Brief outlines of the six principles of educational administration are discussed in this

article. The principles are: (1) Structural Democracy, (2) Operational Democracy (3)

Justice (4) Equality of Opportunity (5) Prudence (6) Adaptability, Flexibility and Stability.
1. Structural Democracy:
Being the first principle of educational administration in the modern era it puts stress on

democracy in structural perspective. It implies “the exercise of control” in democracy. The

meaning of exercise of control in this light should be such that, it helps the students as future

citizens in fulfilling their needs and requirements tending to their self-realization, safeguard the
democratic government and welfare of people at local, state and national levels.

This exercise of control refers to the meaning of democracy by treating each human being as, “a

living, growing and potentially flowering organism.” Hence in this principle of educational

administration the educational administration has to practise the principles of democracy both in
structural and functional form.

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In this regard and educational administrator will be a fittest one who can manage autocracy as

and when necessary to achieve the goals of an educational programme. For actualizing it he has
to perform his duty as democratically as possible.

2. Operational Democracy:
This principle of educational administration gives priority on the practical aspect of democracy

as a way of life and form of governance. To this, the essence of democracy is to give importance

on the dignity of every individual and assisting him to understand his self in this context this

principle considers democracy as a matter of spirit, way of life and a mode of behaviour.

Keeping this in view it is the task and responsibility of an educational administrator to focus on

day to day happenings in relation to democratic society in educational perspective that are
relevant in wider extent.
Because this sort of democracy seeks to make democracy more practical rather than formal. For

example a school or an educational institution is regarded as the society in miniature or a small

society. It means the entire picture of the society has been reflected in the school. The same

situation lies in case of a democratic society like ours where people expect the school or an

educational institution will do a lot for actualizing democracy as a matter of spirit, way of life
and a mode of behaviour practically.

In this light, it should be the function of the educational administrator to achieve it for which he

may take the view of the students, consult with the staffs, specialists, expects and community

members before taking any decision. This result in the emergence of a good and effective social

order by the school or educational institution as an agency of education. Overall speaking this

type of democracy as a principle of educational administration gives importance on practicability

and relevance of day to day happenings of democracy in relation to educational perspective so

far its administrative aspect is concerned.

3. Justice:
ADVERTISEMENTS:

Generally speaking justice refers to provide every individual his due in the society by honoring

his individuality. This meaning of justice is the essence of democracy. As justice is one of the

basic hallmarks of democratic administration, it is regarded as an essential principle of

educational administrating which is democratic in form and practice. For practicing justice in

educational administration there is the need and essentiality of giving due reward and share to
every individual to his efforts and achievements.

Besides, every individual is to be given task or assignment in accordance with his needs,

requirements, abilities, aptitudes etc. Hence the educational administrators for practicing justice
as one of the principles of educational administration must be judicious while dealing with
employees, students and public. But in Practice it is not happening as the educational

administrators very often arbitrarily exercise discretionary powers and too narrowly apply
uniform rules in one point.

And uniformity of rules in educational administration does not provide equality which is

necessary to safeguard the individuals in another point. This nature of the educational

administrator goes against the very essence of justice as it is to be free from such bias nature of

them. Hence the educational administrators have to reduce this tendency to minimum for making

justice beneficial, healthy and impartial in nature and approach as a principle of modern
educational administration.

4. Equality of Opportunity:
One of the important social objective of education is to equalize opportunity or facility for

enabling the backward or under privileged classes and individuals to use education as a means
for improvement of their condition.

ADVERTISEMENTS:

In order to keep equality of opportunity in concrete shape in the field of education, educational

administration plays a vital role. For this greater emphasis should be given on equality of
educational opportunity for the shake of accelerating the process for building up of on egalitarian
human society in which the age old social exploitation will be reduced to minimum.

