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University of Karachi
Department of Education (Morning)

M.A (Final)
Course Code: 621
Course: Supervision & Educational Planning-I
Assignment no: 1
Student’s Name: Syeda Maryam Kamal
D/O: Syed Anwar Kamal
Seat no: P19581077
Assignment: Introduction to Educational Planning
Submitted to: Ma’am Tabassum
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Educational Planning

Introduction:
Educational planning is the activity that allows the public authorities to orient
educational development and identify priority interventions. After going through a
major crisis of confidence in the 1980s, educational planning has undergone major
transformation: it has become more participatory, more flexible, less technocratic,
and more diverse. It has gone beyond what its main focus was for a long time –
planning infrastructures, increasing access, and increased efficiency – to become
more strategic and addressing a variety of key issues of the educational system,
such as quality, inequality, and factors influencing demand for schooling.

Meaning:
 Educational planning can be defined as “the process of setting out in advance
strategies, policies, programs and standards through which an educational
objective (or set of objectives) can be achieved.
 Educational planning is a detailed and systematic process: It just does not
happen by chance.
 It is goal oriented: It is directed at achieving a set of educational objectives.
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Definitions:
“Planning is to design some action to be done before hand.”

—Oxford English Dictionary

“Planning selects among alternatives explores, routes before travel begins and
identifies possible or probable outcomes or action before the executive and his
organization committed to any.”

—Hugman and Schwartz

“Planning is regarded as the process of setting out in advance a pattern of action

to bring about overall national policies by the closest possible articulation of
means and ends.”

—Philips

Types of Educational Planning:

1. Administrative Planning:
Generally speaking administrative planning refers to planning in administrative
perspective. In the field of education, administrative planning relates to
distribution of responsibilities and powers for different levels of education. In
administrative educational planning, the administrative responsibilities and
powers are phase-wise planned in relation to the level of different educational
administrators.

This planning of education makes a detail plan on structure and organization of

education at different levels – primary, secondary, higher secondary, higher –
general, technical and professional. This planning prepares planning on duration of
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an educational programme, organization and co-ordination of educational

programmes, financial allocation or budget for the programme, engagement of
educational officials in the programme, and smooth management of the
programme etc.

2. Academic or Curricular Planning:

This type of educational planning refers to planning for smooth academic
transaction of the syllabus for any course at any level of education. It encompasses
planning on education in relation to needs and demands of the individual and
society.

Formulation of educational goals, formation of curriculum committee for

development of curriculum and selection of appropriate strategies and methods of
teaching, planning of content units, planning for evaluation, planning for review of
the curriculum, planning for use of library, planning for special provision for the
gifted and remedial instruction for slow learners etc.

3. Co-curricular Planning:
This planning of education is necessary for bringing total development of a student
in one point and total development of an educational institution or organization in
another point. This planning includes planning for student welfare services,
planning for sports and games, planning for social activities and programmes,
planning for cultural activities and programmes, planning for hobbies etc.

4. Instructional Planning:
This sort of planning in education is macro-level in nature as its deals with planning
in classroom situation in relation to a particular topic of a concerned subject. This
planning refers to emotional and organizational climate of the classroom.

It includes planning for specification or instructional objectives, selection and

organization of learning activities, selection of appropriate means for presentation
of learning experiences, monitoring of the learning or instructional progress,
selection of suitable evaluation techniques for learning outcomes etc.
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5. Institutional Planning:
This type of educational planning gives a practical shape to the meaning of
educational planning. In this context educational planning refers to the needs and
requirements of every institution to be achieved through creation and
maintenance of a planning atmosphere in the institution.

Although institutional planning includes all types of planning cited above by

focusing on curricular and co-curricular planning, but there is the need of having a
discussion on institutional planning. This situation occurs because of two basic
purposes. Such as-to give a practical meaning, shape and form to educational
planning and to start educational planning at the grass-root level.

By “Institutional Planning” we mean the plans initiated, formulated and

implemented by individual educational institutions. Certifying it as a planning at
grass-root levels it includes all types of planning in its jurisdiction.

These are:
a. Planning for administration.

b. Planning for academic or curricular development.

c. Planning for non-academic or co-curricular activities

d. Planning for school-community relations.

e. Planning for discipline.

f. Planning for developmental activities or programmes.

g. Planning for proper utilization of community resources for total development of

the institution.

