REPORTED BY: LORNA B.

ARCO

EDU-217

CHAPTER 1 WHY, WHAT, IMPACT OF PLANNING

Ernesto A. Franco gives an often-quoted observation: why plan when many successful Chinese businessmen, who have had no formal education or training but are very rich, do no planning at all when they open up factories or go into multi-million peso trading or put up shopping malls? Usually, they are described as planning their costs on bits of toilet paper, or back of envelopes or the side of newspaper pages. Or they just think deeply in their heads, and then give decisions as if off the cuff. They have no thick project feasibility studies or complicated financial models or market research reports. Yet, these Chinese businessmen solve problems, make decisions- invest millions and take risks- and succeed! With no plans at all! Not true, Franco explains. These Chinese businessmen- like all businessmen, and all administrators do planning. Very deep and experiential planning, in their heads. As they wake up in the morning, they already plan ahead- whom to see, what to decide upon, the basis for decisions, and what points never to give up on. Planning is accomplished in their heads, not on paper, nor computer machines, nor in planning workshops. Always, no Chinese businessman does anything without planning. Except that it is informal, unwritten, undocumented, secretive, judgmental, experiential. Its all in the mind. Then Franco asks: what if he dies? What if he is no longer around? As has happened in many cases, Then who takes over? Who knows what to do? What is the follow-up? What deals and promises did he make? So the wife or the children or relative takes over- and very often the business sinks, totters and dies out or sold. Thus, all the 30 years of hard work of that Chinese businessmen is gone to pot, away or sold because no one really knows what he had in mind, what he planned for, how he planned, why and with whom he planned, when he set deadlines, and what indicators he set in his mind to determine if he succeeded or failed. So with school owners, politicians, and founders. No manager or school administrator or politician or school founder in real life ever does anything at all without some kind of planning. Except in most cases it is never formal, written, or shared with someone. They plan- always, but informally, If that is the case, Franco advises, then why not proceed in the right way? Do it rightso the right things can be done the right way. WHY PLAN IN THE FIRST PLACE? Since planning and writing plans take time, energy, and effort, question asks Why should we plan, and what plan can we gain from it?, If you are already thinking about how to spend your time, you are already into planning. Planning is not new to you. It is something that happens all the time, although not always consciously. Planning is vital to all schools because it helps build better programs for students. It helps to: Decide how and where to set priorities in the use of limited human and economic resources. Decide how to accomplish not only your short-range goals, but also your medium and long term goals. Build on the strong and successful parts of the program, as well as to identify and improve the weak parts. Reach agreement in the school community about what to do and how to do it.

Using a deliberate method of planning is certainly better than just having your fingers crossed when the future students as at stake. Consider the following:

What is a good Planning Process Is It is organized thinking that helps in deciding what needs to be done, how it will happen, and who will do it. It is the setting of priorities in the use of resources: people, money, time, and materials It is trying to anticipate the future. It is involving those affected by the results of planning and opening communication channels. It is adapting and modifying steps or processes until they work for you. It is using leadership to motivate people and to coordinate their activities. It is reflecting on what has been planned already and how it is working. It includes the periodic recording of planning decisions for future reference. What a Good Process Should Do It should stimulate change and improvement. It should help you figure out what will happen and how it should happen. It should raise awareness about what is being done and why. It should build a trail of activities over time so you can look at what has worked well and what has not. It should produce a blueprint, road map, or recipe to be used. It should decrease fear about the process of change and its results.

What a Good Planning Process Is Not It is not merely writing a plan or filling out forms. It is not using steps or processes that dont work. It is not involving people without considering their ideas. It is not deciding what to do without figuring out how it will happen. It is letting the program guide and coordinate itself.

What a Good Planning Process Should Not Do It should not make planning more important than everything else you do- teaching, administering, or parenting, for instance. It should not result in a process or a plan that is rigid and flexible. It should not result in a process that has not been adapted to your schools particular needs. It should not focus your attention on only one aspect of the program, excluding all others.

