Stages and Approaches to educational planning

Editor's Notes

• #3 I have here 5 words which are connected with our topic for today. What you are gonna do is you are going to guess the right word out from the jumbled letters .
• #21 In other words, planning implies thinking about the future and trying to assume control over future events by organizing and managing resources so that they cater to the successful completion of the objectives set forth.
• #23 ) To set direction and priorities: To get everyone on the same page: To simplify decision-making: To drive alignment: To communicate the message:
• #24 In other words, planning implies thinking about the future and trying to assume control over future events by organizing and managing resources so that they cater to the successful completion of the objectives set forth. Planning bridges the gap between where we are and where we want to be.
• #25 From these views, it can be summarized that ‘planning refers to the act of deciding in advance what is to be done, how and when to do it, where and who is to do it in order to achieve the goals or objectives of the system’.
• #26  It is goal-oriented: it is directed at achieving a set educational objectives. Walang coincidence or nagkataon lang because Educational planning is a detailed and systematic process: it just does not happen by chance. IT IS COMPREHENSIVE AND WAS PLANNED WITH DEPTH KNOWLEDGE.
• #30 IN THIS STAGE, survey and deliberations are being conducted. (Child Mapping) It identify the -possible clients -ages, health status, needs -strength and weaknesses - Possible Resources and etc. Along with this, assessment in some allied fields (Baranggay sector, DOH, DPWD and etc.) is also necessary as education is an integral part of the total plan and is closely inter-related with the economic development of the country.
• #31 This helps the planners in formulating policy proposals aimed at accomplishing pre-determined objectives. The formulation of the policy proposal requires an over-all view of the role of education vis-a-vis the economic development and the over-all planning. It should also take into account the complexities of the country and the diversities of cultures within it as well as the regional aspirations. These necessitate the introduction of a uniform educational system (e.g., 10+2+3 system) along with scope for regional diversities in the curricula. It should also aim at evolving policy decisions concerning rational norms of optimum class-size in terms of enrollment and student-teacher ratios at different levels and types of education. Besides, policies concerning admission criteria (except the compulsory primary education level), promotion of students, fees to be paid on the basis of the principle of social justice, supply of text-books, equipment, devising curricula, methods of teaching, teachers’ qualifications and in-service professional development, methods of evaluation, medium of instruction, language policy and teachers’ salaries must be taken into account. Along with the identification of the program design and its specification, In this stage, the goals and objectives of educational system is also being defined.
• #32 Projections have to be made of the future nature and size of the demographic composition of population for a period of fifteen to twenty years. Since student is the focus of the educational process, projection should begin with the school and the college age-groups drawn on a yearly basis in terms of enrolments. There are two commonly employed procedures available for scientific projections: (i)The enrolment ratio method which is based on the projection of past and present ratios of school enrolment or school attendance into the future. It requires estimates of population by age and sex regarding school enrolment and/or attendance data. (ii)The grade cohort method which is also known as cohort survival method. This method also makes use of the past and current enrolment data by grade for every school level and for approximately seven-year and ten-year data for primary and secondary levels respectively. It also requires data on the number of new students, repeaters and those who pass on to the next higher class for every standard/class. Projections are calculated from the survival rates of students after taking into consideration demographic characteristics such as birth rate, mortality rate and migration rates. Along with this, a minimum social standard of education needs to be postulated such as compulsory schooling for every child for a certain number of years. Besides, provisions should be made in the estimates for the changes made by students midstream (e.g., switching from science faculty to commerce faculty) and other forms of turnover, adult education, literacy programmes, excess supply of products in a particular stream etc. An assessment should also be made about the efficiency and effectiveness of the curricula, pedagogy used and criteria of admissions and evaluation as well as the changes required therein. This is followed by programming and operation. For example, if 800 technicians are to be produced, a programme on the number of institutions, teachers, equipments, space, syllabi, courses, etc., is to be worked out. Here, one institution is called a project programming and project analysis involves the application of administrative and economic principles in order to assess a particular situation and establish an operational programme.
• #33 The unit costs of different types of educational facilities need to be computed. These costs are to be studied in terms of the availability of present and future financial resources. It should be ensured at this stage that the real cost of education is not too high so as to be inconsistent with the attainment of the overall plan objectives. In this stage money matters is already being considered. In all aspect of planning, money is always involved. Even in project proposals, expected expenses are being identify.
• #35 a way of dealing with something : a way of doing or thinking about something. : the act of moving or becoming near or nearer to someone or something : the act of approaching : an act or occurrence in which something comes nearer. Planning is nothing exceptional. Human beings have been planning in one way or another since rational thinking emerged. However, as a formalized way of organizing development in complex societies, planning is an invention of the twentieth century.
