CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the study:
Administration is an every day activity. It is a pervasive activity that is found in all organization. It exists in all organization which is established with definite purposes. In the church, corporate organization, political parties, army, institutions, trade unions etc, there have to be some form of administration because these organizations are made up of people in a hierarchical arrangement, using tool, equipment, human and material resources in order to achieve the objectives of these organizations, there should be planning, organizations, staffing, co-ordination and control. All administrative set ups under go all these processes in order to achieve stated objectives. Generally administration is an activity aimed at achieving a common goal and objective.
Administration is concerned with the performance of executive functions, carrying out of policies, decisions to fulfill a purpose and controlling the day-to-day running of an organization (Peretomode in ogbonnnaya 2004). Administration according to Ukeje, (1996) is the activity that maintains an organization and concerns itself with the direction of activities of people working within the organization in their reciprocal relations to the end that the organizations purposes may be attained. Adesina, (1996) in his view sees administration as the organization and direction of persons in order to accomplish a specific end. Administration in the realm of the state, involves a large number of people employed at different levels of authority, all working towards the achievement of the objective of the state, Ugwu (2003).administration is the pivot on which all activities revolve because administration is the capacity of co-ordination many and often conflicting social energies in a single organism, so adroitly that they shall operate as a unit”. According to Adebayo (1995), it is this process of organization and management, which constitute administration. Administration is the process of directing and controlling life in a social organization, (Ezeocha 1990).
In the school system, administration is the act of bringing human and material resources together for effective functional teaching and learning in school. For the purpose of this study administration is defined as the process of working with and through others to efficiently accomplish organizational goals. It is the art and science of getting things efficiently done. Lack of effective administrative functions in Abia state secondary school system possesses a lot of negative effect in school administration, which led to education goal displacement and creates impediments in teaching and learning processes. It bridges the relationship between the school administration and members of staff and students which resulted to biasness in carrying out their primary duties.
According to Ogbonnaya, (2004) administrative function is concerned with the utilization of human, financial and material resources to achieve set goals and objectives. Mgbodile, (2004) defined administrative function as the process of directing and controlling life in a social organization. It involves the performance of executive duties, the carrying out of duties, planning, budgeting and decision to fulfill a purpose toward achieving organizational goals and objectives. This implies that an administrative function involves not only formulating of policies but also its implementation. In this context, administrative function denotes all the activities of the administrator in an organization towards achieving all the organizational goals and objectives. Peretomode in Ogbonnaya (2004) stated that administrative function is concerned with the performance of execution of duties the carrying out of policies and decision to fulfill a purpose and the controlling of the day-to-day activities of an organization.
The principals as the school chief executives are faced with a number of administrative problems in the performance of their duties. One such major problem is inadequate manpower or teachers to help him run smooth administration. He faces the problem of how to assign responsibilities to the few existing staff who may complain of overload, hence inadequate staff affect the principal planning functions for effective instructional delivery in the school.
Another problem is lack of adequate accommodation for effective teaching and learning. Where the school lack classrooms and office accommodation, both the staff and students will not enjoy positive school climate. There is also problem of lack of funds. Ogbonnaya,(2004) noted that one of the major problems facing school administration is inadequate funding of schools. The problem of fund affects the effective running of schools provision of instructional materials necessary for efficient teachers’ performance and effectiveness.
The principals face both staff and students problems in the schools. Some staff may be uncooperative. Hence they may not carry out their assigned duties, some are irregular in school attendance, some are nonchalant about school rules and regulation, and attend to their personal needs to the detriment of their official functions some students are truants, disobey school rules and regulation, attend and leave school with impunity. All these affect the principal’s activities in the school.
The task of improving administrative functions is not easy. For effective school administration, the principal has to plan on how to provide for the various staff needs. According to Oboegbulem (2004), staff in any organization have some needs which when provided will make for efficiency and job satisfaction. Staff motivation is basic in the administrative duties of the principals to ensure that school programmes and activities are carried out on the part of the teachers. This helps to improve the performance of teachers in service delivery.
Another area of improving administrative functions is to ensure free flow of information for communication between the principals and staff in the schools. The principals as internal supervisors use such information flow to provide for good teacher-authority relationship that promotes good school climate. In the school system, good information dissemination is a key variable in the achievement of teaching and learning activities (Okunamiri, 2007).
