Support to Sector Planning
Strategic Planning
Education Sector Planning Working Papers
About the Working Papers
To make progress in education, countries must have a clear vision of their priorities and how to achieve them. Many ministries therefore prepare strategic plans, which reflect this vision and help mobilize people and resources. Planning in most countries
is influenced by local history, organization of the state, and available resources, as well as specific challenges such as natural disasters or armed confl ict. Regardless of the particular circumstances, educational authorities need to carry out essential tasks such as analysing the education system, formulating relevant policies, then implementing these and monitoring their implementation, often jointly with their national and international partners.
Since its inception in 1963, IIEP has been supporting countries in their sector planning efforts, whether through training, research programmes, or technical collaboration. The ‘Education Sector Planning Working Papers’ series is based on nearly five decades of experience, gathered from numerous country partnerships.
Download the Working Papers:
1. Concept and rationale: is an introductory text aiming to clarify the concept. It offers a succinct look at the key characteristics of strategic planning of education; reviews its various steps, and gives indications on how to prepare plans. These steps are further detailed in subsequent Working Papers.
2. Organisational arrangements: provides guidelines for the preparation process of an education sector strategic plan. It outlines the need for such plans, and the way to organize the planners, policy-makers and the technical staff in the ministries – defining their roles and responsibilities and the mobilization of necessary resources. The Paper also highlights the importance of adopting a participatory approach so as to involve the different stakeholders in the planning process.
3. Techniques and methods: is to provide practical guidance about the methodological and technical aspects related to the formulation of education sector strategic plans. With concrete examples from existing sector plans, and numerous references and links to further reading, it highlights the different phases of the planning process. The Paper also introduces the reader to one of the most widely used methods to design programmes and projects – the logical framework approach. It is presented here adapted to the specifics of education sector planning.
