(iv) the content of training programmes, responding to needs and ability level of participants, has to be frequently updated ;

(v) the increasing numbers of personnel to be trained necessitate the adoption of a variety of modali­ties of training and distance teaching has proved to be very promising in this respect;

(vi) a vital necessity at the national level is to produce more locally relevant instructional materials, especially in the form of case studies; and

(vii) research into content and methods of training programmes for educational planners and adminis­trators remains an important fit ̂.d in which mucl. has still to be done.

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TEST AND APPLY YOUR KNOWLEDGE

Question 1: Why is it necessary to consider training in educational planning and management to be an unfinishable operation in the Asian region? What is the impact of this situation on educational policy?

Question 2: Do you agree that the process of educational development and principles and techniques of management should be core elements of all training programmes for educational planners and administrators?

Question 3: Is it correct to separate educational planners from specialists in quantitative techniques for purposes of training?

Question 4: Why are distance teaching techniques considered to be the most promising in the training of educational personnel?

Question 5: Analyse the arrangements made in your country for the training of educational planners and administrators and ascertain what important criteria discusFed in lessci unit are yet to be satisfied.

COMPARE YOUR ANSWERS WITH THOSE OVERLEAP

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SUGGESTED ANSWERS

To Question 1; The turn-over of personnel handling planning and management responsibilities in education is so rapid that the average tenure of office is around 3-4 years. There is continually a flow of new persons who come to these grades. In addition, the widening regional organization due to increasing measures of management decentralization employs a large number of persons who are called up to undertake planning and management duties . There are also an increasing number of other specialists who are taking over educational responsibilities. As such the number of persons needing training keeps on increasing faster than the facilities which exist. The impact of this situation is that a policy of staff development has to be given high priority. The establishment of national institutions for staff training is an urgent necessity.

To Question 2: Read the arguments in paragraphs 8-16. You may have some reservations about certain aspects of management theory and modern management techniques.

To Question 3: Such a distinction is demanded by the changes which had taken place in the process of edu­cational planning. The educational planners make decisions at a higher level and the training they need has to be of a wider scope. Specialists in quantitative techniques assist the planners. See paragraphs 17-21 and pa­ragraphs 22-25.

To Question 4; Because of the numbers to be reached and the logistic problems of exposing them to contact sessions; also because such large numbers cannot be taken out of their work-positions even for short spells of time. See paragraphs 30-31.

To Question 5: This question expects you to do a critical survey of what is being done in this field today.

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ADDITIONAL READING

1. Ron Glatter, Management Development for the Education Profession. University of London, Institute of Education, G.G. Harrap & Co. Ltd., London 1972.

2. Rolf P. Lynton and Udai Pareek, Training for Development. D.B. Taraporevala Sons & Co. Ltd., Bombay, 1973.