BASIC DEFINITION

There is no standardized terminology for education planning. In this topical report, technical terms that are
commonly applied in international planning work. These terms are also widely used in national education planning.
Policy: means a decision or group of decisions that set out overall directives for guiding subsequent decisions
and actions.
Policy setting is the process of preparing policies. The policy setting process comprises sector analysis,
identification of issues, formulation of responses to the issues and feasibility assessment. Policy setting and the
planning process are interlinked.
Plan: A plan is the result of a planning process. The plan describe in detail the intended way to pursue the
achievement of the goals/objectives/targets.
Planning: Planning is the process through which the plan is prepared.

i. Finding the fact: i.e. finding out how the sector function today, by undertaking a sector analysis (also
called sector review, sector survey) or more limited situation analysis.
ii. Mapping the future: i.e. setting policy goals, formulating strategic objectives and targets, assessing
resource requirements and resource availability, setting priorities, and designing implementation
strategies.
iii. Drawing up of outline implementation plans. Designing detailed implementation plans is normally not
part of plan preparation; instead, it is the first step of plan implementation once the plan has been
adopted and has become government policy.

Management: The manner in which the educational system is administered

Corporate Planning: Systematic approach to clarifying corporate objectives, strategic decision making and checking
progress towards objectives.
 A process of coming up with long term business goals and objectives and how they will be achieved in a
business.

People-Empowered Planning:
Empowerment – refers to increasing the spiritual, political, social or economic strength of individuals and
communities. It often involves the empowered developing confidence in their own capacities.
Empowerment – The process through which managers enable and help other to gain power and achieve
influence within the organization. Effective leaders empower them with responsibility, authority and trust to make
decisions.
Therefore people-empowerment literary means giving authority to the members of the community to decide
for what is the best for all.

Decentralized Planning:
The Department of Education has stepped up its effort to decentralized education management- a strategy that
is expected to improve the Department’s operating efficiency and upgrade education quality. Decentralization
gave the school as key provider of education that is equipped to empower its key official s to make informed
and localized decisions based on their unique needs towards improving the educational system.

SYSTEMS APPROACH TO EDUCATIONAL PLANNING

According to Franco, system approach is characterized by at least four features:

1. Systems thinking will view the university, college, or school as a complete
organisms, which will have to survive, stabilize and grow or die. It would require
the use of inter-disciplinary tools-not just budgeting or engineering designs, but
also curricula-planning, teacher and staff development, environmental and market
analysis, library and laboratory development, etc. These would all be used in one
comprehensive approach to the development of the educational organism as a
living force by itself, inter-acting with the environment such as student demands
and manpower needs of society.
2. System planning also means the purposeful use of a conversion process when planned
objectives and strategies correspond or are matched by real accomplishments. Conversion
process means inputs are converted or processed through a series of educational strategies,
tools, and techniques
3. Likewise, system conversion means the use of education processes or conversion technique
to optimize the most from the inputs.
 4. System thinking means the use of inputs through processes that ensure outputs or result.
Strategic Plan for Planning (Franco Planning Model)
This is an often-cited model developed by Ernesto Franco for strategic planning of the Department of
Education or a university or state institution. Its appropriate adaptation is necessary to be relevant to the
type, nature, size, mission, student clientele, environmental aspects, and organizational capability and
managerial leadership of the institution.
The first step is the analysis of the external environment in which the institution operates, and
the issues revolved around:
 The students or learners – who are they, what are their numbers, what do they want and need?
 The forces for change in the working environment of the school, such as labor market demands,
government tuition policy, impact of mass media on the youth, etc.; and
 The opportunities for consortia with other institutions, and the threats from competitive schools in
the area.
The second step is the clarity of vision, values, formulation of mission statement, and
development of culture and priorities, and the key issues would be:
 How relevant is our legal mandate in the present-day situation?;
 What is our vision for the next 20 years? What do we wants our school to be?;
 Do we have a mission statement that defines our philosophy, the kind of students we want, the
curricula/programs we pursue, the geographic areas we service, the kind of citizenry we want to
produce? And
 Do we have a school style, a school spirit, a school culture, a school image – a character, sets of
values – that we want to stamp on our students?
The third step is the analysis of the internal organization, the institution itself, its strengths and
weaknesses, particularly in terms of:
 Human and non-human resources;
 Programs, services and projects; and
 Accomplishments and outputs over the years.