Planning is a careful analysis of relevant information from the present and

the past
and using such information to predict future development so that a course
of action can be
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Concept of Educational Planning

Educational planning involves a systematic and scientific set of decisions for future
action with the aim of achieving set educational goals and objectives through
effective use of scarce resources. It provides the tool for coordinating and
controlling the direction of the educational system so that educational objectives
can be realized. It is a process of identifying and classifying educational needs of a
nation and the direction education should take and the strategies for
implementing decisions concerning educational development. Akpan (2000)
maintains that educational planning should reflect the state of development of a
nation including the needs and readiness to execute the planned objectives. Thus,
educational planning must take into consideration the population growth of
children of school age in relation to access to education, educational opportunities
and the demand for education.

Comb cited in (Akpan, 2000) described educational planning as 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 the learners and the society. This means that educational planning
should take into account the needs of the pupils/students in terms of learning
facilities and equipment, textbooks, classroom spaces and qualified educational
personnel. In meeting the needs of the society, educational planning should take
cognizance of the manpower, cultural, social and communication needs of the
society (nation) as well as the economic changes (Akpan, 2000). Therefore,
educational planning is a blue-print that gives direction for future development of
a nation’s educational system and prescribes courses of actions for achieving
defined goals and objectives. Educational planning involves restructuring of the
present educational system, forecasting future possibilities, formulating realistic
and achievable goals and objectives developing action plans for implementation
and periodic appraisal of progress and achievement. The political, social, economic
and technological needs of a nation must be considered in educational planning.
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In support of this fact, Beeby cited in Okwori (2011) states that educational
planning is the exercise of foresight in determining the policy, priorities and cost of
educational system having due regards for economic and political realities for the
system potentials, for growth and for the needs of the country and of the pupils
served by the system. This implies that educational planning is a scientific study of
the future with regard to a nation’s educational development. The future
development of a nation is the focus of educational planning. It involves studying
the future educational needs of a country and putting in place relevant policies
and priorities, actions, and programmes that will enhance achievement of set
educational goals. Educational planning does not just happen by chance. It is an
organized social practice involving studying the present and using available
information concerning the educational challenges of a country to plan for future
educational development. The outcome of educational planning is the education
plan which contains educational policies, goals and objectives, activities and
programmes to be carried out, implementation strategies, method of monitoring
and evaluation of achievement and progress and the time frame for
implementation.

Importance of Educational Planning

 It helps in identifying educational goals and objectives.
 It helps in even or effective distribution of scarce resources.
 It aids decision making in education.
 It is necessary for administrative decision making in education.
 It enables a nation to make her choices clear in terms of educational needs.
 It enhances optional utilization of resources and so eliminates imbalance and
waste.
 Effective planning makes provision for quality education, sustainable national
economy.
 Effective educational planning enhances investment in human capital which
leads to rapid national economic growth.
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 Educational planning reduces exigencies in the educational sector. Problems

are anticipated in time and dealt with appropriately.
 It enables stakeholders in education to gain economic insight in the use of
scarce educational resources. Since education is a social good that provides
benefits to the people and the nation, it is important that education should
be well planned.
 Well planned education enhances literacy and reduces ignorance among
citizens.
 Planning gives direction and guidelines for a country’s educational system.

Approaches and Methods of Educational Planning

There are four major approaches to educational planning.

1. Social Demand Approach:

This approach was used in the Robbins Committee Report on Higher Education in
Britain. This approach is a popular one while opening new schools and colleges in
particular.

In this method are involved the following steps:

Educational planning involves a systematic and scientific set of decisions

(a)To estimate the proportion of students completing school education and are
likely to enter into higher education.
(b)To estimate how many of these successful school leaving students would
actually apply for admission to colleges.
(c)To determine how many of the applicants should be given admission to higher
education.
(d)To determine the length and duration of the study.

Thus, the major issue involved in this approach is to forecast future demands for
seats keeping in mind social and educational trends as well as demographic
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changes. The underlying assumption in this approach is that expansion of

education is beneficial to the economy and thus, additional expenditure on
education would not create a burden too heavy to bear.

This approach is more prevalent in those societies which favour traditional cultural
values, where decisions are taken on the basis of public opinions (in a fragile polity
and sometimes in a democracy) and in societies where the social environment is
generally pessimistic in nature.

The approach is based on currently expressed preferences and does not take into
account public expenditure on education vis-a-vis the benefits as the demand for
education may far exceed the resources available in a vast country like India. Also,
it sometimes leads to a mismatch between the output of higher education and the
demands of the economy.