BASIC IDEAS AND CONCEPTS ABOUT PLANNING 1. 2. Planning has to do with change: recognizing it, manipulating it, engineering it, and making things happen. Planning is critical to managers because managers- whether of universities, cement plants, tourism agencies, or government ministrymust anticipate the changes which will likely affect his organization, make sharp and right choices about future directions of the organization, and plan and manage the deployment of resources to attain defined goals. 3. Planning is not an end by itself, reminding planners of the often-quoted phrase:paralysis through analysis Rather it is means, an instrument, a process, a state of mind, for increasing the competitiveness of the institution; for moving the organization in an efficient, effective, appropriate, and suitable way in changing and uncertain environment; for bringing flexibility to its operations; and for evaluating and checking how accomplishments fare against original objectives. 4. Planning is also not just avoiding risks, but actually taking the right risks to move from one level to another. In this way, planning affects the decisions should be made now for the kind of future desired tomorrow. 5. Planning makes managers aware of the environment or the student-market and the forces for changing education- and then comparing the university mission (usually defined 20 years ago) and the university competence and resources against the opportunities and the risks in the environment. 6. Planning clears the ground for establishing goals and objectives; and good planners make them simple, measurable, feasible, and meaningful. 7. Planning provides tools and techniques for alternative choices, for examining options. 8. Planning also allows rational examination of alternatives and options through (a) definition of criteria for selection or for making priorities, which should come from participatory sessions and not alone from one man; (b) use of evaluation tools and techniques, such as financial analysis, cost benefit analysis, and the environmental planning grid; and (c) the iterative process of comparing organizational capabilities and resources against desired objectives and the university mission and priorities. 9. Planning arms managers with the tools, frame of mind, and emotional confidence to make decisions, to solve problems, to choose among alternatives, and to push for action. 10. Planning allows to take action, to plot activities step by step- with each step specifying the output or key result desired, the person responsible, the schedule of starting and ending point, the budget required, and the possible risks or problems to be met along the way. 11. Planning also means implementing, taking action, making things happen. Franco observes that in the Philippines, the missing ingredient in the academic education and training of young technocrats is the value he terms operacy, or the ability to make things happen. Education in the Philippine setting has largely been theoretical, academic, with emphasis on literacy and numeracy- and hardly anything on operacy. Planning is therefore implementation on paper and charts and work plans, while implementation is making those paper plans happen, come alive, effectively and efficiently and with economy of operations. 12. For the Filipino behavioral style, Franco says planning helps firm up a person or university to say no!, which according to Franco is one of the most difficult decisions to make by a Filipino or a Filipino organization. PLANNING: TODAY, THEN TOMORROW, BUT HOW? Franco points out the basic questions are: Where are we today? Where do we want to go? How do we get from where we are today to where we want to go tomorrow? Economist P.H. Coombs stated that educational planning 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. C.E. Beeby defined educational planning as the exercising of foresight in determining the policy, priorities and costs of an educational system, having due regard for economic and political realities, for the potential for growth of the system, and for the needs of the country and of the pupils served by the system. THE TERRITORY OF PLANNING INCLUDES CHANGE Education planners should forecast the major changes that are likely to affect the education system and the university or the school concerned; define criteria that would lead to intelligent and feasible choices as to the future direction of the institution; and apply pragmatic plans on the deployment and use of funds, manpower and resources needed to achieve the objectives and targets selected. Planning installs monitoring and evaluation systems to ensure that plans are carried out; can be remedied if needed while in process of implementation; and can be re-planned for improvements at the end of the cycle PLANNING: AS SEEN BY UNESCO Continuous planning is necessary to minimize waste in resources- both material and human- and to achieve organizational objectives expeditiously. Planning is creating according to some specialist. The first activity in the planning process is to fined answers to such questions as a. What can be done? b. When can it be done? c. How can it be done? WHAT PLANNING IS NOT Educational planning is not just optimistic projections, improved communications, or a public relations statements. The contents of a plan document contain the mechanics of the plan- such as the statement of policies, criteria for priorities, objectives, strategy implementations arrangements, budget and resources, timetable, etc. Planning is not an attempt to avoid taking risks or new interventions. True, Franco stresses, that planning should build on past gains or achievements; at the same time, however, it should start new initiatives and strike for new grounds precisely because change never ends, is always taking place, and will even be more complex and rapid in the years ahead. It is precisely planning that reduces these risks. .

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BASIC IDEAS AND CONCEPTS ABOUT PLANNING 1. Planning has to do with change: