“PLANNING, NATURE AND CONCEPTS. PLANNING IN EDUCATION.

WHY, WHAT AND

IMPACT OF PLANNING”

I. Introduction
A good question to start with is: why PLAN in the first place? What does a university or
a school get out of planning? Does it make any difference? Some will claim that they have not
been doing any planning all through the years – and still the school operates, runs along every
year, students come in and out, teachers come in and out, so what’s the great difference about
planning – or not planning at all?
Ernesto 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 a
shopping malls?
Franco explains. 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 and experiential. It’s all in
the mind, so to speak, 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 right–– so the right things can be done the right
way.
-Excerpt from Educational Planning by Ernesto Franco
II. Plan and Planning
Plans are the detailed proposal for doing or achieving something (Oxford Languages,
2021). As elaborated by Aggarwal & Thakur (2003) plans are the statement of things to be done
with respect to the sequence and timing in which they should be done in order to achieve a given
end. It imperative to say that definitions of plan is evolving but it is always pointed towards
achieving the goals as the endpoint.
Plans are made through planning. Planning as mentioned by Johannsen & Page (1986), is
the formal process of making decisions for the future of individuals and organizations. It
involves dealing on aims and objectives, selecting to correct strategies and program to achieve
the aims, determining and allocating the resources required and ensuring that plans are
communicated to all concerned.
 It was defined as an important administrative function (McFarland, 1964) which is
particularly true since most of the activities performed by the school managers need careful
planning. McFarland (1964) added that to get things done, administrators must plan ahead.
Moreover, Hick and Gullet (1976) pointed that planning is more of deciding things ahead
of time, it includes deciding in advance what to do, how to do it, when to do it, who is to do it
and how to measure performance.

III. Nature of Planning

Planning may be evidently done in writing by others but some just plan it in mind. Based
on Franco (1986) and Priyakshi (2021) the nature of planning were described as follows:
1. It is what everyone does
Consciously or unconsciously, people tend to plan, be it informal, unwritten,
undocumented, (Franco, 1986) and planned in mind or well organized in a planning notebook.

2. Planning Contributes to Objectives

There is a close connection between objectives and planning. Planning is based on the
objectives. If there is no link between planning and objectives, the former will only be a mental
exercise and of no use. Planning contributes to the attainment of objectives (Priyakshi, 2021).

3. Planning is an Intellectual Activity

Planning includes the selection of the best alternative available and thinking before
selection of the best alternative. It involves the ability to foresee mishaps in future which might
affect the plan towards achieving the objective.

4. Planning is a Continuous Process:

Planning does not come to an end with the attainment of goals. We need to evaluate the
process on how we attained the objectives by reflecting on how we could use it in decision
making.

5. Planning is Flexible:
While planning, any one of the available alternatives is selected. Planning selects the best
alternative based on certain assumptions. If the assumptions are proved wrong, the selected
alternative tends to be an incorrect one. There is a possibility of a dead log in the functions of the
management. Planning has one more alternative to suit future situations and that makes it
flexible.
IV. Basic Concepts of Planning According to Ernesto Franco
1. Planning has to do with change
2. Planning is critical to managers
3. Planning is not the end by itself, reminding planners of the often-quoted phrase:
Paralysis through analysis
4. Planning is not simply projections of a highly optimistic level or just improving public
relations or volumes of paper
5. It makes managers aware of the environment or the student-market and the forces for
changing education
6. Planning clears the ground for establishing goals and objectives
7. Provides tools and techniques for alternative choices for examining options.
8. According to Edmund Mendoza- planning also allows rational examination of
alternatives and options through:
a. Definition of criteria for selection or for making priorities,
b. Use of evaluation tools and techniques
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 managers to take action, to plot activities step by step
11. Planning also means implementing, taking action, making things happen. OPERACY-
ability to make things happen. Traditional style of planning implementation has emphasis
on two E’s- EFFICIENCY and EFFECTIVITY. He suggests a third E- EFFICACY- the
concern for employee’s morale for spirit de corps, for proper motivation.
12. Planning helps firm up a person or a university to say “no!”

V. Importance of Planning: Why Plan in the First Place?

Why should we plan, and what can we gain from it? Planning is vital to all schools
because it helps build better programs for students. It does this by helping you 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-range goals.
 Build on the strong and successful parts of the program, as well as to identify and
improve the weak points.
 Reach agreement in the school community about what to do and how to do it.
VI. Characteristics of Good Planning
What 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 or priorities.
 It is trying to anticipate the future.
 It is involving those affected by the
results of planning
 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
 It includes the periodic recording of
planning decisions for future
reference.
What a Good Planning Process Is
Not
ý It is not merely writing a plan or
filling out forms.
ý It is not using steps or processes that
don’t work.
ý It is not involving people without
considering their ideas.
ý It is not deciding what to do without
figuring out how it will happen.
ý It is not letting the program guide and
coordinate itself.

