Lecture 4: Functions of educational planning

• Decision making
• Technical function
• Implementation function
• Control function
a) Decision making
It's carried out by politicians, high ranking influential citizens and professionals in the country.
For instance, in Kenya it is carried out by cabinet secretaries and other professionals.
It involves goal setting and goal approval. For instance, during independence, the government
first set national goals of education which would guide the country on educational development
b) Technical function
It focuses on formation of plans, identification of targets and evaluation of required resources
It is carried out by designated planners who are technicians well trained in statistics and social
sciences
The technicians as found in the Ministry of education and they deal with both the quantitative
and qualitative aspects of educational planning
NB. Give examples of quantitative and qualitative aspect
• Implementation function
Refers to procedures for fulfilling the plan targets. It's performed by administrators of the system
the national. County and sub county level
The administrators oversee and coordinate the implementation of plans
• Control function
It leads to the discovery of discrepancies between actual and planned achievement as well as
identifying the errors and problems experience during the implantation stage
It calls for subsequent modification of plans
It calls for close interaction between administrators and planners

Dimensions of educational planning

• Educational planning must be significant to the community for which they are being
made
• Educational plans should be feasible/realistic in relation to technical appropriateness and
cost
• Educational plans must be relevant in order to facilitate appropriate implementation
• Educational plans should be definitive/ conclusive i.e., They should specify the maximum
number of contingencies to be given prior consideration
• Educational plans are described as parsimonious. That is, they must be outlines in the
simplest manner possible
• Planning has time dimensions divided into long term, medium term and short term
 • Long term planning- it’s also called forecasting and usually take 20 years to be
implemented. The objectives are stated in general terms and materials covered in a
general nature.
• Medium term - referred to as actual planning. They are derived from the long term
plans and they specify when the full results are expected to be achieved. They cover a
period of five years
• Short term planning – they are referred to as programming. They obtain direction
from the medium level plans.
They break down resources and strategies to be used.
They are usually annual

Lesson five : Historical background and rationale of educational planning

The development of educational planning
Education in any country responds to the social, economic, and political objectives of the country
This theory has roots in traditional societies more particularly in the ancient civilization of the
Nile, Athens (capital of Greece) and Sparta (prominent city in Greece)
In these societies, education was meant to suit the aspiration of people and achieve the goals of
the society
There was a relationship between education and the philosophy of the society e.g. In Sparta the
aim of education was to produce an ideal citizen soldier who was honest, loyal and courageous.
Therefore, the education offered included skills in gymnastics, sports and games, dancing and
military training.
Education aimed at producing people who would defend the state.
The development of education planning in Europe started in the 20th century. The concept of
education planning is traced in the young Soviet Union after 1917
After the revolution in 1923 the Soviet Union developed a five-year development plan. It was
one of its kind in which education plan was included.
Before then education was dominated by philosophy whose view was to produce catechists or
priests
Education was also viewed as a means of promoting moral values into the people
In African countries, colonies provided education geared towards producing enlightened labor
force, hence provided education to acquire skills in simple arithmetic, writing and reading useful
on Masters’ farm. Since African education was only meant towards achieving white collar jobs.
This indicates that there was no organized education planning until 1917.
Characteristics of education planning before 2rd world war
• Education planning was short range. It only focused on the one-year budget plan
• It was fragmented- that is different parts of education were planned independently
• It was non-integrated - planning of institutions did not have linkages with the economy
of the society.
• It was static- there was no dynamism and education system would not adapt the
prevailing social circumstances
Development of educational planning
There are four phases of educational planning, they include:
• Reconstruction phase
• Manpower phase
• Rapid expansion phase
• Innovation phase

