Roseann A.

Maraña
MAEd – Educational Management

REPORT SUMMARY: CHAPTER 5 - PARTICIPATORY PLANNING

According to the DECS and UNESCO, in its broadest sense, participatory planning is
distribution of decision-making power in such a way that all those affected by decisions
should have a share in making them. It is an area in which factual arguments, peer
issues, and subject value judgements are inextricably united.

There are a number of categories of people who should be represented in some aspects
planning:

Students: the clients served by a school.

Teachers: the major element of the professional staff.
School Administrators: principals, supervisors and superintendents.
Decision-makers: Chiefs, Directors, Ministers
National Board of Education and other policy-making bodies
Para-Professionals and Personnel of other agencies: supporting services

The participation of these people maximizes the contributions of expertise in planning

and enables them to share in the development of policies which affect them. Their
participation may be consultative or through representation, consultation in planning
fonds educational planners and decision-makers a broader basis for planning. In this
form of participatory planning, groups of parents, professionals, industrial
representatives, ordinary citizens, or whatever the specific membership may be are
consulted by the official planning machinery but are not given final decision-making
power.

Qn the other hand, planning through representation induces improvement of the

delegation of authority. Direct participation in planning may emanate from
representatives of industry national youths’ association, labor group, parent-teacher
association, from the other sectors of society in the grassroots level.

Some issues which are the theme of discussion of those who support and those who
have doubts on the principles of participatory planning. These issues stem from the
following topics: Efficiency, Conflict, Localism, Mediocrity, and Authority and Control.

PROS CONS
EFFICIENCY
Technical or economic efficiency is Distracts educational institutions from
not all in education. their primary business.
The gains in relevance mobilized for Costly because more people will have the
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 education, the enhanced additional resources mobilized to devote
employability of students. more of their time.
CONFLICT
Provides an “institutionalized Involves many people with divergent
mechanism” for conflict settlement, points of views, conflicting values and
an outlet for conflict and rival interest; thus, educational decision-
controversies. making will be strangled.
Conflict is present everywhere: it
brings out into the open and
attempts to deal with it in a
constructive manner.
LOCALISM
Leads education out of its present Foster varied whims and ideologies true
emphasis through a variety of to one setting or locality.
innovative educational experiments,
decided upon in different places.
MEDIOCRITY
Encourages creativity, ideas and Involves many people who are not
first-hand experiences of local formally qualified, particularly the
people, rather than an academic students themselves.
exercise, provides competence Planners’ expertise will be subjected to
through technological assistance majority rule and unsatisfactory
groups. compromise: thus, planning may fall to
mediocrity.
AUTHORITY AND CONTROL
Holds control over planning process Represent a loss of teachers’ own
by means of the broad and general authority.
acts of directives laid down by Dissolves necessary control in education.
authorities.
Does not aim at control over other
people’s behavior, instead it
enhances the control over a
common activity, the degree to
which all parties concerned achieve
their common objectives.

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