No, 13 MAJOR PROBLEMS FACING EDUCATIONAL
PLANNING IN THE NEXT DECADE
by Philip H. Coombs
IIEP/TM/13/67
July 197^
INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR EDUCATIONAL PLANNING
(established by Unesco)
7-9* rue Eugène-Delacroix., 75016 Paris
MAJOR PROBLEMS FACING EDUCATIONAL
PLANNING IN THE NEXT DECADE
by
Philip H, Coombs
This document is part of 'Fund.amentals of Educational Planning?
Lecture-Discussion Series's designed by the HEP to provide basic
training materials in the field of educational planning. By their very
nature these materials^ which draw upon tape recordings^ transcriptions
and summary notes of seminars^ lectures and discussions«, are informal
and not subject to the type of editing customary for published documents.
They are therefore not to be considered as 'official publications1.
The opinions expressed in this lecture are those of the author and
do not necessarily represent the views of the Institute.
The use, adaptation or reproduction, in whole or In part of these
materials is limited to institutions and persons specifically authorized
by HEP.
i
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
RISING DEMAND FOR EDUCATION
FINANCIAL CONSTRAINTS FACING EDUCATION
THE MANPOWER IMBALANCE
RURAL AND AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT
TRAINING FOR BUSINESS AND GOVERNMENT
OUT-OF-SCHOOL TRAINING
TEACHER SUPPLY AND DEMAND
EDUCATIONAL PRODUCTIVITY AND INNOVATION
SOCIAL CONSEQUENCES OF EDUCATION
IMPLICATIONS FOR EDUCATIONAL PLANNING
IIEP/TM/13/67 - page 1
INTRODUCTION
The purpose of this lecture is to look ahead, as best we can, in
order to identify some of the central problems with which educational
planners will be preoccupied during the next ten years. To see clearly
ahead, however, we must begin by looking back, for these problems of the
future have had their genesis in the present and recent past.
In the last decade there has been a spectacular increase in
education throughout the world. In all countries many more young people
are attending school today. Much more money is being spent on education
by governments and private sources than ever before. Many factors have
contributed to this expansion., among them the explosive increase In population
in many countries. As a result, school systems have had to run
very fast, first to take care of the increase in the population itself,
and then to try to raise the proportion of the school-age population at
school.
Along with this quantitative growth, there have also been changes
of educational structures, curriculum content and teaching methods. But
by and large these internal changes have been overshadowed in most
countries by the quantitative expansion. In other words, educational
systems are still remarkably like they were 10 and 15 years ago when
the great expansion began.
Parallel with this educational expansion there has also been
economic growth, but often at a slower pace than hoped, and more
slowly than educational growth itself. Though 6 or 7 per cent annual
increase of gross national product may have been the aim, it has often
turned out to be only 3 or 4 per cent. Economic growth in some countries
has had trouble keeping pace with population growth. Thus average per
capita incomes have not advanced greatly in the last decade, even though
the Incomes of favoured groups, particularly in the cities, may have
increased significantly.
Although modern educational planning began to take shape during
this recent period, most of this quantitative expansion in education
occurred without benefit of planning. Nations now need to accelerate
the development of educational planning to avert some of the severe
problems and wastes which result when educational expansion occurs without
good planning.
RISING DEMAND FOR EDUCATION
Given this background, the first problem which will have to be
faced, whether in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East or Asia, is the
continued rapid growth of population, combined with the rising demand
by parents and their children for educational opportunity. There is no
present prospect of this increase in population slowing down.
ИЕР/ам/13/б7 - page 2
Many developing countries, it should, be noted* have the basic
natural resources to sustain a substantially larger population in the
long run, provided these resources are intelligently developed. The
real problem is not total population but the rate at which it is
increasing in relation to the rate of economic and educational expansion.
