The Importance of Education to Development
The quality of human resources is dependent upon education, as well as upon health
and upon the supporting environment. Research and the further development of
technology are themselves appropriate and important functions of education. With the
new scientific systems which accompany them, they are directly relevant to economic
progress and growth. Economic growth is reliant upon sufficient numbers of qualified
professional specialists, technical experts, skilled craftsmen, managers and
entrepreneurs to develop a country’s capacity for growth. The production of this skilled
manpower is a function of education—education in formal schools, on the job and in
non-formal but systematic programs of information dissemination and skill improvement.
The contributions of education to economic growth extend beyond manpower training.
They include a level of literacy which permits reliable and effective communication
between the specialists and specialized development agencies on the one hand and the
agricultural and industrial workers engaged in the development process on the other.
The contribution of the educational system to development lies in the opportunity to
sustain, advance and disseminate a nation’s distinctive culture as expressed in its art
and sculpture, its building skills, its music and dance and its literature. Education in
these ways is important to economic development, to civic and political development
and to cultural development. These benefits are contributions of education to a country
as a whole and its population as a collective entity.
The Interrelationship of Educational Issues and Administrative Considerations
Administration for educational development becomes a matter of considerable moment
because of the indispensability of education to a nation’s economic, political, and
cultural health. It is also important in planning, organizing and managing the educational
establishment as a whole and in establishing and operating the several individual
schools. An illustration of this unavoidable relationship between educational issues and
the administrative considerations relevant to the choice among alternative solutions is
readily seen when the length, the number of years of schooling is set at each level—
primary, secondary and higher. Few developing countries can really provide much
specialized instruction in science for want of personnel and equipment and supplies, yet
most of them wish to do so. Perhaps the most controversial is whether and to what
extent vocational and technical training should be offered and at what levels. This is
born out of the desperate need of most developing countries for skilled manpower for
industry and commerce and for modern farming encourages and supports many of them
in efforts to offer such instruction.
Organizational Issues Affecting Educational Administration
Functionally, for purposes of organizational and administrative, the field of education is
usually divided by level--- that is primary, secondary and higher education. Practice
somewhat varies from country to country. Three additional organizational divisions are
not infrequently found. One of these division is often established for some or all aspects
of vocational and technical education at the sub-university level, including at least the
technical institutes at intermediate and secondary levels, usually vocational instruction
in secondary schools, and even such vocational work as might be offered at the primary
level. The responsibility for these several categories or divisions of education is
commonly assigned at least in some degree to the central ministry or department of
education at the national level. This orderly assignment to one ministry of all the
divisions of the whole field of education is not usually to be found, however; on the
contrary, there are almost always exceptions in the form of assignments to other
ministries and other bodies. It is not unusual to find the responsibility for at least the
apprenticeship and on-the-job training aspects of vocational and technical education
and sometimes this whole field-and also sometimes certain aspects of child welfare- to
be assigned to the ministry of labor. Certain categories of education can be the primary
responsibility of other ministries or of other agencies extern to the ministry of education.
Universities, for example, may be given autonomous or semi-autonomous status with
their own governing boards, as in India, sometimes coordinated by central boards and
commissions and sometimes not. When education remains the responsibility of the
national government, the problems of administration are very largely the problems of
decentralization and decongestion by vesting the appropriate powers and resources in
field representatives of the central ministry. The central or state education would
normally be responsible either for planning and conducting these several specialized
functions in the operation of schools and of the educational system or for setting
standards for their performance—standards giving directions to supervisors which are
enforced by the control of financial and personnel resources and used as a basis for
accreditation or equivalent systems of endorsement.
Financing Educational Development
The effectuation of programs to accomplish a country’s objectives in education is
dependent not only upon the organization of specialized functions but also upon the
quality of the administrative policies and systems which are needed to make them
operational. The fastest and most economical way to make substantial progress toward
a newly independent or developing country’s goals is by utilizing the existing structure of
institutions and facilities to the utmost by making corrections and improvements in their
management. Progress achieved in this way is particularly suitable to quantitative and
equalizing extensions of educational opportunity and coverage—that is, in the number
and location of pupils and students who can be accommodated. Developing and poorer
countries face a very difficult problem in this regard, a problem which assumes sever
aspects. One of these aspects is how to finance the rapid increase in schools
throughout the country. Experience has shown that the residents of a community are
usually more willing to help pay for a government service, and especially education, if it
is provided visibly and adequately in their own community than if it is for some general
and comparatively remote national purpose. Some countries, as in the case of the
Philippines, have for this reasons authorized local governments to levy taxes, usually
property taxes, to support local schools. Others like Pakistan and Indonesia have
adopted the policy and the practice of agreeing to provide teachers for elementary
schools if the local community will provide the land and buildings and assume
responsibility for maintenance and upkeep. In any case, the cost of education is very
great and it is growing, not shrinking. This burden must be borne always and in large
part by the central government and its superior sources of revenue and not alone by the
state or other local districts or agencies for school administration. The so-called
“development budget” is another complication in the fund allocation process because it
is too frequently a capital budget insufficiently related to the budget for recurring
expenditures which are needed subsequently to make that capital investment
operational. It is therefore incumbent upon the educational authorities concerned with
innovative development to be vigorous and aggressive in the budget process. Two
budget improvements alone would convert the budget system from one of inhibition
which encourages, and supports educational administration response to ever-changing
need and opportunity when the need occurs and when the opportunity arises. The first
improvement would be to give authority to education officers in the field or school
principals to operate promptly on the basis of their budget authorizations without going
back up the bureaucratic line and down again with request for second and third
approvals. The second improvement would be to strengthen the capacity and authority
of the educational establishment to act flexibly in correlating the resources of the
development and regular recurring budgets.
