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Educational Process: Dieter G. Berstecher Ananda W.P Guruge

The document outlines the 6 stages of the educational planning process: (1) pre-planning involving defining objectives, (2) planning involving diagnosing current issues and formulating policies to address them, (3) plan formulation to present the plan for approval, (4) plan elaboration to expand the plan and identify projects, (5) plan implementation involving allocating resources and establishing timelines, and (6) evaluation, revision and replanning to assess progress and inform the next cycle.

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Aliejah Casan
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57 views5 pages

Educational Process: Dieter G. Berstecher Ananda W.P Guruge

The document outlines the 6 stages of the educational planning process: (1) pre-planning involving defining objectives, (2) planning involving diagnosing current issues and formulating policies to address them, (3) plan formulation to present the plan for approval, (4) plan elaboration to expand the plan and identify projects, (5) plan implementation involving allocating resources and establishing timelines, and (6) evaluation, revision and replanning to assess progress and inform the next cycle.

Uploaded by

Aliejah Casan
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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EDUCATIONAL PROCESS

Dieter G. Berstecher
Ananda W.P Guruge

Let us begin with a bird's eye view of the process of educational planning. For purposes of
discussion, this process may be analyzed into six stages, namely (i) Pre-planning
(ii) Planning
(iii) Plan Formulation
(iv) Plan Elaboration
(v) Plan Implementation
(vi) Evaluation, Revision and Replanning

(i) Pre-Planning Stage - Formulation of Objectives; Almost all countries of the


Asian Region have some sort of organization to plan education. If they did not, the pre-
planning stage would begin with
 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 he procedures for the collection and analysis of
the statistical and other data required for planning. Where these have already
been accomplished, the principal pre-planning activity is to have the national
educational objectives defined by the appropriate authority.

(ii) Planning Stage: This stage comprises six principal steps:


(a) Diagnosis - Once the national educational objectives are defined, the first
step to be taken by the educational planner is to ascertain whether the current
educational effort of the country is adequate• relevant and conducive to their
achievement. This is done by matching the output of the educational effort with the
objectives and noting the salient divergences. This exercise is called diagnosis and
it leads to the identification of weaknesses and shortfalls in nature, magnitude,
quality, organization and level of performance of the national educational activities.
The criteria for this diagnosis are dictated by national edu-cational objectives. But
the emerging pattern in the Asian Region is to stress on the three criteria of
relevance, effective-ness and efficiency, i.e.: Relevance to national and social
aspirations. Effectiveness in achieving national objectives in full. Efficiency in the
best use of resources to achieve maximum results.

(b) Formulation of Policy - The diagnosis of the existing educational


situation would high-light defects and deficiencies which are to be corrected so as to
enhance relevance, effectiveness and efficiency. Corrective action has to be based on
a policy which has to be spelled out to indicate the general frame-work within which
detailed decisions are to be made. A set of policies framed to remedy each of the
defects and deficiencies revealed by the diagnosis will form the national
educational policy. Each new policy seeks to reform education and, therefore, policy
formulation is an instrument of educational reform. .../

(c) Costing of Future Needs - The next step in the planning stage is to cost
the future needs. Using the best available cost data, each group of needs is costed
with due consideration to fluctuations in prices. At the conclusion of this exercise,
the planner knows the total financial outlay which should be available if all needs
are to be satisfied.

(d) Establishment of Priorities and Target -Setting - At the time of


analyzing data for planning purposes, the educational planner would have taken
stock of the resources available to educational development from various sources,
both governmental and non-governmental, national and foreign. If these data are
extrapolated into the future, he would get an idea of the resources which could be
reasonably anticipated on the basis of past trends. But in most countries, the
financial outlay for education would have, already, been indicated in a macro-
economic plan. This would give at least the govern-mental share in the anticipated
expenditure on education. With data from either of these sources, the educational
planner reviews the future needs, establishes priorities among competing
candidates for resources and sets the targets which can realistically be achieved
with the anticipated investment of resources. This is the stage when alternative
means of achieving the objectives are examined in order to determine the most
relevant and effective ones within the allowable cost.
(e) Feasibility Testing - The targets are set according to needs that have
been identified and the priorities assigned. But another serious look at the targets
is necessary to ensure whether they are consistent and feasible.

(iii) Plan Formulation Stage: The purpose of planning is primarily two folds:
(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.

For both purposes, the authorities or the agencies concerned require a clear
statement of what is proposed, why it is proposed and how the proposals are going to
be implemented. What is called on Education Plan is that statement. Preparation of
such a statement is referred to as Plan Formulation. It calls for certain skills as the
statement has to be brief, succinct and, at the same time, adequate.

(iv) Plan Elaboration Stage: The Education Plan, it was emphasized, 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.
The process of elaboration is in two steps:
(a) Programming - that is, dividing up the Plan into broad action areas each
of which aims at accomplishing a specific objective. Each action area is called a
programme. Usually a programme comprises all activities which are supervised by
the same administrative unit for. which are so interdependent and complementary
that all have to be done simultaneously or sequentially.

(b) Project Identification and Formulation - Each programme consists of


activities which can be grouped together to form a unit for administrative or
accounting purposes. Such a unit is called a Project. A project usually aims at
achieving a specific sub-objective or tar-get within the main objective of the
programme. Projects have to be identified and formulated so as to enable them to be
executed. Project formulation is the task of working out the details of agency, costs,
time schedules etc. for a project. Until a Plan has been subjected to Programming
and Project Identification and Formulation, the actual implementation cannot be
undertaken. Hence, this is a very important stage. In most countries the problem of
non-implementation of plans has been traced to weaknesses in this link of the
planning process. There is a further step in the elaboration of a plan which is
optional. That is Regionalization. Region-alization means the distribution of the
provisions of a plan to geographically identifiable units, such as States, Provinces,
Regions, Districts, Municiaplities, Villages etc. Regionalization applies to the plan as
a whole when it is prepared for the entire country. It can also apply to a Programme
or a Project.

(v) Plan Implementation Stage: The implementation of an education plan begins


when individual projects are taken up for execution. Here, the planning process merges
with the management process of the national educational effort. Using the annual budget
or the annual plan as the principal instrument, an organizational framework is
developed for the various projects. The resources (men, money and materials), needed
for each project, are allocated. The time within which it is to be completed is indicated.
Moreover, such other operational details as delegation of authority, lines of
communication and consultation, assignment of responsibility and installation of feedback
and control mechanisms axe also developed. Generally, the entire educational
administrative organization of the nation participates in the Plan Implementation Stage.

(vi) Evaluation. Revision and Replanning Stage: As the education plan is being
implemented, the machinery to evaluate the rate of progress and detect deviations is set in
motion. While 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). Evaluation serves two specific
purposes:

(a) It highlights weaknesses in the plan (e.g. un-realistic targets, inadequate


financial provisions, improper phasing) and throws up matters for revision of the Plan for
the balance of the plan period. Where the practice of "rolling plans" is adopted, each year's
rolling plan embodies revisions as necessitated by implementation experience.

(b) It takes the place of Diagnosis of the Planning Stage (see para ii(a)) in providing
the basis for replanning. Thus, it becomes the beginning of the next cycle of planning.

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