Educational planning and human resource ... - unesdoc - Unesco

A logical starting-point
The ‘manpower approach’ to education planning has long been a subject
for heated debate among educators and economic development plan-
ners. Actually, manpower analysis is a new and evolving art which em-
ploys diverse media and methods of expression, and thus its conceptual
framework is not yet frozen, and its methodology is neither orthodox
nor rigid. Free thinkers with creative ideas in the field are not yet smoth-
ered by technical purists insisting on rigorous but narrow forms of ana-
lysis. To be sure, there is widespread confusion about the nature and
scope of the ‘manpower approach’. Many of the working hypotheses
underlying manpower analysis need to be revised or discarded, and new
concepts should be introduced in the light of evolving experience.
The major thesis of this essay is that the manpower approach should
encompass much more than a tabulation of ‘heads and hands’ in precise
occupational categories. It must go far beyond the construction of purely
quantitative forecasts, projections or targets for formal education. It
should be related to a broad strategy of human resource development
rather than to a narrow concept of education planning. Finally, one
should discard the notion that manpower needs are derived solely from
requirements for economic development. No developing country is in-
terested merely in the growth of its economy-in increasing its national
product or income. All have broader aspirations for social and political
modernization. Thus, manpower and education planning should be re-
lated to national development-a term which encompasses economic,
cultural, social and political development in the building of national
identity and integrity.
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