The Macro-Planning of Education: Why It Fails, Why It Survives, and the Alternatives

Abstract

IN THE LAST THREE YEARS the most dramatic development in the economics of education has been the increasingly critical reevaluation of the traditional premises of educational planning. Specifically, the received wisdom that education can be planned in such a way as to become a significant force for economic and/or social development has been vigorously attacked. Two of the most noteworthy instances of this movement were the OECD Seminar on Methodology of Human Resources Planning in Developing Countries held in Paris in September, 1971 and the First Bellagio Conference, held in Bellagio, Italy in May, 1972.1 The revisionist stance represented by the opinions and conclusions expressed at these two meetings (as well as the increasing scepticism in the general literature)2 is especially significant in that several scholars have been required to recant their own previous enthusiasm for the education/development strategy. The purpose of the present paper is to review the reasons for the growing disenchantment with traditional macro-planning efforts in education and to anticipate what effect this disenchantment may be expected to have upon education and educational planning activities in developing nations. Finally, an attempt will be made to specify the type and extent of planning activities which remain viable and to encourage new directions for research and planning emphasis. While the present cynicism is a welcome relief from the earlier period of naive enthusiasm, by itself it offers nothing in the way of guidelines for rectifying the present situation.