To improve administrative functions, principals are to ensure properly delegated responsibilities to their staff. This will help to involve the teachers participation in the administration of the school thereby giving them sense of belonging. In the same way, it allows the staff to contribute meaningfully in formulating decision that will promote school administration, discipline and efficient performance by teachers.
Management in any organization involves planning, designing, initiating action, monitory activities and demanding results. It can be seen as a process concerned with creating, maintaining, stimulating, controlling and unifying formally and informally within a unified system designed to accomplish predetermined objectives.
In view of Etuk (2007) management is defined as the process of providing, organizing. Unitizing and controlling organizational input (human and material resources) for the purpose of producing output relevant to the accomplishment of objectives. Mgbodile (2004) sees management as leadership which as aimed at influencing group activity towards goals achievement. Hence, to hi m, it is the behavior of the man in leadership position when he is carrying out the vital functions of administration planning, organizing, directing or controlling, coordinating and evaluation of activities aimed at achieving goals of the establishment. Peretomode (1996) sees management as the social or interactional process involving a sequence of co-ordinated events, planning, organizing, co-coordinating and controlling or leading in order to use available resources to achieve a desired outcome in the fastest and most efficient way.
From the above definitions of management, it can be deduced that management is a social process which has goals to achieve, towards realization of organizational goals and objectives. Ezeocha (1990) notes that the specific functions of management include the developing and regulating of the decision making process in the most effective way. Essentially, all organizations whether educational or otherwise, requires effective and efficient management of their scarce resources for their continuous existence and growth.
Appraisal in this context is seen as the extent to which school principals and supervisors carry out their administrative functions of secondary school management. It aims at ascertaining the extent principals and supervisors carry out their administrative functions for effective implementation of school programmes and activities. Appraisal becomes important since the quality of administrative functions in any school gears direct relevance to the quality of academic achievement and discipline of the schools.
Appraisal is undertaken to ensure that school principals and supervisors maintain a reasonable standard to enhance teaching and learning in the school as well as effective management. The current exercise will enable the researcher appreciate the extent of performance of the administrative functions of principals and supervisors in the school system for the achievement of goals of education. Cortina (1977) defined appraisal as the act of assessing an expert or official value of something as for taxation.
Supervision is a major aspect of personnel administration. It in is one of the roles that a school administrator performs in the execution of duties and functions. Supervision is concerned with those aspects of administration aimed at maintaining the efforts of personnel in line with the goals of administration. The supervisory aspect of administrators responsibilities includes maintaining punctuality and discipline as well as facilitating change from outdated patterns of work to modern techniques. The supervisor must be a good listener and should have patience in solving individual problems. When a supervisor performs his job well, there is bound to be efficiency on the part of his subordinate (Mgbodile, 2004).
Olujide (2001) perceived supervision as a way of advising, guiding, refreshing, encouraging, stimulating, improving and over seeing certain groups with the hope of persuading people to desist from applying wrong procedures in carrying out certain functions on their jobs. And at the same time, supervision tries to emphasize the importance of good human relations in an organization. Modern supervision takes a supervisor as a mediator between the people and the school programme. Therefore the supervisor designs the various methods in performing some functions in order to achieve the educational goals and objectives of the schools under control. Supervision is a function that can not be undertaken in isolation but rather must become a cooperative venture involving the entire school.
In the views of Ogunsaju in Ogbonnaya (2004), supervision does not imply that the staff must be ordered about and kept constantly under surveillance at all times to make sure that work that needs be done is done properly at the right time. Supervision is interaction between and among two or more people. Thus it is an inescapable fact that wherever more than one person is involved in an act, interaction is bound to take place in form of some types of established relationships.
From the above definition, one can deduce that supervision is a “behavioural process which aims at stimulation, coordinating and guiding the teacher to work so that he can guide the growth of his pupils. Supervision is a goal directed activity”. It is what school personnel do with people and things in order to maintain or change the operation of the school. Supervision is an integral part of teaching with the purpose to discover the laws of teaching and learning and to require teachers to acquire these laws. It can be regarded as all efforts of designated school officials towards providing leadership to teachers and other educational workers in the improvement of instruction.
Supervision is a way of persuading people to desist from applying wrong procedures in carrying out certain functions on their job. Finally, supervision signifies those activities which focus on the teaching and improvement of the academic environment in order to promote effective teaching and learning for both teachers and their pupils.
