FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPTS OF EDUCATIONAL PLANNING

NATURE AND SCOPE OF EDUCATIONAL PLANNING

Educational planning is an instrument for providing the needed coordination and direction of the different components of an educational system. It also ensure that widely accepted long term goals, such as universal primary education, are approached more objectively. It provides a realistic appraisal of the country's resources (human, on-human and institutional) which is an important factor in the successful implementation of the plan.

Through educational planning, a country indicates its willingness to effect an orderly change or reform in its educational system by bringing into focus the shortcomings or needs that hitherto had been ignored or unknown and so that appropriate action be affected.

Overall educational planning, either as a part of the National Development Plan or as an independent plan is characterized by-

(A) An attempt to bring a balanced development of all sectors of the educational system.

(B)The correlation of the educational effort with the national policy for ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

(C)An effort to coordinate the QUANTITATIVE EXPANSION necessitated by Demographic factors and social demand with the QUANTITATIVE IMPROVEMENT in content, structure, and methods

(D)The determination to ensure that the investment in education brings good dividends in the form FULFILLMENT OF MANPOWER NEEDS, the OVERALL DEVELOPMENT OF INDIVIDUAL and the NATIONAL ECONOMIC,SOCIAL and CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT.

CONCEPTS OF EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

The concept of education has undergone a significant change in recent years. It is a common experience that-

(A) A much wider variety of objectives(national/social/individual) than ever befialore is expected to be achieved from the function of education;

(B)what was once available to a limited(elitist)group or privileged persons is now being demanded by increasing number of persons belonging to all section of society;

(C) The task of providing educational facilities to all those who seek it is becoming a Function beyond the means of private individuals and organization; and

(D) An intensive search for strategies for educational development has become urgent Education is equated broadly with the teaching-learning situation that goes beyond the four walls of the school. It takes place under all kinds of circumstances and embraces much more than the conventional academic skills and subject matters. It includes the acquisition of occupational household skills, the development of aesthetic appreciation and analytical modes of thinking, the formation of attitudes, values and aspirations, and the assimilation of pertinent knowledge and information of many sorts.

Education is categorized into three groups, namely: INFORMAL, FORMAL and

NONFORMAL.

INFORMAL EDUCATION is an unorganized an unsystematic but a truly life-long process whereby individuals acquire communicating skills, both verbal and non-verbal, etiquette, customs, family and social relations, religious beliefs and rites from daily experiences and environment where they belong. so the adults continue to benefit from the informal education provided by newspaper periodicals and books, radio and television, and social contacts relating to political and cultural activities.

FORMAL EDUCATION refers to the hierarchically-structured, chronologically-graded educational system from the primary through the university. It caters solely for the purpose of teaching a clientele according to a set of patterns. A pattern consists of such elements as grades or classes prescribed syllabuses and timetables, examinations, academic awards and so forth.

NON-FORMAL EDUCATION is any organized educational activity established outside the formal system whether operating separately or as an important feature of some broader activities that are intended to identifiable learning clientele and learning objectives, e.g. programs such as pre-school of day-care centers and nurseries, school equivalency program, functional literacy, Agricultural extension and cooperatives.

WHAT IS EDUCATIONAL PLANNING?Educational planning implies the taking of decisions for future action with a view of Achieving pre-determined objectives through the optimum use of scarce resources there are three main elements in this definition;

(1)PRE-DETERMINED OBJECTIVES

(2)USE OF SCARCE RESOURCES

(3)TAKING DECISIONS

TYPES OF EDUCATIONAL PLAN

The determination of the horizon or duration of an education plan is a must for planners Conformably, EDUCATION IN THE WIDEST SENSE AS CONCIEVED FOR PURPOSES OF EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, IS A SOCIAL ACTIVITY WHOSE RESULTS BECOME MEASURABLE ONLY AFTER A CONSIRDERABLE TIME SPAN.

