REACTIO

N PAPER
of JOHANNA Q. CUARES
1 MAED Sci. Ed.
EDUC 110 – Educational
Planning and Policy Making
(Summer Class, AY 2016-
2017)

Submitted to:
MR. JOSE PABALAN III
Course Instructor
 INTRODUCTION

After all the things pertaining to the subject EDUC 110 - Educational Planning and
Policy Making was been discussed in the class, it is rightful to recognize all the perceptions and
thoughts gained out from the discussions so that we can fully involve ourselves in the planning
and policy making in our respective station. I believed that it is subtly derogatory for an educator
not to partake to any activities within our educational system wherein our students’ welfare is at
stake. So to outcast this thought, this activity is a fresh start already.

This reaction paper is crafted in order to express the insights of the educators who are the
real frontrunner in all undertakings of the educational system including educational planning and
policy making in the school. It is a brief and concise compilation of reactions about eight of the
topics chosen.

Whatever is written in this paper is just a reaction of how the facts are anticipated and
assimilated by the writer and not written against anyone.

I hope that my reaction is taken positively as it mirrors all the thoughts boggling in this
little mind.

Johanna Quimson Cuares

1 MAED Sci. Ed.
Reaction 1 – Decentralized Educational Planning in the Philippines

It is in the planning process which everything else follows. As the generation swiftly
changes from conservative to modernize, the type of education should also conform to these
modifications in order to uphold the very role of education, that is, to bring forth the children
into becoming citizen which the 21st century community needs. I think to achieve this,
decentralization is needed because, with this, every components of the educational system is
given the chance to resolve whatever predicaments they encountered on their area as educational
reform is concern. And that leads me to agree with Usec. Valera as she said that
“decentralization gives communities more options to address the requirements of local business
vis-à-vis student learning needs and career preferences”.
We all know that our students, unlike before, are inclined into multiple intelligences, and
they went into different learning environment. Hence, we call it Student Diversity. Thus, in
addressing ways to let their specific inclination flourished, different localized teaching
approaches were introduced into the educational system to cater their different needs.
Yet, decentralization does not mean that every component won’t cohere their actions into
the main educational core (Vision-Mission-Core Values). It is just a way to achieve it. Not to
confine the decision-making and planning into the four walls of the national office but to extend
it to the school offices where the real and actual scenario took place. Those who were in the
lower components like the teachers/school administrators may be more knowledgeable to
address different cases regarding education in general since they are the frontrunner of each
given situation.

Reaction 2 - Concept, Nature, and Significance of Educational Planning

Educational planning is believed to bridge the gap from where the current educational
status is to where we want it to go. Since it has a heavy responsibility ahead, planning includes
the selection of objectives, policies, procedures and programs from among alternatives. Yet like
any other things that struggle to achieve the set goals, there are so many things that educational
planners need to consider so that such factors will be addressed ahead before everything will
have to be implemented.
I wanted to focus my reaction on how these two major factors of educational planning
really affects on how planning is undergone by the educational institution in the country. First,
we have Social or Sociological Factors. Since this factor involves a close study of social life,
group behavior, and cause and effect of changes in the environment, educational planners will
have to think of how they will plan for a kind of education that caters what the real environment
is giving. The 21st century education is, therefore, the answer to the social changes that we are
experiencing at the moment. The country as mandated by the APEC needs to produce students
that are already well-prepared to compete on the global economy. I think, primarily, our current
educational curriculum is made to conform the country’s need to jive with the current global
educational trend.
Second is the Political factor. This factor is believed to exert pressures on educational
planning and management. Since the field of education cannot do away with the tendencies of
how the political sector sees it, there is always that kind of possibility wherein some of the
decisions for planning and management will be based on the political ideologies of the one who
is in the political pyramid. Because of that, educational planners will have to consider
politician’s ideas and attitudes towards crafting the plan. In planning perse, it is very best that
planners see all the sides of the cases involving the planning process before it will be fully
implemented. Maybe there are things that planners fail to address in the creation of an
educational plan that these politicians see. Also, whether we like it or not, these politicians have
their say in this due to the fact that they are the ones that aid the implementation of the
educational plan through pushing budgetary allowance for the plans implementation stage. As
we all know, a plan will only remain a plan without this plan being implemented, and
implementation needs funds to start it up.

Reaction 3 – Fundamental Concepts of Educational Planning

The primary cause of educational planning is to apply rational, systematic analysis to the
process of educational development with the aim of making education more effective and
efficient in responding to the needs and goals of its students and society as a whole. Thus, there
is the need to discuss further its characteristics that will enable the whole educational system to
progress in the long run.
In crafting an educational plan that will sustain the appraising need of the society in
general, planners should always consider that the plan that they are making will address
economic and social development. Although in the preparation of this plan, our main priority is
our students and pupils, we cannot deflect the reality that these students are also a part of society
that we need to develop so that they will be economically and socially competitive when they
reach the working age. The educational plan must also concern with quantitative expansion and
improvement. Since we are engineering the country’s manpower, planners also need to see to it
that all the needed things in order to brought an individual to its optimum purpose in the society
is well-addressed. If they see that there is a need to expand the horizon of the plan that they are
making and shoot in place improvement aspects, they must do it. Lastly, educational planning
should also consider the fulfillment of manpower needs, overall development of individual,
national economic, social, and cultural development. It is because education’s purpose is to build
a progressive country. Planners, in the crafting of educational planning, are all responsible to
look after all the aspects of the society that it needs to develop.
I must say that educational planning processes is so tedious to think but if we are all
concern to what will be the future of the society we are all living, we also need to take part in the
planning process and actions herein.

Reaction 4 – Educational Planning Process

Since educational plan does not happen by chance, it needs to follow a systematic way of
undergoing all the processes it needs to run through. Every detail involving all processes must be
specifically assessed. Nevertheless, there are things that slipped through what is planned, that is
why, the planning process is cyclical to continuously patch things that seem to undermine the
whole process of educational planning.
If we try to closely examine the process, it resembles the scientific method because it
needs to be systematic. Before the creation of a plan, planners need to identify the national goal.
It is due to the fact that the planning process must follow or be aligned with what the national
authority foresee the country. It is the humanity that is at stake in the planning process, and that’s
quite heavy. The first point of the process cycle is really challenging because planners need to
envision all the possibilities and tracks that the national goals would lead the educational
institution. It is the driving force of the whole planning system. If all is already clear in this
point, maybe the preparation, approval and experimentation, and its full implementation will be
set within the pedestal of the national goals.
Yet, cyclical as it is, subsequently all the points after identification of national goals were
undergone, evaluation and feed backing plays a vital role. It is because, at this point, planners
and other involve in the process, need to weigh things up and to honestly decide for what will be
the next options best for the whole planning process. Planners and other knowledgeable others
must be very careful enough not to commit the previous lapses and to improve the planning
process. That is made in order not to jeopardize the whole planning process that made the
educational system which shapes a nation.

Reaction 5 - Institutional Planning and Development, Five areas of Improving Quality in

Education, and Participatory and Integrated Planning

Institutional planning is one kind of planning that sets an educational institution as a

model to others. Maybe it sound ambitious to others, but this is what we dream as an educator.
We always thrive to achieve a “perfect” school which will put our clienteles, the students, into
their individual optimum capabilities, that is why, we seem to attach in the pursuit of institutional
planning. We all plan for our school to become a model of others. We plan to produce students
who will become a model to others. With that, institutional planning seeks to improve even the
smallest details that are found in the school. It cogitates institutional performance.