A particularly important role in achieving success in life is played by the education. By education as a social phenomenon we understand the transmission of life experience from one generation to another, knowing good manners and behavior in society according to these skills. Education refers to both the acquisition of theoretical knowledge and a certain socially acceptable ethical behavior. In the first instance we are talking about a person who has a good education, has an important set of theoretical concepts, is trained by professionals and has an impressive general culture.
Education does not only deal with the teaching of theoretical information, with abstractions, but above all, it aims at shaping character. The importance of education can be seen by the fact that any government in any country as poor as it is, has a ministry or department of education which is allocated a percentage of the budget. Education of children and youth is a delicate mission that both school and family must attend despite of all efforts; in other words, education is formed in a less formal environment such as the family, and then it continues in the institutionalized environment: the school. In this reason, Aristotle said: "Those who educate children well are more to be honored than they who produce them; for these only gave them life, and those the art of living well."
State's intervention in education can be objectively and rationally explained by the fact that the very act of learning of an individual requires to other individuals the performing of significant costs or, conversely, to bring substantial benefits for some individuals, without the direct offsetting between the one who actually supports educational costs and the one that benefits from education, or between the one that, thanks to the education he receives, can bring other significant benefits.
It should be understood from the start that not all learning means education and not the entire university period means learning; there is real concern for defining the concept of "education" as opposed to "learning" and achieving a quality education, primarily focused on learning and aimed to the accumulation of general and specialized knowledge to enable learners to be able to improve in the areas they choose.
Activities of state intervention in the education system cannot be limited only to educational work; a stable and democratic society cannot exist without a minimum level of training and knowledge of most citizens and without widespread acceptance, on their part, of a behavior in the sense of civic values in a free society.
The education of members of a society leads to a quality education system, to a long-term welfare and informational safety in a stable and democratic world, but liberal in terms of volume, quality and reliability of the information gained through advanced education system.
In today's society based on free enterprise, free movement, free market, it requires more and more that we approach the educational and training activities in a managerial marketing manner in which the human resource is subject and object of work and the purpose of carrying out activities are continuously reporting to people. In this sense, seeing the prospective development of the educational and training system the basic elements involved in running an effective strategy assumes the following specific meanings:
- the resources involved in the learning process of an educational system are complex, especially the human resources; all other types of resources: material, informational or financial strictly relate to the human one, their use being permanently correlated with their requirements;
- activities and actions taking place in the learning process of education are also related to the same requirements for improvement, continuous quality improvement and increase in the human resources to be transformed into long-term performance;
- only on performance criterion we can speak of a quality education and a competitive spirit amid deep accumulations, of promoting the values of a society that cannot evolve without a thorough grounding in all areas of human resources;
- there is a specific way of substantiating that involves linking methods and techniques of micromanagement with macro-management and with the participation of the various decision-making levels in the formulation and execution; their overall view of the conduct of learning and educational processes.
School was, is and probably will remain the main institution specializing in training the human
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the framework for reform implementation and decide the fate of those involved in leadership changes at various levels of the system.
At an institutional level, the managers are those who "holy" the place, motivating staff, encouraging students, developing and modernizing the material heritage of the school and faculty, mobilizing the family and the local community for an effective participation in the achievement of the goal of the educational institution. Good or bad, the management marks itself on the entire business of a school or university and on its products.
It is up to the Ministry of Education, to study both the economic and social environment and the means of adapting the education system to the realities of the contemporary world, according to national specificities and the level achieved by Europe in a globalized world. A specialized education system also requires a formulation of policies and strategies in the management of educational institutions, the only ones that are able to be placed in one or other of such diverse segments of the economy; such an approach involves broad autonomy in choosing profile, establishing curricula, syllabuses, and other activities.
Diversifying the educational offer depending on the needs and economic developments, on social and cultural life in terms of plans and programs and the development of alternative education processes will be achieved through democratization of the way of making education which would require its displacement from the field of access to education in the field of educational success. It is also necessary the flexibility in training during the schooling through modularization of professional standards, in order to offer fast and efficient adaptation to the university graduates and the demand on the labor market.
Not just dozens of legislative changes, but also under-financing or chaotic financing strongly eroded this system, which should be the cornerstone of any society with principles for a model of excellence in management: 1) Focus on results; 2) Focus on customer satisfaction; 3) Leadership and persistence in achieving goals and objectives; 4) Management oriented to processes and facts;5) Human resource development and involvement; 6) Continuous improvement and innovation; 7) Development of partnership based on reciprocity; 8) Public accountability.