Staffing the Educational Establishment
Similarly the personnel system to provide the teachers, supervisors, and school and
other administrators needed to man the enormous education establishment can, by its
effectiveness, maximize the productivity of such investment as is available to it or can,
by its ineptness, make poor use of the investment and thus thwart its purposes. The
size of the educational manpower pool is also dependent upon a large enough number
of teacher training and other preparatory pre-service programs to produce the needed
numbers of qualified persons. Here it is necessary for countries to make the difficult
judgment of just how long and how intensive such professional training need be at any
particular stage in the evolution of their educational programs. Granted that minimum
levels of training are needed to assure acceptable teaching performance, some
countries have been tempted to raise those levels more rapidly than might act be
required at any given time and in so doing, to make it more difficult both in capacity and
in time to institute or expand the desired training facilities. The difficulty is that selections
from teaching and office staff for administrative posts are too frequently based on
seniority rather than aptitude and merit and that perhaps even more seriously those
chosen are given virtually no orientation or training for their new careers. At the very
least they should be instructed in their duties, institutional policies, methods and powers
and responsibilities and also in their coordinate relationships. What is important in a
competent personnel system is not only the quantity and quality of persons in the
manpower pool for education, but the promptness of their selection for and thus their
availability for vacant teaching and other posts. Speed in filling positions with qualified
persons is the measure of a responsible personnel system. Many systems are so
ponderous and even so indifferent in their operation that a position may remain vacant
for weeks or even months. The consequences of delay in filling jobs are failures to do
the teaching or to perform the other intended functions of the educational institution
involved and to that extent there are losses in the system’s productivity. By the simple
devices of establishing open registers of persons found to be qualified for specific types
of position and of allowing the responsible educational authority to make his selection
from those approved lists of pre-tested and examined candidates, almost of that delay
could be avoided and the educational machinery could continue to function without
interruption. Moreover, by being able to make a choice from among a number and
acceptable candidates, the locally knowledgeable and responsible officer can select the
one who most nearly fits the needs of the local situation.
Problems of Planning for Educational Development
Planning is another of the administrative systems, along with finance, personnel and
supervision, by which the educational intentions and expectations of a country are
defined and realized. Planning, in this case for education, is the process by which
choices and decisions are made about the policies, programs, projects and methods
needed to achieve desired results in the most effective ways. Education is properly
defined in comprehensive terms – that is to include not only “formal" and
institutionalized education in primary and secondary schools and in colleges and
universities and in technical institutions but also the so-called “non-formal" or out-of-
school education as illustrated by on-the-job and in-service training, adult literacy
programs, education projects in agriculture and other continuing education programs.
From the point of view of development administration, the question of quality in the
educational system is how to make the best use of it and how to get the maximum
return from the investment. There is great opportunity, through improved and
decentralized system of finance, personnel and supervision to increase the
effectiveness of schools. It is desirable for other educational jurisdiction outside the
center, such as states and large district and municipal school boards, to have their own
planning units. These units would have functions and relationships similar in kind to
those of the central educational planning unit. This dependence puts the central
economic planning office, in a position to prescribe guidelines for state and local
educational planning remains, because it is important to assure the preparation of
projects and programs which meet the tests of local acceptance and viability.
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Education and the management of the school system have significant political as well
as management aspects which markedly affect educational administration. This is
because education is a state subject that is a primary responsibility of the state rather
than that of the national government. The state protects the execution of education and
believes of every citizen’s right to education and to choose their profession. If we were
to imagine a separate world between administration and the educational development,
then all of the state’s effort in widening the knowledge and expertise of the economy
and country quality is half-won. The whole field of education in its branches and aspects
is seldom the sole responsibility of one ministry of education to plan, organize and
administer. This is because education is a diverse complex of institutions, programs and
systems which requires coordination because of its importance and its cost but which is
exceptionally difficult to manage. Schools and educational programs of one kind or
another are not limited to the capital city, of course. On the contrary, the country’s
schools and educational programs should be set up and expressed throughout the
length and breadth of the land. The issues of educational organization in the field must
also be faced, as well as the problems of the functional organization and coordination of
education at the center. There is a close and often conscious and certainly desirable
connection therefore between systems of educational development and systems of
political development. Even when the quality of local school administration and
education suffers by the transfer of responsibility to elective bodies, consideration of the
long-term benefits of local self-government often prompts the authorities. However
spotless the idea may be, there are a few issues that ends up messing the organization.
One of these few issues is making sure of the compatibility of personnel in various
locations, positions and in situations can thus be recognized and accommodated. One
of the few contributions of education in the local administration is preparing the student
for a future that they will take part of. However the educational system is not yet as rigid
as we expect. There may be problems in the compatibility of the students in the
profession of their choice. This is given solution by the objective of open public
competition for government positions on the basis of comparative merit. The
competition will then limit the choices in accepting qualified candidates in the local
position. This is then perfected into one collaboration of education as well as
administration. Hence, the state is given credits for giving importance to the education
and always looking for ways to improve its services. A developed education is a
developed and competent public administration in public service.