ABSTRACT
This chapter considers some of the implications of the approach for administration. Educational administration means so many things to so many people that generalisation would be unprofitable. Local councils are experimenting, often borrowing ideas from industry, introducing new categories of administration that have, of course, an influence on the way education is managed. The organisational aspects of the creation of effective administration are, of course, considerable. One of the main determinants of the local authority (LEA) policy at present is budgeting: a rudimentary, and in its traditional form rather unsatisfactory, economic planning technique. A logical extension of this approach is cost-benefit analysis, which tries to measure, other things being equal, the benefits of a project against its likely cost. A management information system has three basic functions: collection, processing and distribution of data. In the education service it should ideally weld together data for the instructional and the administrative parts of the enterprise, including any mechanical or electronic aids.
