Introduction

School administrators are personnels that oversee administrative tasks in schools,

colleges or other educational institutions. They ensure that the organization runs

smoothly and they also manage facilities and staff. School Administrators fill

leadership roles at academic institutions. They may be principals, vice principals,

or work in admissions or student affairs. School Administrators prepare class

schedules, ensure curriculum standardization, as well as proper budget allocation.

Ikgbusi and Iheanacho (2016) observed that Heads of secondary schools are tasked

with the implications of these objectives.

The success of secondary school education rests on a good administration

involving the local communities, adequate and well qualified teachers, adequate

funds for infrastructural facilities, together with interested parents supplying

children’s material needs and bringing home training to supplement the efforts of

the teachers at school. For heads of secondary schools to succeed in the

administration of secondary schools, they need the collaboration and sustenance of

the parents, teachers, the Post Primary Schools Service Commission and the

Ministry of Education. School administrators are strong member of the educational

institutions that can that either make, develops and mar academic progress of

secondary schools in Nigeria.

Analyzing the functions of the principal, U.S. Department of Labour (2011)

asserted that principals set the academic tone and work actively with teachers to

develop and maintain high curriculum standards, formulate mission statements and

establish performance goals and objectives. They evaluate teachers, visit

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 classrooms, observe teaching methods, review instructional objectives and

examines learning materials (Olachukwu, 2008). Dare (2009) enumerated the

following as the functions of the school administrators in the school:

Udoh and Akpa (1990) summarized the responsibilities of the principal as follows:
i. To prepare annual budget of the school.
ii. To liaise between the school and educational agencies and organizations.
iii. To coordinate Parents-Teachers Association‟s activities.
iv. To initiate and encourage innovations.
v. Cause things to happen and know what he wants to happen.
vi. Exercise responsible stewardship over resources and turn them into purposeful
account.
vii. Promote effectiveness and search for continual improvement.
viii. Be accountable for the performance of the unit he is managing and
ix. Set a climate conducive to enable people give their best.
x. To supervise the activities of all school staff and students.
xi. To design the physical plant for the school. vii. To organize the curriculum and
its contents.
viii. To select the school textbooks, materials and
equipment. ix. To determine the services to aid
teaching and learning activities.
i. To maintain effective lines of communication within the school and with outside
agencies.
ii. To maintain a high level of discipline and policy formulation governing
curricular and co-curricular activities and
iii. To report school defects either in terms of infrastructures or personnel to the
appropriate authorities for rectification.
Roles of school administrators

School administrators are at the epicentre of educational development

especially ensuring the smooth running of the schools. The following are the roles of

school administrators

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Planning: Planning is the act of working out in broad outline the things to be done

and procedures for doing them in order to accomplish set purpose. It is a process of

making rational and technical choice. Planning is a systematic, conscious and

deliberate process of deciding ahead of time, the future course of action that a person

wishes to pursue in order to reach set goals. This definition suggests that planning is

part and parcel of every man’s endavour politically, socially, economically and

academically. Educational planning involves a systematic and scientific set of

decisions for future action with the aim of achieving set educational goals and

objectives through effective use of scarce resources. It provides the tool for

coordinating and controlling the direction of the educational system so that

educational objectives can be realized. It is a process of identifying and classifying

educational needs of a nation and the direction education should take and the

strategies for implementing decisions concerning educational development. Akpan

(2000) maintains that educational planning should reflect the state of development of a

nation including the needs and readiness to execute the planned objectives. Thus,

educational planning must take into consideration the population growth of children of

school age in relation to access to education, educational opportunities and the

demand for education. In all these, it is the function of school administrators to make

adequate school planning. For example

 Educational administrators plan about human resource management

 Recruitment of workers

 School arrangement (structural arrangement)

 School calendar

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  Fees payment

Organizing: Organizing is and act or art of putting decisions in place for the smooth

running of organisation. Organising is the function of administrator which involves

developing an organizational structure and allocating human resources to ensure the

accomplishment of objectives. The structure of the organization is the framework

within which effort is coordinated. The structure is usually represented by an

organization chart, which provides a graphic representation of the chain of command

within an organization. Decisions made about the structure of an organization are

generally referred to as organizational design decisions. Organizing also involves the

design of individual jobs within the organization. Decisions must be made about the

duties and responsibilities of individual jobs, as well as the manner in which the duties

should be carried out. Decisions made about the nature of jobs within the organization

are generally called “job design” decisions. Organizing at the level of the organization

involves deciding how best to departmentalize, or cluster, jobs into departments to

coordinate effort effectively. There are many different ways to departmentalize,

including organizing by function, product, geography, or customer. Many larger

organizations use multiple methods of departmentalization. Organizing at the level of

a particular job involves how best to design individual jobs to most effectively use

human resources. Traditionally, job design was based on principles of division of

labor and specialization, which assumed that the more narrow the job content, the

more proficient the individual performing the job could become. However, experience

has shown that it is possible for jobs to become too narrow and specialized. For

example, how would you like to screw lids on jars one day after another, as you might

