Reporter: Mr. Dennis Mark A. Dela Cruz
Professor: Dr. N.Villa
INTRODUCTION
Educational planning is concerned with
the problems of how to make the best use of limited resources allocated to
education in view of the priorities given to different stages of education or
different sector of education and the need of the economy.
Educational planning, on its broadest
generic sense, is the application of rational, systematic analysis to the
process of educational development with the aim of making education more
effective and efficient in responding to the needs and goals of its students
and society. ( Philip H. Coombs, UNESCO: International Institute for
Educational Planning)
Objective
no. 4, under section 4, Declaration of Objectives,” of the Educational Act of
1982 states that the educational system aims to “respond effectively to
changing needs and conditions of the nation through a system of educational
planning and evaluation.”
Bernardo M. Reyes (1974) explains the nature and
scope of educational planning as follows:
- Educational
planning is an instrument for providing the needed coordination and
direction of the different components of an educational system and ensures
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 (material,
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 had been ignored or unknown and so that
appropriate action can be affected coupled with the proper allocation of
energies and resources to their sectors.
- Educational
planning takes into account the past and present realities of the
country’s education and training programs.
- Educational
planning is a high level staff function providing professional guidance to
the authorities in the determination of educational goals and the evolving
of educational policies and their execution;
- it
involves all level of education of both public and private sector and the
related financial agencies of the nation
- It must
be comprehensive and continuous process and must be periodically
evaluated.
(Reyes; see Manuel,
Guerero, and Sutaria, 1974, pp. 334-336)
According
to Reyes, the essential elements of educational planning are:
1. Quantitative
Planning
This
covers all questions involved in the expansion of educational facilities based
on pedagogical, demographical, geographical, economic, and social factors.
Quantitative planning makes references to school population (enrollment,
dropout, promotion), the recruitment of teachers and supervisors, and the
provision of classrooms and equipment (furniture, laboratories, etc.)
2. Qualitative
Planning
This covers aims, content, and
methods of education, curricular planning (the levels and branches), teacher
training, educational guidance, research, and textbooks and other teaching
aids.
3. Administrative
Planning
This is concerned with the needs and
assets, costs, sources or finance, distribution of expenditures (recurrent
expenditures and capital investments), grants, and loans.
In
educational planning, two approaches are involved:
- Macro
Approach- refers to the over-all planning which is primarily concerned
with the aggregates in the educational system; e.g., new enrollment at the
various levels, number of schools to be constructed, etc.
- Micro
Approach - lays emphasis on the individual components which go to make up
the educational system.
Major
Approaches to Educational Planning
1. The Social Demand Approach
This approach requires the education
authorities to provide schools and find facilities for all students who demand
admission and who are qualified to enter. Aghenta (1987) opined that this
approach looks on education, as service demanded by people just like any other
social services. Politicians in developing countries often find the approach
expedient to use because of its appealing nature.
Advantages
of the Social Demand Approach
1. The approach provides the planners
with approximate number of places where
educational facilities has to be provided.
2. It is a suitable political tool to
meet the need to satisfy the demands of the general
public.
3.Where resources are acutely limited,
and where we are seeking to provide those
kinds and quantities of
education which will offer the greatest good to the greatest
number, such planning techniques are best.
Limitations
of the Approach
1. The approach
has no control over factors such as the price of education
2. The approach
has no control over absorptive capacity of the economy for the
trained personnel.
3. The approach
does not in any way lay claim to whether the resources expended are
economically
allotted and to that extent, the approach is poor.
4. The approach does not provide guidance we
need as to how best to meet the
identified
needs.
2. The Man-Power Requirement Approach
The focus of this approach is to
forecast the manpower needs of the economy. That is, it stresses output from
the educational system to meet the man-power needs at some future date.
The
approach focuses on 3 main elements, namely:
1.
Specification of the composition of manpower need at some future date e.g. 2015
2020.
2.
Specification of man power availabilities e.g. in 1995.
3.
Specification which reconciles the former specification with the later.
Advantages
of Man-Power Approach
1.
Man-Power
could usefully call attention to extreme gaps and imbalances in the
education output pattern that need
remedy. This does not need elaborate statistical studies.
2.
It
gives educators useful guidance on how roughly educational qualifications of
the labour force ought to be
developed in the future. That is, the relative proportion of people who would
have primary education, secondary education and various amount of
post-secondary training.
3.
The
unemployment and underemployment which may result from some over
emphasis on man-power approach may
become a challenge to move towards the right kind of education which may be
development-oriented, and thereby creating its own job.
Weaknesses
of the Approach
1.
It
gives educational planner a limited guidance in the sense that it does not tell
what can be actually achieved in every level of education e.g. primary
education, secondary education, etc.
2.
The
approach says nothing about primary education, which is not considered to be
work connected. By implication, manpower approach suggests the curbing of the
expansion of primary education until the nation is rich enough to expand it.
Hence, attention is focused on the cream of education that will contribute to
manpower development in the society.
3.
Most
manpower needs are mostly needed in the urban employment. Thus, the planner who
may be called to plan is not given any useful clauses about education
requirements to those people like semi-skilled and unskilled workers in the
cities and vast majority of workers that live in rural areas.
4.
The
employment classifications and manpower ratios such as desirable ratio of engineers
to technicians; doctors to nurses etc. and the assumed education qualifications
corresponding to each category of job borrowed ideas from industrialized countries
or economy. This does not fit into the realities of less developed countries of
Africa.
5.
It
is impossible to make reliable fore-cast of manpower requirements far enough
ahead of time because of many economic, technological and other uncertainties
which are involved.
Sources & References:
1.
Aquino,
Gaudencio V, Curriculum Planning for Better Schools, Rex Book Store,
1998
2.
Reyes,
Bernardo M, “Educational Planning and National Development,” in New Thrusts
in Philippine Education.rev.ed.Vol.1.eds. Bienvenido B. Manuel, Juanita S.
Guerrero, and Minda C. Sutaria. Manila: Current Events Digest, Inc., 1974
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