• There was an urgent need to plan education system and relate them to the whole
economic development plan in each country
• The politicians and planners had realized the importance of planning education in
order to meet manpower needs of their economies after the havoc cause by war
• Educational planning was considered as the only means through which scarce
resources can be allocated in education in a prudent manner in order to achieve
educational goals
• Countries like Britain adopted a 5-year development plan where education was
given priority in development plans
• Planners focused more on the relationship between education and economic
development of the country.
• It led to massive development of educational structures as well as reconstruction
of destroyed facilities.
• It led to enrolment of learners and recruitment of teachers.
The manpower phase
• It dominated in 1950s
• Economist developed interest in educational planning
• It let to increase of literature on the relationship between education and
economic development
• Universities started to offer courses in economics and educational
planning
• Europe and America needed a large number of trained manpower to meet
the needs of the post war economies
• Planners began to address issues of student’s intake and output to match
the manpower requirement and prevent surplus and shortage of manpower
• Planners began to sought bigger budgets to meet manpower requirements
• It led to intensive recruitment of manpower/labor force in all sectors of
the economy
Rapid expansion phase
• It saw popular demand for education and higher education in particular
• The challenge was particularly directed at the relevance of education to
existing occupational opportunities, for instance, in France they integrated
 educational planning with overall economic development planning to
cope with demand of manpower
• In Kenya in 1980s there was the introduction of crash program on
expanding education institutions and also entire education system in order
to meet growing demand for job opportunities in the modern sector of the
economy by school leavers.
• Education was regarded as avenue to better jobs and lives
• It led to increase in enrollment in secondary school and university levels
• It led to the development of Harambee schools, double intake in
university and change of the education system from 7-4-2-3 to 8-4-4

The innovation phase

• There was a realization that planning was needed to solve problems like over
production of graduate leading to unemployment, lack of resources for
institutional development, shortage of teaching force and aspect of quality.
• Planning was to serve the strategy of education changes and adaptation of
technology
• New policies needed to be developed to meet demands of education e.g. Cost-
sharing program
• Rural orientation type of education designed to provide the school leavers with
practical skills for self and salaried employment in rural and urban areas
• It led to teaching with the use of technology in order to increase efficiency of
education.

Lesson five: 5. Factors affecting educational planning in developing countries

The factors affecting educational planning revolve around social, economic, political
and psychological
• Existing educational policies. Most of educational policies in Kenya are based
on political patronage rather than technical grounds. This affects planning e.g.
Establishment of schools in many developing countries is determined on the basis
of political patronage rather than technical grounds such as concentration of
schools, age, population, location size of existing schools, transportation and other
infrastructural facilities.
The interference of politicians frustrates the effort of educational planners which
would have brought change desired by the majority of people. For instance, the
development of CDF schools grossly ignores the suggestion of educational
planners.

• Inadequate funds
 Most developing countries have no adequate resources to allocate in various
sectors of the economy. For instance, in Kenya 30% of the national budget is
allocated to education sector which has to be distributed to all the three sectors of
education. Even within the sector, the funds have to be distributed for
infrastructure, teaching and learning materials, salaries and teachers’ education.
The challenge facing the planners is how much should be in each sector and
section of education
This leads to thinly spread of education resources, hence having little impact,
hence affecting the quality of education

• Inaccurate population data

In most cases, data on population is inaccurate because individuals tend to give
wrong information on their ages e.g. Women tend to underreport their age, while
men tend over report their ages. Either way it works to their advantage.
This makes it difficult for education planners to adequately forecast school
enrollment by age and even by sex. Hence difficult to estimate the number of
classrooms, books, desks, and teachers that will be needed for the planning year.
They also cannot determine the amount of money required, where it will come
from, how and when they will be spent.
• Shortage of physical facilities/resources

With an absence of funds leads to minimize development because other facilities

and resources cannot be acquired. For instance, due to scarcity of funds some
schools in pastoralist, arid and semi-arid areas or in slums have semi-permanent
building
Science based subjects lack well equipped laboratories. This affects the quality of
education
• Non-involvement of educational planners of government
At independence, there was a shortage of qualified personnel e.g. The inspectorate
and other people charged with supervisory roles. However, Currently the major
problem is non-involvement of the planner by politicians

• Time element
Producing people with skills requires time. This means that as people undergo
training work will not be done. As graduate trainees undergo training the number of
enrollment increases, hence surpassing the number of graduate being trained.
• Slower economic growth in less developed countries
• Ever increasing social demand for education
• Lack of political will and support
• Lack of collaboration between labor market institutions and training organizations
Possible solutions
• Political authority to create an enabling environment for educational planner and
adapt their recommendations
• Educational planner to have a clear idea as to what their responsibilities are
• Serious attention should be directed towards the development of clear educational
policies and priorities so that educational planners have a better notion of what
they are planning
• Policy makers must refrain from creating the development alternatives and
political decisions rather than a technical matter.
• Educational administrators must actively support changes in educational planning.
• Generally, there should be mutual coordination of all those concerned with the
development of education as a whole
• Reduce corruption
• Public sensitization to give accurate data
• Involve all stakeholders when planning for education, e.g. Involving employers