Educational Planning

• A plan involves deciding what to do, why, and how.
• Strategic planning prioritizes organizational decisions and actions for success.

Planning Cycles

• Pre-Planning Stage includes creating a planning organization and statistical data collection.
• Planning involves matching educational output with objectives and noting divergences
• The planning stage can identify weaknesses in national educational activities related to the relevance to the country's social aspirations, effectiveness in achieving full, national objectives, and efficiency in the use of resources to achieve maximum result.
• Policy formulation is creating policies to fix defects and reform education.
• Costing future needs requires the planner to know the available financial outlay.
• Establishment of priorities and target setting need to occur in the planning stage, along with feasibility testing
• Plan Formulation is a clear statement of what, why, and how proposals will be implemented.
• Plan Elaboration involves programming (dividing the plan into broad areas called "programmes")
• For plan elaboration, project identification and formulation occur; each project consists of units, called programs, with specific objectives.
• Plan Implementation is when projects are executed and resources are allocated
• In Plan Implementation, the planning process merges with the management process, and an annual plan is used as the principle instrument.
• With Plan Implementation, an organizational framework is developed for various projects; time is defined and indicated and operational activities are detailed.
• Evaluation, Revision, and Replanning is the stage where the education plan is being implemented, and machinery is evaluating progress and detecting deviations.
• During Evaluation, Revision, and Replanning, evaluation happens with plan implementation, like preparing regular reports (annual, mid-term, end-of-term)
• Evaluation serves to highlight weaknesses for revision and provides a basis for replanning, acting as a diagnosis for the next planning cycle.

Planning Types and Management Levels

• Top-level management deals with long-range strategic plans.
• Middle-level management handles intermediate-range tactical plans.
• Lower-level management is responsible for short-range operational plans.
• Plans can be based on the organizational level, these organizational level types are Strategic plans, Tactical plans, and Operational plans
• Strategic plans establish overall objectives and consider environmental factors, and apply to the whole organization, and often involve top and middle management with the board of directors.
• Strategic goals include market standing, innovation, human and physical resources, productivity, social responsibility, and profit requirement.
• Tactical plans are actions that major departments should take in order to execute a strategic plan.
• Tactical plans focus on getting things done and are taken by middle level managers; they may consult lower-level managers before finalizing.
• Operational plans involve specific, quantitative details for day-to-day operations.
• Operational plans usually have timelines of less than a year and hold less risk than tactical plans.

Plans Based on Frequency of Use

• Single-use plans include programs, budgets, and projects.
• Standing plans include policies, procedures, and rules.
• Programs are large-scale, single-use plans coordinating complex activities to achieve goals, and describes the steps to be taken, the resources to be used, and the time period within which the task is to be achieved.
• A program is a sequence of activities designed to implement policies and accomplish objectives; this can be a combination of policies, procedures, rules, budgets, tasks and assignments.
• Budgets, a single-use plan, outlines the expected results of a given future period in numerical or financial terms, and provide a standard for comparing results achieved, and should involve top management.
• Projects, a single-use plan, help with precise allocation of duties, effective control, and easy plan implementation.
• Procedures, a standing plan, are chronological sequences of steps to achieve an objective and are more specific than a policy.
• Procedures entail a process for how activities or tasks are carried out for business objectives and determine responsibility and accountability.
• Policies, a standing plan, are general statements that provide guidance in decision-making and can define the boundaries of the decision.
• Rules, a standing plan, are rigid statements of what should or should not be done, and ensure predictable employee behavior, not allowing deviation, and should promote safety, uniform treatment, and behavior of employees.