1.1 Assessing Needs and Planning Action

17. To achieve the targets set for itself, each country is encouraged to develop or update comprehensive and long-term plans of action (from local to national levels) to meet the learning needs it has defined as Hbasic". Within the context of existing education-sector and general development plans and strategies, a plan of action for basic education for all will necessarily be multisectoral, to guide activities in the sectors involved (e.g., education, information, communications/media, labour, agriculture, health). Models of strategic planning, by definition, vary. However, most of them involve constant adjustments among objectives, resources, actions, and constraints. At the national level, objectives are normally couched in broad terms and central government resources are also determined, while actions are taken at the local level. Thus, local plans in the same national setting will naturally differ not only in scope but in content. National and subnational frameworks and local plans should allow for varying conditions and circumstances. These might, therefore, specify:

· studies for the evaluation of existing systems (analysis of problems, failures and successes);

· the basic learning needs to be met, including cognitive skills, values, attitudes, as well as subject knowledge;

· the languages to be used in education;

· means to promote the demand for, and broadscale participation in, basic education;

· modalities to mobilize family and local community support;

· targets and specific objectives;

· the required capital and recurrent resources, duly costed, as well as possible measures for cost effectiveness;

· indicators and procedures to be used to monitor progress in reaching the targets;

· priorities for using resources and for developing services and programmes over time;

· the priority groups that require special measures;

· the kinds of expertise required to implement the plan;

· institutional and administrative arrangements needed;

· modalities for ensuring information sharing among formal and other basic education programmes; and

· an implementation strategy and time-table.