- 1. McFarland (1964)Planning is an important administrative function. To get things done, administrators must plan ahead.Planning bridges the gap between where we are now and where we want to be.Pervasive and continuous executive function involving complex processes or perception, analysis, conceptual thought, communication, decision and action.Ackoff (1964)Planning is the design of the desired future and of effective ways of bringing it abroad.Hick and Gullet (1976)Planning is deciding in advance what to do, how to do it, when to do it, who is to do it and how to measure performance.Without planning, we leave the events to chance.
2. A good question to start with is: why PLAN in the first place?What does a university or a school get out of planning? Does itmake any difference? Some will claim that they have not been doingany planning all through the years and still the school operates,runs along every year, students come in and out, teachers come inand out, so whats the great difference about planning or notplanning at all?Ernesto Franco gives an often-quoted observation: Why planwhen many successful Chinese businessmen, who have had noformal education or training but are very rich do no planning at allwhen they open up factories or go into multi-million peso trading orput up a shopping malls? 3. Franco explains. Chinese businessmen like allbusinessmen, and all administrators do planning. Very deep andexperiential planning, in their heads. As they wake up in themorning, they already plan ahead whom to see, what to decideupon the basis for decisions, and what points never to give up on.Planning is accomplished in their heads, not on paper, norcomputer machines, nor in planning workshops. Always, noChinese businessman does anything without planning. Except thatit is informal, unwritten, undocumented, secretive, judgmental,experiential. Its all in the mind, so to speak.With school owners, politicians and founders. No manageror school administrator or politician or school founder in real lifeever does anything at all without some kind of planning. Except inmost cases it is never formal, written or shared with someone. Theyplan always, but informally. If that is the case, Franco advises,then why not proceed in the right way? Do it right so the rightthings can be done the right way. 4. Why should we plan, and what can we gain from it? Planning is vital to all schools because it helps build betterprograms for students. It does this by helping you to: Decide how and where to set priorities in the use of limited human and economic resources. Decide how to accomplish not only your short-range goals, but also your medium and long-range goals. Build on the strong and successful parts of the program, as well as to identify and improve the weak points. Reach agreement in the school community about what to do and how to do it. 5. What a Good Planning Process Is What a Good Planning Process IsNot It is organized thinking that helps in It is not merely writing a plan ordeciding what needs to be done, how filling out forms.it will happen, and who will do it. It is not using steps or processes It is the setting or priorities.that dont work. It is trying to anticipate the future. It is not involving people without It is involving those affected by the considering their ideas.results of planning It is not deciding what to do without It is adapting and modifying steps or figuring out how it will happen.processes until they work for you. It is not letting the program guide It is using leadership to motivateand coordinate itself.people and to coordinate theiractivities. It is reflecting on what has beenplanned already It includes the periodic recording ofplanning decisions for futurereference. 6. What a Good Planning ProcessWhat a Good Process Should DoShould Not Do It should stimulate change and It should not make planning moreimprovement.important than everything else It should help you figure out whatyou do teaching, administering,will happen and how it should or parenting, for instance.happen. It should not result in a process or It should raise awareness about a plant that is rigid and inflexible.what is being done and why. It should not result in a process It should build a trail of activities that has not been adapted to yourover time so you can look at what schools particular needs.has worked well and what has It should not focus your attentionnot.on only one aspect of the It should produce a blueprint,programs, excluding all others.road map, or recipe to be used. It should decrease fear about theprocess of change and its results. 7. Y. DROR defined PLANNING as the process or preparing a set of decisions for action inthe future directed at achieving goals by optimal means. In this sense, Ernesto Francoadds, educational planning is a group of related activities which establish objectives andtargets for educational development over a defined period using given resources properlymanaged. It is a dynamic process of on-going activities, not a one-shot or once-for all staticfunction It is a preparatory step, resulting in findings and recommendations that will have to beapproved and then implemented in the proper order Planning not only solves problems and facilitates decision-making, it involves sets ofdecisions which are linked to each other It should be action-directed, implementable, and cast in the practice of management,not theory or academic bias alone; It takes note of existing arrangements and sets directions for the future, but whichdirections can only be made if decisions are made now, and not tomorrow These directions are articulated in terms of goals, objectives and targets, over giventime frames; and These are to be achieved in cost-effective strategies and tactics directed by efficientmanagement mobilizing needed funds and resources, including communityparticipation. 8. (i) Where are we today?(ii) Where do we want to go?(iii)How do we get from where we are today to where we want to go tomorrow? 9. Planners in Third World countries including the Philippines, observesErnesto Franco, lack the ability to recognize, and accept as real, the forces forchange, and are unable to establish a favorable climate or ambience for introducingchange in their education systems. They are able to prepare good-looking, rich-sounding, and properly-formatted paper documents on education policies-programs-projects.The UNESCO, as paraphrased by the DepEd, explains that every actionmust be preceded by a conscious movement of thinking or brain work. Inmanagement, this is held as one of the most important principles. A popular sayingemphasizes it:WHAT THE HEAD DOES NOT DO, THE LEGS WILL HAVE TO DO. 10. Continuous planning is necessary to minimize waste in resources both materialand human and to achieve organizational objectives expeditiously, observeAdrian Arcelo and Felix Santos, Jr.Is the first stage of the Management Process. However, in organizational objectivesbeing more complex, the resources to achieve them being more varied, and theobstacles in the way being many, a managers function in planning is much morethan pausing to think before starting some operation. We plan where there is aneed something to be accomplished. Some management specialists defined astage called CREATING to precede planning. By creating it was meant that aneed to accomplish something is identified: How good if we could inculcate thedignity of labor in our youth!The first activity in the planning process is to find answers to such questions as: a. What can be done? b. When can it be done? c. How can it be done? 11. Is not just optimistic projections, improved communications, or apublic relations statement. The contents of a plan document containthe mechanics or the plan such as the statement of policies,criteria for priorities, objectives, strategy, implementationarrangement, budget and resources, timetable..etc. They are partand parcel of the plan but they do not mean that they are the planitself. Many plans contain flowery statement, literary devices,splashy illustrations and graphic statements that impressministers, secretaries, donors and beneficiaries. However, it mayhave a dangerous consequence, Ernesto Franco warns. 12. FRANCO, stresses that planning should build on past gains or achievements: atthe same time however, it should startnew initiatives and strike for new grounds precisely because change never ends, is always taking place, and will even be more complex and rapid in years ahead.