A plan may be classified according to time horizon/duration as follows

1. LONG-TERM OR PERSPECTIVE PLAN- extends from 10 to 20 or even 25 years. Educational planning has to be based on a concept of the future. The planners should envision the kind of society; the kind of political, intellectual and social leadership.

2. MEDIUM-TERM PLAN-usually 4-5years, is prepared against the backdrop of a long-term perspective plan. It has proven operationally to be most efficient. It defines the goals and targets with greater clarity and provides a definite basis of action.

3. SHORT-TERM PLAN needs to be adopted only as an inevitable alternative to medium-term planning and on an emergency basis. The introduction of "rolling plan” has eliminated the need for short term plan.

4. SINGLE-PURPOSE PLAN- is an administrative operation, which is usually adopted when particular objectives like implementing a reform measure, building an institution or piloting legislation is to be achieved.

TYPES OF PLANNING ACCORDING TO FUNCTIONS

1. PHYSICAL AND ECONOMIC PLANNING

PHYSICAL PLANNING-is the planning of an area's physical structure-land use, communicating, utilities and has its origins in the regulations and control of town development, ECONOMIC PLANNING-is concerned more with economic structure of an area and its overall level of propriety.

2. ALLOCATIVE AND INNOVATIVE PLANNING ALLOCATIVE PLANNING-is concern with coordination, the

resolution of conflicts ensuring that the existing system is ticking over efficiency through time in accordance with involving policies.

INNOVATIVE PLANNING-is concerned with improving, developing the system as a whole. It is known as

DEVELOPMENT PLANNING

3. MULTI AND SINGLE OBJECTIVE PLANNING

Whatever is type or form, planning has goals and objectives. GOAL is an ideal and should be expressed in abstract terms; while an objective is capable of both attainment and measurement.

OBJECTIVE should be measurable, result oriented, specific, realistic, attain table, and time bounded

4. INDICATIVE AND IMPERATIVE PLANNING INDICATIVE PLANNING - merely lays down general guidelines and is advisory in nature. IMPERATIVE PLANNING- involves specific directives.

APPROACHES TO EDUCATIONAL PLANNINGThe significant job of planning education must be

based on well-defined objectives; actually the definition of objectives defends on the choice that a nation makes out of alternative approaches to educational planning. Several approaches have been discussed in literature and adopted by different countries for planning educational activities, but all of them maybe summarized under three major categories;

1.SOCIO-CULTURAL APPROACH

2. MANPOWER/PERSON POWER APPROACH

3. INVESTMENT EFFICIENCY APPROACH

SOCIO-CULTURAL APPROACH is the determining of educational needs and development in terms of current demands for education at different levels on the basis of population, age distribution, and prospective area of national income, social aspirations and cultural goals.

MANPOWER/PERSON POWER APPROACH is gearing of educational efforts to the fulfillment of national manpower requirements. In other words, the planners should have to foresee the future occupational structure of the economy of the nation and to plan educational system that will provide the requisite number of personnel with qualification that the structure demands.

INVESTMENT EFFECIENCY APPROACH is the determining of the investment to be made in education according to the rate of return or benefit of effectiveness.

11. FOUNDATIONS OF EDUCATIONAL PLANNING

SOCIOLOGICAL-consideration should be borne in mind when overall educational planning is done plans maybe be very accurately drawn up but these may fail unless the necessary attitudes are acquired by the people to be trained.

Four salient aspects are worthy of focus:

(A) IMPACT OF PLANNING ON SOCIETY-one of the functions of planning is determining collective action for future changes, for the attainment of collective goals within the bounds of available resources

(B) SOCIAL ASPIRATIONS RELATING TO EDUCATION-every society seems to have system of STRATIFICATION that is a way by which its members are divided into higher or lower strata. This may not be as strong as the caste in India, but we do have it here as in the case of the farmers group. social upheaval become a dilemma of the educational planner. He has to ensure how the limited resources available for education

(C) SOCIAL SANCTIONS AND TABOOS IN EDUCATION an educational planner should have understanding of the social sanctions and taboos which have a bearing on change. Each society has a culture or a collection of sub-cultures which consists of what each society or its group has selected from the natural environment.

