INSTITUTIONAL/ SCHOOL PLANNING

A plan is a commitment to a particular course of actions believed necessary to

achieve the desired results.
Planning is one of the important attributes of educational management. To achieve
the aims and objectives of education, effective planning and thereafter organizing,
staffing, directing and controlling are required.
Educational planning implies the taking of decisions for future action with a view of
achieving pre-determined objectives through the optimum use of scarce resources.
Educational planning is important because:
(1) It ensures success of the institution. It takes into consideration the important
issues, conditions, constraints and factors in education. Its focus is on future
objectives, vision and goals. It clarifies goals and the means to achieve those goals
thus reducing chances of failure and ensuring success.
(2) The scarcity of financial and other non-material resources poses a challenge to
education. Planning is a response to such challenges and explores the possibilities of
alternative uses and optimum utilization of limited resources.
(3) Effective and efficient planning saves time, effort and money.
(4) It is a coordinated means of attaining pre-determined purposes.
(5) Education is a public service demanded by the public and supplied by the
government.
(6) Educational planning is one of the components of the overall national socio-
economic development. The over-all planning has to provide the objectives of
education and the finances for educational development for accomplishing these
objectives.

Strategic Planning
Strategic Planning; strategic plans are all about why things need to happen.
1. A strategic plan articulates a shared vision, mission and values.
This enables all stakeholders to work towards a common vision. With a well
communicated and executed strategic plan, everyone is informed of their school’s
goals and how their actions are contributing to the achievement of these goals.

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2. A strategic plan effectively organizes schools and their staff.
The plan encourages commitment by showing staff members that their work is
essential, part of a larger strategy to help their school succeed.
3. A strategic plan defines how success is measured.
In order to achieve success, it’s important to know what success means. A school
with a strategy can monitor its progress toward key outcomes and evaluate where
and how it may have gotten off track.
4. A strategic plan aids a school’s board with governance decisions and provides
direction for the future.
With a plan in place, the board has a roadmap which it can track, evaluate and
modify to facilitate better governance decisions and provide direction for the future
of the school.
5. A strategic plan increases communication and engagement.
In large organizations like schools communication is critical so that everyone
understands his or her responsibilities and departments are effective in coordinating
their efforts.
6. A strategic plan keeps everyone in a school connected i.e. from teachers,
administrators and governors. A well implemented and communicated plan holds
all staff accountable for their actions and encourages collaboration.
7. The best reason of all for strategic planning comes back to every great school’s
number one priority: students. The students’ educational achievement is taken care
of.
Types of Educational Planning:
1. Administrative Planning:
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 prepares planning on, financial allocation or budget for the
programme, engagement of educational administrators in the programme, and
smooth management of the programme. etc.

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2. Academic or Curricular Planning:
This type of educational planning refers to planning for smooth academic transaction
of the syllabus for any course at both lower and higher level of education.
Formulation of educational goals, formation of curriculum committee 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 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 deals with planning in classroom situation in relation to a
particular topic of a concerned subject. 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.
5. Institutional Planning:
This type of planning embraces all the four mentioned above and includes all types
of planning giving a practical shape to the meaning of educational planning. In this
context it refers to the needs and requirements of the entire institution. It also
includes;
a. Planning for school-community relations.
b. Planning for discipline.
c. Planning for developmental activities or programmes.
d. Planning for proper utilization of community resources for total development of
the institution.
Basing on the needs assessment, planning can be short-term, middle-term or long-
term.

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School Mission and Vision
A mission is a public declaration that schools or other educational organizations use
to describe their founding purpose and major organizational commitments i.e. what
they do and why they do it. A mission statement may describe a school’s day-to-day
operational objectives, its instructional values, or its public commitments to its
students and community.
A vision is a public declaration that schools or other educational organizations use
to describe their high-level goals for the future i.e. what they hope to achieve if they
successfully fulfill their organizational purpose or mission. A vision statement may
describe a school’s magnificent ideals, its core organizational values, its long-term
objectives, or what it hopes its students will learn or be capable of doing after
graduating.
School plans are normally drawn based on how its vision has been achieved,
otherwise adjustments have to be made to the original plan in order to attain the
goals. School development plans have to be drawn to fulfill the vision statement and
purpose.

School Motto
Motto is a short sentence or phrase giving a rule on how to behave, which expresses
the aims or beliefs of a person, school, or institution e.g. Fear not the truth (DOC),
Woro en ryeko (Lango College), Work not Words (Kampala High School), etc.

School Development Plan

School development plans is based on the premises of the founders, thus it should
look at their Mission, Vision and Motto as their guiding principles. School/
institutional managers must therefore understand them and plan the development
accordingly.
Policy for School Improvement emphasizes that school improvement is first and
foremost the responsibility of the school management and administration. It is based
on the premise that school leaders themselves are best placed to identify areas for
improvement and to implement changes that can bring about better outcomes for
learners.
The School Development Plan (SDP) is the central document in which school
leaders map out their strategic plans for the development of their school. Based

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around the school’s established values, it sets out the actions and resources needed
to achieve priority objectives. It is usually approved by Board of Governors. All
other key plans, such as staff appraisal objectives and continuous professional
development programmes tie back to the SDP. The school’s strategic financial plan
will also link closely to the strategic improvement objectives, in order to plan
sufficient funding to achieve them.
Every school’s development program will look different, but the most important
thing about the development program is that it is developed based on evidence of
where the school is at, and what it can realistically achieve in order to best support
its students. It is also a living document that’s reviewed and updated in an ongoing
cycle.

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