2. Rate of Returns Approach:

According to this approach, investment in education should take place in such a
way that the returns from the investment are equal to the returns from other
kinds of investment of capital, e.g., investment in industry. This principle is known
as ‘equi-marginal returns’ in economic theory and could be extended to
educational sector.

This approach treats education as an investment in human capital and uses rate of
returns as a criterion in allocation of financial resources. The approach implies that
if the rate of return is low, expenditure on education should be curtailed.

However, in reality, it is difficult to apply this approach to education due to

problems associated with measuring rate of returns in education.

An educated person’s earnings or rate of returns depend upon his/her innate

intelligence, parental socio-economic status, motivation and aspirations. Hence, it
is not easy to attribute the rate of returns only to education acquired. Hence, this
approach is least frequently applied to education.
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4. Manpower Planning Approach:

In this method, the general demand for and the capacity of supply of human
resources in different streams of and at different levels of the educational sector
are estimated.

The approach asserts that the system of education produces the right quality of
human resources with desirable knowledge, attitudes and skills in the right
numbers and thus, education is directly linked with economic development.

The application of the manpower planning approach depends on these factors:

(a) An appraisal and analysis of the existing employment conditions and the
system of education,

(b) Planning the system of education vis-a-vis the manpower needs of the
economy, and

(c) Using the financial resources (which are limited) in an optimum way so as to
fulfill the demands of the employment sector without incurring wastage on
account of unemployment.

(d) Making an appraisal of the number of students enrolled, the number of existing
teachers and their qualifications, enrolment in teacher education institutions
(availability of future teachers), as well as the existing number of school buildings,
equipments, infrastructure and other facilities.

(e) The requirements of the employers regarding occupational and/ or professional

qualifications for employees, their levels of training and abilities should also be
assessed.

The manpower planning approach takes note of the fact that the teaching
profession requires approximately 60% of the highly qualified human resources of
a country which competes with the demand for manpower in other economic
sectors.

A detailed projection of the demand for human resources is difficult due to the
uncertainty of productivity trends. Some developed countries such as Norway,
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France and Sweden estimate their future manpower needs so as to meet the
demands of the economy whereas others such as Great Britain estimate the
numbers to be educated on the basis of students’ demands.

Reasons for Planning Education

A plethora of environmental and situational variables impact greatly on our
educational system; the effect of these variables make educational planning
imperative. These factors include but not limited to
1. The increasing cost of education.
2. The impact of technological development all over the world.
3. The impact of globalization on national development.
4. Unemployment.
5. Social changes.
6. Global citizenship and competitiveness.
7. Inflationary trend.
8. Poverty.
9. Increasing demand for and access to education.
10. The growing need for professionalization of the education enterprise.
Effective and proper educational planning is necessary in order to minimize or
completely eliminate the effect of these factors on our educational system. Akpan
(2000) points out that our country is plagued with a lot of uncertainties. These
include economic and political uncertainties. These problems abound both within
and outside the educational system. The purpose of educational planning is to deal
realistically with these uncertainties. Mark cited in Akpan (2000) states that
dealing sensibly with uncertainty is not a byway on the road to responsible
business and government decisions. Thus, with effective forecasting or planning
our educational system can be made less uncertain (Akpan, 2000).
We live and operate in a dynamic and changing society, so are our educational
institutions. In some cases, these changes may be rapid or gradual. In whatever
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rate the changes occur, the educational enterprise is affected directly or indirectly.
Thus, for the educational system to remain in a state of equilibrium in an ever-
changing society like ours there is need for educational planning in order to
forecast the future and plan for it.
Our educational system is faced with scarce human and materials resources.
Optimal utilization of these scarce resources calls for effective planning. Proper
planning saves time, energy and resources and enhances successful
implementation of education plan and attainment of educational goals and
objectives. It brings about effectiveness in the execution of educational activities,
actions and programmes as well as promotes high productivity of educational
personnel. According to Ukeje in Akpan (2000), careful planning reduces the
number of emergencies as these are anticipated in time and taken care of. Good
planning therefore, avoid decision random for all decisions are carefully related
into a coordinated whole.
Educational planning specifies the goals, values and practices and gives the
direction for future educational development of a country. It also specifies and
sets a limit to a course of action related to education in a country (Adepoju, 2000).
The impact of information and communication technology which has turn the
entire world into a global village calls for the restructuring and effective planning
of education in order to equip learners with current scientific and technological
development all over the world. These will make our graduates to acquire
scientific and technological knowledge that can make them to be global citizens
that can compete globally.
Similarly, the need to tackle the galloping rate of unemployment and poverty in
Nigeria calls for effective planning of our educational system. The poverty level is
increasing rapidly, so is the rate of unemployment. In order to tackle this menace
in our society we need the type of educational system that can equip learners with
skills and knowledge that will help them to create jobs for themselves so as to
reduce or eliminate poverty. This can only be achieveed through careful
educational planning.
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The high level of inflation and the ever increasing cost of education in Nigeria have
led to students’ dropout from schools. Many of them do not have access to
education especially those from poor socio-economic background. They cannot
pay their fees because of high cost of education. Therefore there is need to have a
rethinking of our educational system. Hence the need for proper educational
planning that can take care of the less privilege and the vulnerable.
The desire to develop quality and adequate manpower to man the various sectors
of the country’s economy necessitates the need for effective educational planning.
The desire to attain political, socio-economic and cultural progress of a country
calls for educational planning. When there are existing contradictions, ambiguities
as well as inequalities in educational practices in a nation, educational planning
becomes necessary to address these problems. Educational planning is done to
reform the educational system of a country in terms of duration of education
cycles, the curriculum, quality of education and system structure. In this way
educational planning improves effectiveness, efficiency and productivity.

