Information Required for Educational Planning

By Jehangir shah

Key board; Stages of plan Formulation and Implementation, Elements Required for Educational Planning, micro and macro level planning for education planning

Information Required for Educational Planning

Introduction

 According to a proverb if you failed to plan…………….. You planned to fail

Information Required for Educational Planning

•         To achieve goals of Education for All, proper planning is required.

•          Generally   planning is of two types, Micro and Macro level planning.

In micro level planning, educational plans are prepared at the sub-national level,

•          Such as, institution, village and district level where as macro plans are developed at the level which is just above the sub-national level i.e. state and national level.  At the district level, villages and educational institutions are the unit of micro planning but at the state level, district is a unit of micro planning.

•          In micro level planning, educational plans are prepared at the sub-national level, such as, institution, village, and district level where as macro plans are developed at the state level and national level.

•          At the district level, villages and educational institutions are the unit of micro planning but at the state level, district is a unit of micro planning.

Stages of plan Formulation and Implementation

Before, a detailed list, required for planning both at the macro and micro levels is presented, different stages of plan formulation and implementation is briefly presented below.

 1. Diagnosis of Present Position with respect to:

•          General Scenario and

•          Educational Scenario   

 2.  Review of Past Educational Plans, Programs and Policies 

3.   Projections of Major Socioeconomic and Educational Trends  

4.    Plan Formulation and   Plan Implementation

General scenario

•          In order to meet data requirements of planning stage a variety of information relating to both general and educational scenario needs to be collected.  Information such as on, geography, irrigation, transportation, industry and administrative structure are required so as to prepare a general scenario of the existing infrastructural facilities available in a district and its sub-units.

Educational scenario

•           The educational required information can be grouped under information relating to demography, literacy and education sectors. Under the demographic variables, total population and its age and sex distribution separately in rural and urban areas needs to be first collected. Apart from total population, age-specific population in different age-groups is also required.

•          In addition, information on some of the vital indicators, such as, expectation of life at birth, mortality (death) rates in different age-groups, fertility (birth) rate and sex ratio at birth is required so that the same can be used to project future population. For adult literacy and continuing education programs, number of literates and illiterates in different age-groups is required which should be linked to population in different age- groups.

Universal access

•         Universal access to educational facilities is one of the important components of Education for All; hence a variety of information relating to population of a village is required so that school mapping exercises are undertaken.  Exercises based on school mapping play an important  role in order to open a new school or whether an existing school is to be upgraded or closed down

•         Similarly, percentage of rural population served by the schooling facilities can also be used as an indicator of access which should be linked to school mapping exercises.  Information relating to adult learning and non-formal education centers are also required which should be viewed in relation to illiterates, out-of-school children and child workers. 

•         Once the population got access to educational facilities, the next important variable on which information is required is number of institutions.  Within institutions, the first important thing is the availability of infrastructural facilities in a school and their utilization.  Information relating to buildings plays grounds and other necessary facilities, such as, drinking water, electricity and toilets needs to be collected.

•          In other words, complete information with particular reference to its implementation, adequacy, timely supply and utilization needs to be collected.   Similarly, information relating to number of classrooms and their utilization, class size, and number of sections is also required which can be used in institutional planning related exercises.

•         Enrolment is the next important variable on which detailed information is required. Both aggregate and grade-wise enrolment together with number of repeaters over a period of time needs to be collected separately for boys/girls   from, rural & urban areas and for all villages of a district. 

•         Similarly, detailed information on number of teachers distributed according to age, qualifications, experience, subjects etc. along with income and expenditure data is also required for critical analysis so that optimum utilization of the existing resources is ensured. 

•         Thus, from the basic information, a variety of indicators can be generated which can be of immense help to understand a district and its sub-units with particular reference to its demographic structure. It is not only the past and present information that is required but for proper and reliable educational planning, information on some of these variables is also required in future. 

A detailed list of items on which information is required for educational planning is presented below.  The list is not exclusive one and more items may be added looking into the planning requirements at the national, regional and sub-regional levels.

 Demography and Literacy Data 

 Number of districts/tehsils

 Population by age and sex, school-specific age (6-10, & 6-13 years), religions, castes and economic levels, sex ratio, density of population, mortality (death) and fertility (birth) rates;

Provision of primary, middle and secondary schooling facilities, walking distance and population areas without schooling facilities;

 Number of villages/towns in different population areas and Number of literates and illiterates by age and sex separately for rural and urban area and scheduled caste and scheduled tribe population. 

 Education
(a) Institutions
 

•         By type, level, management, sex, courses and location; capacity and utilization of existing institutions; number, out-turn and location of teachers training institutions; institution/teacher ratio, institution/pupil ratio, hostel facilities with  actual enrolment; number of single teacher primary schools; number of schools without blackboards;  and number of schools with/without building, type of buildings and vocational and technical institutions.

(b) Enrolment

•          By age i.e. age-grade sex (boys/girls), grades (I to XII), subjects, area (rural/urban) and institution-wise (primary, middle etc.); average daily attendance; population; admission data (entry rate) and data on various courses; out-of-school children in different age-groups, repeaters and drop-outs by age, grade and sex and transition rates by sex and at terminal classes and scholarships granted and number of beneficiaries under different schemes.

(c) Teaching Staff

•          Teachers by age and sex, rural/urban, grade and scales of pay, subjects, qualifications and experience, trained and untrained and stage for which employed,

•         Information on teachers post: sanctioned, appointed and transferred, teachers-training institutions, persons trained and type of training.

(d) Building and Area
 

•          Type, ownership and year of construction, present status; number and size of rooms with nature of their utilization and seating capacity; vacant area available for new or additional construction; availability of drinking water, toilet and electricity facilities, playground facilities information on number of classrooms/buildings sanctioned and constructed.

(e) Equipment

•         Physical facilities in school library and their utilization (number of books, average number of readers etc.), laboratory equipment, furniture, sports material, audio-visual aids, additional requirements, and information on educational kits and their utilization, supply and adequacy.

(f) Non-teaching Staff

•          Number and working of inspection and supervisory staff, non-teaching staff by pay scales, sex and school-wise supervisions or inspections per month/year, persons involved in data collection according to qualifications and training at different levels. 

(g) Examination Results

•          Examination results of all terminal classes, results of National Talent Search Examination, administrative services by state and universities-wise and policy of no detention.

(h) Income and Expenditure

•         School-wise, scheme-wise, capital and revenue, income and expenditure; and expenditure on incentives and scholarships, private cost on education, tuition fee, laboratory fee and other fee.

(i) Miscellaneous Information

•         In addition, miscellaneous information on the following items is also required which in most of the cases either not available or very limited information is available:·           

•         Parent Teacher Organization

•         Student Union/Organization    

•         Student Health Services

Sports Facilities

•         Total Literacy Campaigns

•         Distance Education·           

•         Teaching Material and Text Books

•         Village Education Committees    

•         Circle Education Committees

•         Number of Working Days in an Academic Year  

•         Mid-day Meal Scheme and    

•         On-going Programs/Projects

 The next stage of planning needs review of past plans, policies and programs implemented in the district with respect to their objectives total Literacy Campaigns etc...  Reasons of failures and success of a particular program need to be thoroughly analyzed.  If needed, the existing program with or without modifications can be continued which should be followed by setting-up of targets on different indicators. Broadly, following are the areas on which future targets need to be fixed which may vary even within a district: 

•         Population Growth Rates

•          Entry Rate

•          Gross & Net Enrolment Ratio  

•          Drop-out, Repetition and Promotion Rates in different grades

•         Retention Rates and

•         Per Pupil/Unit Cost.