The principle of uniformity is not to be practiced and maintained in the field of educational

administration as equality does not refer to uniformity. The cause is that opportunity means to

provide adequate facility or scope to every individual for his development. In this context, the

reasons for existence of inequalities of educational opportunities cited by the Education

Commission (1964-66) can be highlighted which must be stressed in the field of educational
administration.
These are:
(а) In equal distribution of educational institutions through out the country.

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(b) Poverty of a large Section of the population and relative affluence of a small minority.

(c) Disparity between the education of boys and girls at all stages and in all sectors of education.

(d) Disparity of educational development between the advanced classes and the backward
classes.

Every society that values social justice and anxious to improve a lot of common man and

cultivate all available talents, must ensure progressive equality of educational opportunity to all

sections of the population. In this context it should be the task of educational administration to

make special efforts for equalizing educational opportunities by reducing the above cited

problems of it. As a result, equality of opportunity in educational process will be practiced by

educational administration as one of its principles.

5. Prudence:
ADVERTISEMENTS:

Overall speaking prudence refers to thinking or planning or showing thought for future. Being

contextual in approach it can be said that the futuristic outlook, vision and forward looking must

be incorporated it the field of administration. Like general administration educational

administration has to practice the exercise of foresight skill and vision with respect to matters

concerning practical living and utility of the system of administration in future by the educational
administrator.
This principle “Prudence” is closely related to intelligent economy which implies quality control.

In order to ensure quality control in the field of education, educational administration has to

make expenditure on education by accepting it as an investment on human resource. Because

without necessary expenditure on education there will be no question of quality in it and then
what about the matter of quality control?

It is evident from several studies that now in educational administration there lies a lot of

wasteful expenditure for which the system of check and balance is essential. The system of check

and balance is prudential in nature which seeks to protect an educational institution or

organisation, an enterprise from mis-behaviours and mis-appropriation by an official or authority

as misuse of power and funds that creates mischief.

It is known to one and all that misuse of power and money leads to the loss of public in general.

Hence like general administration in educational administration there is the necessity of the

system of “check and balance” to prevent such misuse. This will be done if educational
administration accepts it as its principle in real situation.

Those who are good sociable, democratic competent and welfare oriented educational

administrators liberty is granted for them. Liberty is granted to them with not making the system

of “check and balance” rigid. Because it is essential to give freedom to the competent and
delicate persons as educational administrators who are in the interest of good administration.

They give a differential treatment to different students, staffs, officials and community members

as per their need remaining within the jurisdiction of educational administration. Besides an

educational administrator in order to prudential in nature and work must have simplicity,

understanding capacity democratic spirit and effective communication ability with him as
attributes.

6. Adaptability, Flexibility and Stability:

An institution must be able to adjust with changing situations by fulfilling the developing needs

and by improving its day-to-day dealings with persons or agencies involved. This characteristic

of an institution is called adaptability. In the process of achieving its educational objectives, it

has to deal differently with different human beings like teachers, parents and the public at large,

who are affected in one way or other by the process or its products. This tendency is called
flexibility.

The educational institution however must be able to achieve adaptability without creating any

dislocation or disruption in its process and achievements. This property is named as stability. An

institution must have these three characteristics in order to be able to achieve its objectives
adequately and to give due regard to all persons concerned in some way or other.

These three characteristics are dynamic, adaptability and flexibility are especially so. Stability,

however, is called as prudential check on the change which retains good in the old and gives up

bad in the new. Hence, careful evaluation of the old as well as the new is an essential feature of
stability.

Adaptability is concerned with acts of change and flexibility to a great extent to counteract with

uniformity and stability is mainly the counterweight to adaptability. Thus on the whole,

adaptability is the capacity of an enterprise to change, to develop and to improve. Flexibility is

the capacity of an institution to react in variance with persons and situations affected and to warn
against the dangers of uniformity.

Stability on the other hand is the capacity of an organisation to safeguard the merits of the old

while it is in the process of change. Hence, all these three qualities of adaptability, flexibility and
stability are complementary to each other.

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