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
(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.
