PROMOTING THE QUALITY AND PERTINENCE OF EDUCATION — EDUCATIONAL PLANNING

1964 UNESCO-World Bank co-operation programme begins 1967 International Conference on the World Crisis in Education, Federal Government-IIEP, Williamsburg, Virginia, United States 1968 International Conference on Educational Planning, Paris 1972 Publication by UNESCO of the report Learning to Be 1990 World Conference on Education for All, Jomtien, Thailand International Congress on ‘Planning and Management of Educational Development’, Mexico City

'PILOTING' THE QUALITY OF EDUCATION It took only a few years to reach the financial limits of an approach dominated by methods which concentrated on quantitative expansion and, what was more, did not fully appreciate the impact of the administrative apparatus and the effect of structures, contents and methods on the success of plans. Aware of serious losses of momentum in the educational process, (10) political decision-makers began to question the internal and, more importantly, the external efficiency of education systems. (11) In 1968, Philip Coombs, then Director of IIEP, published The World Educational Crisis, (12) which presented a method for looking at an educational system not piecemeal but as a system of interacting parts. (13) Planning was no longer to be confined to a set of technical projections: it was the combined product of the means and the methods of implementation. Hence planning and reform went hand in hand. (14) It was, moreover, this intricacy that was highlighted in 1972 by the International Commission on the Development of Education, which underscored the role of national policies and strategies in attaining the right to education, democratization of access to it and the improvement of its quality; the need for everyone active in society to be involved in the planning and management process in order to improve their capacity for educational reform. The Commission’s report Learning to Be recommended ‘decentralization of decision-making, of responsibilities and resources and broad participation of those concerned, at all levels and in all areas, in determining and carrying out educational activity’.

W.W. Harman and M.E. Rosenberg, (United States) Educators, authors Many educational problems can be successfully understood and approached only in the context of the larger societal system of which the educational portion is but a part. Such educational problems cannot be resolved through strategies which are restricted to the educational system alone. Broad, comprehensive strategies are required, involving various interacting sectors of society. ‘Methodology of Educational Futurology’, Document of the Faure Commission, Opinions, No. 44, UNESCO, 1971 Edgar Faure (France) Chairman of the International Commission on the Development of Education The broad ultimate aim of education is that of educating the complete man. National policies must give detailed expression to this aim, which may be common to all educational systems, in terms of objectives adapted to each country; their strategies must indicate the suitable combination of ways and means for achieving these and, finally, be incorporated in a system of planning. Presentation of the Report Learning to Be, UNESCO, 1972 Sylvain Lourié (France) Deputy Director-General of UNESCO from 1988 to 1990 The experience gained by the developed and developing countries has shown us that no less than the former hypotheses underlying educational planning should be reviewed. This is not only a reflection of the changing character of the demand for education, but also of the drastic changes in the role of planning which can no longer be rooted in theory or in systematic and linear assumptions, but is increasingly marked by differentiated strategies. Opening Speech, International Congress on Planning and Management, Mexico, 1990

                               

FOOTNOTES:

(10) Through such factors as drop-out and the irrelevance of training to actual development needs and capacities.

(11) The Coleman report, published in the United States in 1966, maintained that the family environment was much more important than educational investment in determining educational outcomes.

(12) This text was first produced by IIEP as the basic working paper for the International Conference on the World Crisis in Education, Williamsburg, Virginia, 1967.

(13) Coombs gives a striking account of the gap between aspirations and resources; his book argues in favour of a type of planning that is not divorced from its application.

(14) The titles of IIEP publications illustrate this development: Modern Techniques in Support of Planned Education, Wilbur Schramm, 1967; Qualitative Aspects of Educational Planning, C. E. Beeby, 1968; Planning the School Curriculum, Arieh Lewy, 1977.