Advantages and Objectives of Institutional Planning – B.Ed. Notes

What are the various advantages of planning an institutional plan in school? What are its objectives? In this article, we will discuss in detail about the objectives of planning an institutional plan in a school and the characteristics of an institutional plan. This note will also help for B.Ed. pursuing students for their examinations.

Meaning of Institutional Planning

A school is a unique human institution. It exists to achieve certain aims and ideals of the community; it works with the available human and material resources and educates the children of the community. Every school is unique in some way or another. That is why these days we are talking of plans at the institutional level.

In the words of W.M. Buch, “A program of development and improvement prepared by an educational institution on the basis of its felt needs and the resources available or likely to be available, with a view to improving the school program and school practices, constitutes a plan for an institution. The plan may be for a longer duration or a shorter duration.

Also Read: What is Institutional Planning? – Its Definition and Characteristics

The advantages and objectives of institutional planning are discussed below:

5 Advantages of Institutional Planning in Details

Institutional planning, though not an altogether new idea, has assumed great importance in recent times on account of its numerous advantages. Some of its most important advantages are discussed below:

#1 Improving the standard of Education:

The general standard of education depends upon the standard of educational institutions. If each individual institution is keen to improve its educational standard it will naturally result in an all-round improvement throughout the country. At this time, people are not satisfied with the standard of education prevailing in our schools and colleges.

The general standard of education being provided in our educational institutions is considered to be rather low, Institutional planning can certainly go a long way in improving the general standard of education in our educational institutions.

#2 Improving Instruction:

Institutional planning aims at the round improvement in the functioning of the school, leading to improved methods of teaching or instruction. Thus, institutional planning will result in enriched and better instruction. Plans will be made for improving the campus of the school, for improving the classrooms, for preparing and using better teaching aids, and for adopting better and latest methods of teaching.

This will also help the students to be interested in their studies because our efforts will be concentrated on launching effective programs for improvement and development. Thus, institutional planning will lead to better and improved instruction.

#3 Better utilization of Resources:

Institutional planning, by its very concept, aims at maximum or optimum utilization of the resources available to the school. The school has tremendous resources, human as well as material, which are not properly made use of.

There are human resources in the form of teachers and students, there are material resources in various forms, like open space, classrooms, books in the library, audio-visual material, science laboratories, and so on; optimum and proper use of all these resources will revolutionize the performance of the schools.

At present, these are not being properly put to use. Their optimum utilization will lead to a very high standard of education and instruction.

#4 Active participation by teachers:

Institutional planning enables teachers to put in their best efforts. As they are made active partners in the preparation and implementation of the plan, it motivates them to strive harder to achieve excellence. Since they are the active initiators of the plan, they try to implement it by putting in their best efforts. It would not be wrong to say that the institutional plan will draw out the best of the teachers.

#5 Job satisfaction for the teachers:

The teachers, by and large, are not getting job satisfaction from their work, an important reason for this dissatisfaction is that the teachers do not have opportunities to do creative and original things which alone can enable them to get satisfaction from their work.

Institutional planning will provide them with opportunities for creative thinking and doing something practical and worthwhile. This will enable them to get satisfaction and happiness out of their work. This is a great advantage indeed.

Various Objectives of Institutional Planning.

Shri J.P. Naik, a former Education advisor, at the Government of India, has given the following four objectives of institutional planning :

• Giving freedom to the teacher.
• Making the good teacher effective.
• Involving every teacher in the formulation and implementation of plans.
• Emphasizing what can be done here and now by mobilizing our existing resources rather than waiting for the impossible to happen. Now let us discuss these points in detail

(i) Giving freedom to the teachers:

One of the drawbacks of our system of education is that it does not give freedom to the teachers with the result that they cannot take any initiative to improve educational ideas and practices. Institutional panning will afford the teacher such stuff as will challenge his mental and intellectual abilities and enable him to adopt a track of his own rather than follow the beaten track. This freedom will enable the teachers to take initiative and do their best.

(ii) Making the Good Teachers Effective:

There is no dearth of good teachers in our country. These teachers want to do something really creative and original, but they are denied opportunities and freedom to do so because of our rigid system of education. This leads to frustration on the part of such teachers and also hinders the development of our education. Institutional planning affords them opportunities to make themselves effective in the field of education.

(iii) Involving every teacher in the formulation and implementation of pans:

One of the important objectives of institutional planning is to involve every teacher in the formulation and implementation of educational plans. This cannot be done when the planning is done at the top; because the teachers who have actually to implement the plans are not taken into confidence.

When the planning is done at the institutional level the teachers themselves are asked to prepare the plans, and therefore, they will be more enthusiastic about their implementation.

(iv) Emphasizing what can be done here and now by mobilizing our existing resources:

Most of the plans for educational improvement and development cannot be implemented because they are expenditure-oriented, and the necessary finances are not forthcoming. Up to this time, it has been sufficiently realized that there are a hundred and one things in the field of education that can be done simply by utilizing to the maximum in our existing resources. An institutional plan aims to maximize the resources available to a school.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, it may be said that institutional planning aims to bring about the most needed improvement and development in the field of education in general and school practices in particular. An institutional plan is to meet the most urgent and felt needs of the school. It aims at providing such facilities to the teachers and the students which makes the teaching-learning process more effective and helps to enhance the general standard of teaching and education.

Also Read: Steps to Executing an Institutional Plan

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