The fourth step is the weighing of these analysis and outputs against each other and the
making of strategic decisions and action plans, which means
 Addressing the main issues;
 Clarity of vision, mission statement, strategy, and goals and objectives;
 Formulation of programs, projects and activities;
 Preparation of detailed work plans, schedules and budgets; and
 Targeting of outputs and results, and their proper monitoring and evaluation.

PLANNING CYCLES AND TYPES OF PLANS

 According to Franco, what differentiates the nature and purposes of cycles is the management system
– e.g. we have the project cycle, which is a universal sequence of project identification, then project
formulation and study preparation, then project implementation, and project evaluation. When we say
project management cycle, we are now putting in an institutional component, that is, the way an
organization or an institution manages a project cycle.
Asian Development Bank will have emphasis on
 Project feasibility study preparation,
 Project appraisal,
 Project evaluation and monitoring
 Project evaluation.
 Food & Agricultural Organization of Rome will look for project participatory management, that is
 The active involvement of beneficiaries in the planning and implementations of projects.
 While the World Bank may emphasize project management institutional arrangement, to point out
the significant role played by the project implementation team and the necessity of efficient and
effective implementation, not alone good project design and development.

SIX STAGES OF STANDARD PLANNING CYCLE ACCORDING TO UNESCO

1. Pre-planning Stage – Formulation of Objectives:

 The creation of a suitable planning organization,
 The establishment of planning procedures,
 The structural reorganization of the educational administrative machinery to participate in the
formulation and implementation of plans and
 Setting up the machinery and the procedures for the collection and analysis of the statistical and
other data required for planning.

2. Planning
 Diagnosis
 Formulation of Policy
 Costing of future Needs
 Establishment of Priorities and Target-Setting Feasibility Testing

3. Plan Formulation Stage: The purposes of planning are primarily twofold:

a. To present a set of decisions to the appropriate national authorities for approval; and
b. To provide a blue-print for action by the various agencies responsible for implementing those
decisions.
 4. Plan Elaboration Stage: the Education Plan, is a brief and succinct statement. So, before it can be
implemented, it has to be elaborated, that is, expanded up to the point that individual action units become
clearly identifiable.

5. Plan Implementation Stage – The implementation of an education plan begins when

individual projects are taken up for execution. The planning process merges with the management process
of the national education effort. Using the annual budget or the annual plan as the principal instrument, an
organizational framework is developed for the various projects.

6. Evaluation, Revision and Re-planning Stage – as the education plan is being implemented, the
machinery to evaluate the rate of progress and detect deviations is set in motion. Evaluation is normally a
continuous operation, simultaneous with plan implementation, the preparation of reports may be at fixed
points e.g. annually, mid-term or half-way point of the plan period or end-of-term.

TYPES OF PLAN

Planning according to time – horizon:

 Longtime or perspective plan – this range from 10 – 20 years even 25 years. The goodness of this method is
visible after a decade or more.
 Medium-term plan – these ranges from 4 – 5 years, prepared against the backdrop of a long perspective plan,
have operationally proved to be the most efficient. It prepares four or five succession of plans called “rolling
plans”.
 Short-term planning – it needs to be adopted only as an inevitable alternative to medium term planning and
that to an emergency basis and introduction of “rolling plans” has eliminated the need for short-term planning
in most cases.
 Single-purpose planning – is an administrative operation, which is usefully adopted when a particular
objective like implementing a reform measure, building an institution or piloting legislation is to be achieved.

References:
Franco, Ernesto A. et. Al. 1994. Educational Planning. Manila: National Book Store

EFA Planning Guide: Southeast and East Asia