BENCHMARKING AS AN INNOVATION IN EDUCATION ADMINISTRATION

Abstract

The social, political and economic changes that have
occurred in our country in the last two decades have led to a new way of operating of educational institutions in the public sector. The
mentioned changes are reflected in a different way of doing business
through market operations, competing with competition, improvement
of quality and performance of educational institutions, respecting the
needs and expectations of users, etc. In numerous innovations,
reforms, tendencies and directions, the concept of marketing in
education finds its place, with all its techniques, methods and
principles, and one of them is the application of benchmarking, i.e. a
concept that refers to learning from leaders in a specific business
domain. Readiness and openness of schools to foster innovations in
everyday work are the precondition for a successful implementation of
benchmarking in education. School principal has a major role as a
person who is the most responsible when it comes to successful
operating and quality improvement in a particular school. In this
paper we will present the basic steps of benchmarking process related
to the field of education. Furthermore, the paper promotes the idea of
the necessity of creating a unique benchmarking information system
which would present a practical communication channel between
educational institutions which need training and the competent
institutions which can provide trainings in the process of
benchmarking.