DEFINITIONS, MEANING & CHARACTERISTICS OF PLANNING

1. Meaning and Concept of Planning

In simple words, planning is deciding in advance what is to be done, when where, how and by whom it is to be done. Planning bridges the gap from where we are to where we want to go. It includes the selection of objectives, policies, procedures and programs from among alternatives. A plan is a predetermined course of action to achieve a specified goal. It is an intellectual process characterized by thinking before doing. It is an attempt on the part of manager to anticipate the future in order to achieve better performance. Planning is the primary function of management.

FIVE APPROACHES TO EDUCATIONAL PLANNING

The word ‘planning’ has lost the undertones it had earlier of infringement with individual liberties and is becoming increasingly accepted by all as part of the vocabulary of development, each country having its own type of planning within its own political system. In what follows, planning refers to the system a country adopts of forecasting its needs and setting up a framework, or alternative frameworks, of national action to meet them. It deals with matters which are subject to forecast and to substitution and can never cover the whole policy. A sudden policy decision to devaluate the currency or to enter a common market may have more important effects on economic development and social structure than the most detailed ten-year plan.

The main approaches and techniques of relating educational planning to development planning, which are in use or recommended by various authorities are set out below. Usually combinations of methods are in operation:

THE PUNJAB GOVERNMENT SERVANTS BENEVOLENT FUND ORDINANCE, 1960