If population grows too fast, relative to everything else* it means
lower real incomes and less food for each family, and it means that
education cannot expand rapidly enough. It is important to stress this
because there is much misunderstanding in many newly independent countries
over the issue of limiting population growth. This is sometimes interpreted
as meaning that the former imperial powers are attempting to stop
the growth of these peoples. But the real issue is not thisj it is one
of balanced growth.
Demand for education already heavy, is likely to increase still
further because education has a way of generating its own demand. If
you put a much larger number of children through primary school you
must anticipate that a few years hence more pupils will want to go to
secondary school. In France, for example, the question is not one of
public demand for primary education because that is already universal.
But since the war there has been strong public pressure for more
secondary education; and as that demand is satisfied there emerges a
greatly increased popular demand for university education. The gap
between this popular demand and what a country can do at the moment
in providing educational opportunities constitutes a major political
problem in many countries.
FINANCIAL CONSTRAINTS FACING EDUCATION
The second great future problem is the inevitable financial constraints
which educational development must face. It has always had to
face them, but the constraints in many countries are likely to become
more severe, simply because the proportion of national economic effort
that is now going into education is so much larger than in the past that
it is beginning to compete severely with other important demands, such
as health, housing and industry. One cannot expect education's
proportion of the total national budget to keep going up as rapidly as
it has in the last ten years in a good many countries. This means for
one thing, that while educators, and educational planners, must continue
fighting hard, as they have always had to, for bigger budgets to
take care of more children and to do a better job of education, they
must now learn more about fiscal affairs in order to seek out and obtain
new sources of finance. But however successful they are at this, they
will at the same time have to give much more attention to getting greater
and better educational results out of the resources they already have.
THE MANPOWER IMBALANCE
The third problem is manpower, and there are two sides to this
coin. Earlier the side that received main attention was the shortage
of specialized manpower, for economic development and government administration.
Serious shortages of certain types of manpower still exist
in most countries and one task of educational planners is to try to
shape the educational system and the flow of students to overcome these
shortages. Otherwise economic growth and public services will be
handicapped.
ИЕР/ТМ/13/б7 - Page 3
Bit the other side of the coin is that the over-all number of new
jobs is not growing rapidly enough in many countries to absorb the young
people emerging from schools and universities. In recent years this
imbalance has become a conspicuous problem. In a sense it is a good
sign of educational progress, but it is also a source of grave concern
to educators, political leaders and others, because the pupil who comes
out of school with a certificate or diploma will not be satisfied to be
told: "Wait a while, the economy will absorb you one day, or if not
you, then your children". He wants a job right now and if he does not
get one he may become a problem. It is not only a problem for the
individual; it is a waste of human resources for his society. Educators
and planners cannot simply dismiss it by saying it is someone else's
problem to solve. They cannot say? "We have produced the manpower,
now you find the jobs"» Educational planners, while they cannot take
responsibility for creating jobs, must be in a continuing dialogue with
those concerned with economic development and employment. They must try
to do what they can within the educational system to cut down the time
lag between leaving school and finding gainful employment. This is a
difficult problem for which there is no panacea. It will haunt educational
planners in the coming years.
RURAL AND AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT
A fourth problem, equally difficult and closely related to the
employment problem, is rural and agricultural development. What is the
role of education here? Economists have now come to realize that
unless a developing country puts heavy emphasis on developing Its
agriculture and its rural areas it is not likely to be able to make
a 'take-off' into sustained industrial development. The reason is
that industrial development needs a base of savings that can be
ploughed into industry, and the major economic base in most developing
countries is the rural areas. That is where the people and natural
resources are. Agricultural development, in short, Is a prerequisite
to industrial development.
Bit in many countries agriculture has not been developing speedily
enough. Priority has, understandably, been given to industrial development.
Bit now more emphasis must be put on the rural areas. This
challenges educationists to rethink the role of education in agricultural
and rural development, and in doing so it is essential to visualize
education not only in terms of the formal school - the elementary school,
the agricultural high school, the agricultural college - but more broadly
to include the many ki