VII. Key Aspects of Planning

Ernesto Franco describes educational planning as a group of related activities which
establish objectives and targets for educational development over a defined period using given
resources properly managed.
 It is a dynamic process of on-going activities, not a one-shot or once-for all static
function
 It is a preparatory step, resulting in findings and recommendations that will have to be
approved and then implemented in the proper order
 Planning not only solves problems and facilitates decision-making, it involves sets of
decisions which are linked to each other
 It should be action-directed, implementable, and cast in the practice of management, not
theory or academic bias alone;
 It takes note of existing arrangements and sets directions for the future, but which
directions can only be made if decisions are made now, and not tomorrow
 These directions are articulated in terms of goals, objectives and targets, over given time
frames; and
 These are to be achieved in cost-effective strategies and tactics directed by efficient
management mobilizing needed funds and resources, including community participation.
VIII. Planning in Education
Planning in education basically covers everything that is related to learning and how we
carry out learning. It could be a plan made by the teacher in delivering his/her lesson through the
lesson plans or the curriculum planners carefully crafting the competencies to be learned by the
learners by sewing the most appropriate competencies responsive to the needs of the society.
We also have the Millennium Development Goals which were the result of planning by
the national leaders and United Nations waiting to be realized in the succeeding years. These
plans were shaping our educational landscape based on what it truly needs.
The eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) guided the countries participating in
the United nations to plan and start acting out to solve the problems and foster development. The
UN is also working with governments, civil society and other partners to build on the momentum
generated by the MDGs and carry on with an ambitious post-2015 development agenda.

-Source UN

IX. Educational Planning

Coombs (1970) and UNESCO 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 its
students and society.
Its basic logic, concepts, and principles are universally applicable, but the practical
methods for applying them may range from the crude and simple to the highly sophisticated,
depending on the circumstances.
Educational planning deals with the future, drawing enlightenment from the past. It is the
springboard for future decisions and actions, but it is more than a mere blueprint.
Ernesto Franco suggested that educational planning is not just an optimistic projections,
improved communications, or a public relations statement. The contents of a plan document
contain the mechanics or the plan – such as the statement of policies, criteria for priorities,
objectives, strategy, implementation arrangement, budget and resources, timetable, etc. They are
part and parcel of the plan – but they do not mean that they are the plan itself. Many plans
contain flowery statement, literary devices, splashy illustrations and graphic – statements that
impress secretaries, donors and beneficiaries. However, it may have a dangerous consequence.
Planning is not an attempt to avoid taking risks or new interventions. Ernesto 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 years ahead.

X. Impact of Planning
Planning is a continuous process, concerned not only with where to go but with how to
get there and by what best route. Its work does not cease when a plan gets on paper and has won
approval. Planning, to be effective, must be concerned with its own implementation-with
progress made or not made, with unforeseen obstacles that arise and with how to overcome them.
Planning is, or should be, an integral part of the whole process of educational
management, defined in the broadest sense. It can help the decision-makers at all levels-from
classroom teachers to national ministers and parliaments-to make better-informed decisions.
It can do this by helping them see more clearly the specific objectives in question, the
various options that are available for pursuing these objectives, and the likely implications of
each. Planning can help to attain larger and better aggregate results within the limits of available
resources. To achieve such benefits, however, planning must use a wide-angle lens through
which a great many interlocking variables can be put in focus and all of them seen as parts of a
dynamic organic whole-as a system susceptible of system analysis.
One of the central tasks of educational planning is to determine how best to keep these
intricate internal and external relationships of the educational system in reasonable balance under
dynamically changing circumstances, and to bend them constantly in the required direction.

XI. Reflections

XII. References:
Aggarwal, Y.P. & Thakur, R.S. (2003) Guidebook in Educational Planning. National Institute of
Educational Planning and Administration 17-B, Sri Aurobindo Marg, New Delhi – 110 016
Retrieved from: http://www.dise.in/downloads/reports&studies/concepts%20and%20terms%20in
%20educational%20planning.pdf
Coombs, P.H. (1970), What is Educational Planning? UNESCO Digital Library, Retrieved from
https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000076671#:~:text=Educational%20planning%2C
%20in%20its%20broadest,of%20its%20students%20and%20society

Millennium Development Goals (2015) Retrieved from https://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/

Singh, R.R (1990) Educational Planning in Asia. UNESCO Digital Library, Retrieved from
https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000087067?posInSet=5&queryId=1334fa85-798f-
4f16-aac6-e8c551a4667e