(D) ROLE OF EXTERNAL PRESSURE IN EDUCATIONAL PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT

External pressures on educational planning and management are generated by the following;

(a) Political ideologies

(b) Politicians

(c) Lobbies

(d) International agencies and movements

(e) Foreign aidsThe impact on the political ideology of the government in

power on educational policy is vital and has to be recognized by the planner as providing the overall framework within which education is to be planned and developed. The politician's attitude oftentimes brings him in conflict with the ideas of the educational planner or administrator.

ECONOMICS ECONOMICS-deals primarily with the allocation

of scarce resources to alternative uses this may refer to the behavior of an individual; the distribution of limited recourses (his income) over his expenditures that satisfy different needs, different elements of consumption (food, clothing recreation, etc.) or consumption now versus future consumption to spend right now or to save for later spending)

THE COST OF EDUCATIONFor our purpose, we concern ourselves only to

formal or in-school education. Again it is useful to distinguish the cost to society as a whole (which is the concern of the government) from the cost to the person who receives the education.

BENEFITS FROM EDUCATION A listing of the benefits from education is much

less straightforward than that of the cost elements. One reason for this is that there are several among them that are not measurable in simple economic terms. Another reason is that, it is not always possible to determine whether a benefit we see is due to one factor to another. Much of the branch of economics that is called the "ECONOMICS OF EDUCATION" is based on the assumption that more education leads to higher productivity.

1. Imbalances which prove wasteful within the Educational system

2. Demand far in excess of capacity

3. Cost Rising faster than income

4. Insufficient job opportunities for the Graduates Resulting to Unemployment and under Employment

5. Lack of efficient Communication and coordination between the planning Service and the financial service and the financial and management service

PEDAGOGICALPEDAGOGY or the science of teaching comprises

the sum total of our knowledge and experience in bringing about learning. why should an educational planner be conversant with the structure of the educational system?

If one examines the main reforms that have taken place in very recent times in educational system, one finds that the structure has been the first element to be reviewed and changed every change in the structure has immediate repercussion in the work of the educational planner. All his projections of enrolment, teacher needs and the like, his costing and financial statements have to be change to match the structure.

DEMOGRAPHIC DEMOGRAPHY is the statistical study of the

characteristics of human population especially with reference to size and density, growth, distribution, migration and vital statistics and the effect of these on social and economic conditions.

POPULATIONS DYNAMICS The educational planning is for people, and its

ultimate aim is to maximize the welfare the population. Developing as it does with a "target" population which is constantly changing in number. age and sex composition, and geographic distribution, educational planning cannot be separated from considerations about dynamics of population growth and change

EDUCATIONAL PLANNING AT THE NATIONAL AND SUB-NATIONAL LEVELS

THE PLANNING MECHANISMS

On the national level, the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) has been created as mandated by the constitution to assume the central role of coordinating planning at the aggregate level and overall program implementation. It is charged with the task of planning and overseeing government development policies and motivator project activities.

THE EDUCATIONAL PLANNING PROCESS AT NATIONAL AND SUB-NATIONAL LEVELS

Each sector is responsible in the preparation of plans to be integrated into the national/regional/provincial/city and/or municipal development plans, depending on the location and/or level the education plan, like those of other sectors, constitutes only one component in these development plans, so that the education sector continuously coordinates horizontally and vertically with the other sector.

The Philippine government has now come to recognize that the achievement of social progress and accelerated productivity must defend on the development of the region.

NECESSITY FOR LINKAGES AND COORDINATION

At any level of the educational enterprise, or in any segment of the personnel group involved in education, designing the kind of education we want and ought to have for the future is difficult but not impossible task. There has to be a built-in and clear implication for all levels of education the so called "linkage system", vertical and horizontal, so as to get the change dissemmeted and adopted in an actual school situation.

PLANNING CHALLENGES AT THE NATIONAL AND SUB-NATIONAL LEVELS

PLANNING CHALLENGES AT THE NATIONAL AND SUB-NATIONAL LEVELS

Planning at the national and sub-national level is confronted with several problems that our educational system faces presently. Now it is imperative to look briefly at them for what they tell us about the concentrate tasks which educational planning at the national and sub-national levels must now cope with. Among these problems

EDUCATIONAL PLANNING AT THE INSTITUTIONAL LEVEL

School heads with the genuine interest and the desire to render efficient work that maybe expected of them must have clearly thought of in advance what they propose to accomplish during their tem of duty. The national plan leaves a very large freedom to the regions to plan in the light of their own conditions. Likewise, the division, districts, and institutions/schools should enjoy a good deal of freedom to plan for themselves. Even in an institutional plan, they should be freedom to an individual teacher to plan something for himself and so on. The existence of choices and planning go together. If choices do not exist, there can be no planning.

A CHALLENGE AND AN OPPORTUNITY The program of institutional planning has both a

challenge and opportunity.

It is a challenge because of the several intricacies and complex problems for which practical and realistic solution will have to be found. It also requires that all persons concerned. The program is also an opportunity. it is probably the principal tool which will help us improve education in the present situation when financial resources are so scare and the need is so urgent.

CHARACTERISTICS OF AN INSTITUTIONAL PLAN

INSTITUTIONAL PLANS ARE NOT A CHARTER OF ADDITIONAL DEMANDS. Their primary objectives is to make the best utilization of existing resources and, from this point of view, they emphasize human efforts rather than additional money investment.

INSTITUTIONAL PLAN MUST BE BROAD-BASED AND DEMOCRATIC. They must involved everyone concerned the principal, teachers, parents, and students. A good educational plan must be known to all. that it must be able to secure their full cooperation and that it must assign specific responsibilities and duties to each teacher and other officials.

INSTITUTIONAL PLANS MUST BE PRACTICAL AND REALISTIC RATHER THAN UTOPIAN OR OVER-AMBITIOUS

For educational plans, our motto should be: "not high aim but failure is a crime; we do not mind how small a plan a teacher prepares. Let somebody say,"I want to improve the handwriting of my children what you decide to do is immaterial. But once you decide to do something, we will not accept any excuse to failure. This is what we have to insist upon doing things with dignity. With pride in oneself and with success If we can follow this up, institutional plan can be put up successfully on the ground.

COMPONENTS OF AN INSTITUTIONAL PLAN

In institutional planning attention should be focused to four important matters, namely:

1.THE OBJECTIVES OF INSTITUTIONAL PLANNING. The aims of institutional planning cannot be different from the aims of educational planning but the immediate objectives and specific purpose of the programs of action at instructional level may differ in the order of priority and degree of importance with the district, division, regional or rational program. This is inherent in the very nature of the type of problems which institution faces.

II.THE SCOPE OF INSTITUTIONAL PLANNING: the scope of institutional planning may be spelled out as follows;

(1) Improving the school Plant

(2) Improvement Of instruction

(3) Extra curricular activities for pupils

(4) Community programs for the schools

III.THE PROCEDURE: the technical and procedural aspects of educational planning at institutional level cannot be rigidly defined or specifically laid down. Being essentially institution-centered it will have to accommodate a wide range of differences in conditions and methods of operation the cardinal principles of planning and techniques of implementation should identify the following stages in the institutional planning procedure:

(a) Identification of the needs of the school and demarcation of its lines of development.

(b) Estimating resources available and resources harness able for the improvement and development of the school.

(c) Determination of priorities and formulation of the plan

IV.IMPLEMENTATION AND EVALUATION OF THE INSTITUTIONAL PLANS:

(1) In the IMPLEMENTATION of institutional plans, care has to be taken to see that:

(a) Existing facilities and recourses are utilized to the maximum extent

(b) Participation and involvement of the public, teachers, and pupils are facilitated.

(2) EVALUATION. Performances audit which would examine achievements in the terms of objectives, diagnose difficulties and the offer solution to the problems.

Prepared by:

ROLANDO A. TAHAProfessor