• #37 According to Adesina (1982), there are three rival approaches to educational planning that time that fall under the traditional educational planning approach. These are: The social demand approach The manpower requirement approach The cost benefit analysis
• #38 Over time, various forecasting techniques and simulation models were developed which aimed at orienting the educational investments either according to the needs of the labour market (manpower approach), or to the social demand for education (social demand approach), or to the needs of education sub-sectors with the best rate of return (cost-benefit approach), or to a more-or-less harmonious combination of these three approaches.
• #43 This approach requires the education authorities to provide schools and find facilities for all students who demand admission and who are qualified to enter.
• #44 Why do our parents send us to school? Or you as a parent, why do you send your kids in school? Some parents may say that because it our right, some may say its their responsibility as parents and some may say that it is their investment. Education is now universally recognized as a form of investment in human capital that yields economic benefits and contribute to country’s future wealth by increasing the productive capacity of its people.
• #46 However, in reality, it is difficult to apply this approach to education due to problems associated with measuring rate of returns in education.
• #47 Hence, it is not easy to attribute the rate of returns only to education acquired. Hence, this approach is least frequently applied to education.
• #48 Hence, it is not easy to attribute the rate of returns only to education acquired. Hence, this approach is least frequently applied to education.
• #52 1. Too much focus on plan preparation and not enough on plan implementation It was assumed too quickly that once a good plan had been prepared the implementation would follow almost automatically. Hence very few mechanisms were set up for systematic monitoring of plan implementations.. Furthermore, the fact that many plans were prepared by external technical assistants) did not facilitate national ownership, without which implementation is likely to fail. 2. Plans were being prepared in a top-down, technocratic way Most plans were prepared by the planning units (and their technical assistants) with little or no involvement from the rest of the ministry staff, not to mention staff at decentralized levels of management and civil society partners. The consequence was again a severe lack of identification with (or even knowledge of) the objectives of the plan and priority actions by those responsible for implementing it. Indeed, while a plan can easily be prepared by a handful of technical experts, the responsibility for its implementation involves, the entire ministry staff and requires the commitment of all. 3.Not enough consideration was given to the changing environment Plans were being prepared with the implicit assumption that the planners have all the information and techniques needed to develop a complete, correct plan which can be executed from beginning to end. Many plans simply ended up on the bookshelves of the Ministries, however, whenever they were implemented , it was done in a rigid, mechanical way. Not enough flexibility was built in to adapt to changing circumstances. This need for flexibility and continuous adaptation became increasingly more obvious during the second half of the 1970s (after the first oil crisis) and during the 1980s, when the overall economic environment became more unstable and unpredictable.
• #53 The strategic planning approach is supposed to rectify the above mentioned shortcomings and can be defined as…..
• #54  Strategic planning is not just a cold technical undertaking that spells out future objectives to be reached and actions to be taken. It requires a global sense of purpose and direction capable of guiding implementers in making everyday choices about what actions should be taken in order to produce the expected results.
• #55 Although there is a logical, sequential order in raising these questions, there is often no clear-cut sequential order in addressing them. The answers to the different questions are interdependent and influence each other, thus, the decision about where we would like to be in future might have to be reexamined once we have started examining how we can get there and after having encountered major difficulties to reach the initially fixed objectives. In other words, strategic planning has to be looked at as an iterative process that involves going back and forth between the different questions and the corresponding planning activities. Planning does not stop when plan implementation starts. A medium (or long) term plan is not prepared once-and-for-all but has to be transformed annually into an operational plan and regularly updated.
• #56 This figure summarizes the strategic planning process which has been briefly explained above. It highlights the central role of the yearly planning and monitoring cycle which is at the heart of strategic planning. It also illustrates the multiple feedback loops which have to be integrated within the process in order to make it flexible and capable of responding efficiently to changing conditions.
• #57 Table 1 below summarises some of the major differences between the traditional planning approach, (which was commonly practiced in the education sector until the late nineties) and the more recent strategic planning approach adopted in an increasing number of countries. In reality, the differences are often less contrasted and many plans that claim to be strategic have kept several characteristics of the traditional planning approach which has been prevailing for so long. Indeed, adopting a strategic planning approach is not just a technical move. It implies a more fundamental challenge of building up a new management culture based on the values of participatory decision-making, accountability and openness for change. This is a process which needs time to produce results, particularly in countries in which some of the most basic conditions for an efficient public service system are simply not fulfilled.