Characteristics of Effective Educational Planning:

A good and effective educational planning should have the following features:

1. It should be dynamic: We are living in a society and environment that are not
static and changes occur daily. Educational planning should be dynamic in order
to keep pace with changes in the society.
2. It should be comprehensive: Planning should take the overall view of the entire
educational system. If planning is concerned with national educational system,
the overall view of the national educational system must be done in order to
have adequate information for planning. If the planning is for one level of
education, for example, secondary education, an overall assessment of the
secondary educational system must be carried out.
3. Educational planning should be integrated: This implies that educational
planning should aim at maximizing output through the use of limited resources.
Efforts should be made to link the various planning operations and the focus
should be to improve the outcome of educational services provided.
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4. Educational planning should be iterative: Planning should require redefining

educational goals and objectives because of serendipity and unforeseen
obstacles. The planning should be flexible to give room for adjustment.
5. Planning should provide for exploration of alternatives: This would enhance
choice of possible alternatives, in terms of methods, strategies and approaches
for effectiveness and efficiency.
6. Educational planning should be goal-oriented: It should focus on achievement
of set educational goals and objectives. Planning should be based on clearly
defined goals that are simple and easy to understand.
7.Educational planning should be future-oriented:It should focus on the
improvement of future educational development.
8. Educational planning should be pragmatic: This means that the plan should be
good and effective. The pragmatic nature of educational planning can be
evaluated by how good the plan is and how well it is implemented.
9. Planning of education should be a continuous process that takes into
consideration current changes in the society.
10. Educational planning is a deliberate action It does not happen by accident.
11. Educational planning is a formal activity. It has a structured plan and some
procedures in a written form to follow.
scarce res

Conclusion:
In the light of the discussions on types and reasons for educational planning, it
could be concluded that the type of educational planning adopted by a nation is
determined by the polity. The polity is a representative body of the government in
power at the time of the educational planning. It is the government that identifies
the overall goals and objectives of education and the direction of future
educational development. The polity decides on the time frame and also takes the
final decision on the form of the plan. The reason is that every government in
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power has her political agenda to be fulfilled and it is through education that this
can be actualized. However, varied reasons necessitate the process of educational
planning and some of these reasons include the increasing cost of education,
technological development, unemployment, the impact of globalization on
national economy, poverty, social changes, increasing demand for and access to
education, inflationary trends and economic uncertainties. These factors have
made educational plans to be reviewed from time to time and replaced with new
ones in an attempt to solve teething national problems.
Educational planning is not without limitations. These constraints include among
others poor forecasting, political problems, financial problems, lack of qualified
planning personnel and lack of adequate statistical data for planning. Effective and
successful educational planning calls for team work. Planning should involve the
technical experts, the polity and the implementers. Government should provide
adequate fund for planning and implementation of education plans. Participation
of representatives from federal, state and local governments, non-governmental
organizations and other stakeholders should be enlisted in the educational
planning process. Strategic or corporate planning should be adopted in
educational planning because it is systematic rational and scientific in achieving set
educational goals and objectives.