Planning_in_Schools

“Change is avalanching down upon our land, and most people are utterly unprepared to cope with it,” states Alvin Toffler, author of Future Shock (http://www.scribd.com/doc/7000483/Alvin -Toffler-Shock). In these globally fast-paced times, changes are happening so fast that we are at times unable to preserve relevant cultural aspects and values. As Heraclitus (http://www.oppaper.com/essays/Herclitus-View-Reality/142782) had said: “You need names for things, just as if they had a rigid permanence, but the very river in which you bathe a second time is no longer the same one which you entered before. You cannot step into the same river twice.” To be is to become.. In the field of education, change is, and will continue to be a decisive factor for any educational undertaking. One has to be prepared for the changes ahead, and the best preparation is careful planning in order to set up all that might be essentials in putting in place the best education for the next generation. Education is regarded as indispensable to the individual as well as national development process. It is recognized as a basic right of every human being. Hence, the government’s adoption of the “Education for All” policy or EFA as its major social development program which emphasizes the grand alliance of all sectors united to support one common goal: to bring about equal opportunities for everyone to be educated. In an attempt to lay down the risks and opportunities of basic education in the Division of Samar for the next six years, and anchored on the overall policy and planning framework as set in place through the Basic Education Sector Reform Agenda (BESRA) in answer to the strategies to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) pushed by the Philippine Government, this Division Education Development Plan (DEDP) of the Division of Samar serves as an avenue for all who have stakes in education to examine its present state, where it is right now, how it will improve, and where it wants to be in six years. This DEDP therefore is crafted in accordance with the purposes and objectives of RA 9155 (Governance of Basic Education Act of 2011) that sets to provide a framework for the governance of basic education which shall set the general directions for educational policies and standards and establish authority, accountability and responsibility for achieving higher learning outcomes (Section 1.3 (i) of Rule I IRR of RA 9155). It is on these grounds that this six-year Division Education Development Plan (DEDP) is designed hoping to serve as the Division of Samar’s blueprint for improvement in education based on its present state consistent with the national educational policies, plans and standards. The formulation of this Division Education Development Plan for the Division of Samar was formulated after it had gone through the three major phases: the data gathering and validation, strategic planning, and planning for implementation. This Division Education Development Plan presents an overview of the present state of basic education in the Division of Samar, its priority improvement areas, strategic goals and contributory objectives for pre-elementary, elementary, secondary and the alternative learning system, as well as its master plans for implementation, monitoring and evaluation, and organization for implementation which the Division of Samar hopes to achieve in six years. This six-year Division Education Development Plan (DEDP) for the Division of Samar has been prepared and submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of Integrating Course 3 and for the purposes of review and assessment by Samar State University Review Team and thereby presented for approval.