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have done many decades ago if you worked in company that made and sold jellies and

jams? When this happens, negative outcomes result, including decreased job

satisfaction and organizational commitment, increased absenteeism, and turnover

(Huimfg, 2008). For example:

Organising manpower in the school

Organising employee incentives

Creation of effective and efficient work environment

Harmonising and workers

Purchase and building structures in school

Co-ordinating: Coordinating involves the social and informal sources of influence

used to inspire action taken by administrators (school administrator). If school

administrators are effective leaders, their subordinates will be enthusiastic about

exerting effort to attain organizational objectives. Educational administrators also

controlling the subordinates. Controlling involves ensuring that performance does not

deviate from standards. Controlling consists of three steps, which include (1)

establishing performance standards, (2) comparing actual performance against

standards, and (3) taking corrective action when necessary. Performance standards are

often stated in monetary terms such as revenue, costs, or profits but may also be stated

in other terms, such as units produced, number of defective products, or levels of

quality or customer service. The behavioral sciences have made many contributions to

understanding this function of management. Personality research and studies of job

attitudes provide important information as to how managers can most effectively lead

subordinates. For example, this research tells us that to become effective at leading,

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managers must first understand their subordinates’ personalities, values, attitudes, and

emotions. Studies of motivation and motivation theory provide important information

about the ways in which workers can be energized to put forth productive effort.

Studies of communication provide direction as to how managers can effectively and

persuasively communicate. For example:

 Delegation of power

 Encouraging employee participation in decision making

 Motivation of workers

 Encouraging unity among workers

 Organising in-service training

Budgeting: The word `budget’ came from a French word `bougette’ meaning little

bag. In Britain, the word was used to describe the leather bag in which the chancellor

of the exchanger used to carry to the parliament; the statement of government needs

and sources as opined by Omolehinwa (2005). After several thoughts of consensus,

Omolehinwa continued, the budget became the document contained in the bags which

represent plan of government expressed in money and submitted to the legislatives for

approval. Several definitions of budget have been presented by authorities. For

instance, Obi (2004) defines a budget as an estimate of probable future income

(revenue) and expenditure for a programme or project for a period of time. Financing

is very important tto educational development and for smooth running of the school. It

is the function of school administrators to make budgets in schools. For example:

 Generating revenue for sports

 Generating revenue for provision of instructional materials

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  Generating fund for students excursion

 Generating fund for provision of ICT instructional materials

 Generating fund for provision and maintenance of school laboratories

Reporting and communication: Communication is an indispensable fact of human

life. Firstly, a human being communicates with his/her mother even while in the

womb, via the placenta. In the 10th week, he/she communicates with people via

his/her sense organs. Over time, the effect and style of communication increase in

complexity. As a social being, a human is required to communicate with other people

for survival. Humans are influenced by the communication of the real world and vice-

versa. In today’s world, sometimes, called the “communication era”, educational

organizations are set up to integrate people into the new “communicative” world.

Effective communication in a school setting allows change and the proper shaping of

the world, as well as providing a great advantage for the school in reaching its

objectives. Maintaining an effective communication process in education depends on

the managers responsible for the educational settings, teachers, who play the most

fundamental role in the shaping of education, students, who have the potential to

shape the world, and families, which are important in shaping children as social

beings. It is the function of the school administrator to establish effective

communication system. This will enable the schools to function effectively. Examples

of administrative communication include:

 Creation of social media platforms for dissemination of among students

 Creation of teleconferencing platforms for meeting

 Involving the host communities about development in school

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  Effective vertical and horizontal communication in school (among teachers and

students)

 Informing workers about new government policies

Conclusion

School administrators are at all education levels, from elementary to postsecondary.

Duties vary, but they may determine the number of students to be admitted, review

applications, register students for classes, schedule spaces and times for classes, and

prepare transcripts. They also establish curricula, set budgets and help with behaviour

management. Some postsecondary administrators specialize in specific areas.

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