Reflections on the concept and practice of educational planning

Abstract

Boris K. Kluchnikov (USSR ). Director of the D,2qsion of Educational Policy and Planning, Unesco. Formerly Chief of Department of International Organisations, Institute of Oriental Studies, Moscow, and Chief of Laboratory of Economics of Educations Moscow Pedagogical Institute. Author of Participation in the Planning Process and of articles on educational planning and reform. In the past two decades almost all nations have introduced one or another form of economic and social planning, including planning of education. Countries having just gained their independence began to perceive the considerable opportunities opened up by educational planning. Since that time educational planning has been systematically practised in more than IOO countries of the world. Some of the countries are now implementing their fifth or sixth educational development plan. Unesco has a stock of some ninetyfive current educational plans, kindly supplied by the governments. These documents as well as the deliberations of a dozen regional conferences of ministers of education organized by Unesco provide a solid basis for studying the concept and practice of educational planning. The regional conferences constituted a new method for promotion of international and regional co-operation. They became an important forum for education ministers to examine educational policies and plans periodically and to meet with ministers of economics and finance. The regional conferences clearly evidence the progressive development of educational planning. It was not and it is not smooth. With u'iumphs came disappointments. The bright side was not without a dark side. But on the whole it is justified to conclude that in the highly dynamic development of education in the world during the last two or three decades planning has played an outstanding constructive role. The most recent regional conference, which assembled ministers of education of Asia and Oceania in Colombo, July z978, stated that 'educational planning is now well established in the development of the machinery of most governments of the region' and that 'the mechanisms for educational management and administration are being progressively strengthened'. 1 Similar