In this context, Abbott (Abbott Global Citizenship and Policy) argues that: "in the dimension of globalization, increasingly, universities define their missions not necessarily focused on the fundamental disciplines but geared more toward professionalizing a population increasingly diverse of students." After resources of a country. The quality of its "product" mainly depends on several factors. They are:
- the quality of the human material (children, youth, adults) that enter in the education process (physical and mental development, intelligence, learning ability, motivation, family and social conditions) etc..
- the quality of logistics (educational facilities, furniture, teaching materials, technical equipment)
- the loyalty of the personnel (teachers, auxiliary, administrative) and teaching performance
Although the share in which these factors are involved in making the school's "products" is not always easy to determine, it can be said with certainty that management at all hierarchical levels, holds a valued place in the constellation of other factors of influence.
I make this statement because the entire history of Romanian education proves that the human factor in managing the school has often been decisive.
In the early years of Romania's transition to a "something" loosely defined, the relative stability of the school that undergone pressure from both outside and inside, sometimes without the right leaders at national and regional levels, was provided by those directors, deans and rectors devoted to education which put its interests above their own interests, than have polarized around them educators, students, pupils and parents and did not allow the school's diversion from its major purposes: education and training.
Even so, Romania (that basically abolished illiteracy and created the conditions that about 95% of a generation to finish high school in the forms of day and evening attendance) today has, as a result of an inadequate strategic management, tens of thousands of illiterate and hundreds of thousands of pupils who drop out of the mandatory term school, although European countries around us are increasing this education from 8 to 9 years or sometimes from 10 to 11 years and their school reforms aim to better prepare students and ensure equal opportunities for all social groups.
In 1989 we had already accomplished what the United States projected for January 1990, when President George Bush, proposed to the Congress that by 2000, the number of students who complete the general secondary school (high school) to be at least 90% of a generation. To achieve such ambitious goals, it is understood that education managers have a "heavy" to say over the aims of the school, the teaching and learning content structure and on the performances obtained by the graduates.
They (the top-level managers) propose regulations to the Government and Parliament, they create
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Abbott, the need for curriculum reform is more acute in developing regions where the need for specialists is very broad - from those specializing in science and technical professions to people able to play roles of strong leaders capable of adapting and flexibility, innovative and creative, aware of the importance that the ethical perspectives have in development. (Abbott, 2009)
In defining educational goals and educational strategies we must start from the position in which the unit providing such services is placed in the environment, especially from the market relations that it has with its customers: the educational unity has market relations with two main categories of customers, with youth that assimilate knowledge needed for employment and with businesses that benefit from the work force, attracting human resource trained by the education and learning system.
Not always the interests of the schools, of economic beneficiaries of labor, of owners of labor and the state, represented by the Ministry, coincide; they often generate major contradictions, appearing objectively necessary the use of management and marketing techniques adapted to this specific markets so that the interests of all stakeholders can be harmonized.
In the contemporary society, the educational process is complex and the forms of education (formal, non-formal, informal) are in constant interdependence. The new concepts of information - information society, knowledge society, culture of information (information literacy) digital literacy - and new information and communication technologies (NICT) have caused major changes in the globalized information, scientific and technical progress.
In recent decades, the dynamics of information dissemination through various media dissemination and storage caused major changes in the educational process. There were new forms of teaching - learning, in alternative forms of education, complementary to formal education reflected in new concepts: teaching - learning - training in the electronic environment (e-learning), lifelong learning (LLP), learning using mobile technology (m-learning), etc.
After the integration of Romania into the European Union, the main objective alignment like the development and success of the knowledge society and economy has become a priority for the Romanian educational system. In this respect, we have made great strides in promoting knowledge and innovation in connection with the recommendations of the European Parliament and of the Council on basic education and training of people. This seeks to improve the quality and effectiveness of education and training systems through programs that promote education, training and public accessibility to information and formation throughout life.
In conclusion, we can say that the education is the first resource of the beholder but it generates effects on people's lives quality. So the education benefits other persons than those who actually acquire their learning outcomes. For this reason economists have included education among the favorite topics of the analysis from the theory externalities. It says that when an individual is part of educational services, benefits accruing not only concern that person, but they include the society. And last but not least, education is a strategic goal of all nations, and education policy reflects orientation of the evolution of society as a whole. ■
NOTES
* Presentation delivered at the Rector acquiring the honoris causa doctorate on the 7th of November 2013 in the Halasy-Nagy József assembly hall of the University of Pécs.
Lábjegyzetek:
[1] The Author is Rector Prof., "Bogdan Voda" University of Cluj-Napoca.
Visszaugrás
