Page 378 - DEDU503_EDUCATIONAL_MANAGEMENT_ENGLISH

Educational Management

Notes 29.7 Developing Capacity for Educational Planning and Management in
India

It hardly needs any mention that development of planning and management competencies in
education is of paramount significance. Equally important is the task of creating sustainable enabling
environment to make the best use of the available planning and management competencies. Absence
of ‘capacity’, especially at the sub-national and institutional levels has been one of the critical
constraints in planning and management of education India. With the changing direction in
educational planning towards decentralization, the need for capacity building at the district sub-
district and institutional levels has assumed increased urgency in India. Unfortunately, the general
understanding of the scope of ‘capacity development’ and the strategies to scale up the related
interventions have been narrowly conceived in various reform programmes in the country.
Broadly, “capacity development is a process by which individuals, groups, organizations and societies
create, enhance and maintain their capacities over time.” Capacity in turn is defined as “the
organizational and technical abilities, relationships and values that enable countries, organizations,
groups and individuals at all levels of society to carry out functions effectively and achieve their
development objectives.” Capacity has human resource, organizational and institutional dimensions.
The human resource dimension aims at enhancing knowledge, skills and values of individuals
through training and mentoring. The organizational dimension focuses on enhancing capacities of
organizations, particularly those engaged in educational planning and management such as
ministries, national level resource organizations, regional and provincial level education offices,
research and training institutions, district and sub-district level education offices, related grassroots
level organizations, local governments and schools. The institutional dimension focuses on the most
critical component of capacity development, i.e. the environment building, which is extremely
important for translating capacities of individuals and organizations into action. It is also argued
that capacity development as a process goes beyond enhancing knowledge and skills of individuals
and organizations and involves ownership of policies, gradual empowerment of all stakeholders
and strengthening of civil society. Given the concept of capacity development, it may be useful to
provide a brief account of institutional arrangements in India for facilitating planning and
management of education at national, provincial, district and sub-district levels in order to
contextualize the role of NUEPA in capacity development.
At the national level, the responsibility of planning for education lies with the Department of
Education, Ministry of Human Resource Development and the Planning Commission. The Planning
and Statistics Bureau of the Department of Higher Education, MHRD generally initiates the process
of planning while all the Bureaus of the Department depending on their area of responsibility are
involved in the management of educational programmes. At the state level, the responsibility of
planning for education lies with the Department of Education, the Directorate of Education and
ultimately the State Planning Board. As far as the implementation and management of education is
concerned, the responsibility lies with the State Directorate of Education. Since early 1990s, with the
implementation of the DPEP separate state and district level societies have been created for planning
and management of elementary education programmes. Accordingly, the State and the District
Elementary Education Plans under such programmes are formulated by the state and district level
societies. The NPE, 1986, envisaged to establish District Board of Education (DBE) in every district,
which, however, has not come up in several districts in the country. In the absence of the DBE, the
Zilla Parishad (the District Council) through its Education Standing Committee and the District
Education Office carry out planning and management activities, especially in school education. The
Panchayati Raj Institutions (Local Self-Governments in rural areas and Urban Local Bodies in urban
areas) are envisaged to play a critical role in the planning and management of education at district
and sub-district levels. At the sub-district level, the Block Education Office undertakes planning and
management of elementary education. There is no institutional arrangement at the sub-district level
for undertaking planning exercises in secondary education. At the block level, the Panchayat Samiti

372 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY