Orientaciones Tecnicas para el Mejoramiento de la Administracion Educacional--Necesidades, Posibilidades y Perspectivas (Technical Guidelines on the Improvement of Educational Administration--Needs, Possibilities, and Perspectives)

Abstract

The success of development programs in educational systems is dependent, to a large extent, on the quality and relevancy of their management. Many worthwhile, well conceived and planned educational reforms have failed due to poor management. Therefore, both ministries of education and international organizations of technical cooperation have placed top priority on educational management matters. International cooperation efforts emphasizing the improvement of educational administration have been conducted by such programs as the Programa Regional de Desarrollo Educativo (PREDE), supported by the Organization of American States; Experiencias de Gestion Participative (Colombia); Investigacion para la Accion y la Obtencion de Logros (Central America); and Modelo del Funcionamiento de las Escuelas Basicas (Chile). This paper discusses the management of educational systems; explains how educational administration is, and has been, a priority of PREDE; discusses the influence of educational approaches on the theory and practice of management at large; presents some basic definitions of management; discusses problems, needs, and possibilities that, in the field of educational administration, are present in Latin American educational systems; provides some examples of efforts to improve educational administration; and outlines proposals for reflections and actions to improve the administration of Latin American educational systems. (NQA)