SCHOOL PLANT PLANNING: AN INDISPENSABLE COMPONENT OF EDUCATIONAL PLANNING

Abstract

School plant planning as a critical component of educational planning, is expected to plan school facilities to be compliant with current technological trends in modern society. This paper evaluates the place of school plant in educational planning through the concepts of school plant planning, management techniques in school plant planning, selection of school site, space standards and the role of school head in plant management. The researchers adopted the ex-post facto research design. The paper identified financial constraints, political constraints, lack of school plant education, rising cost of education resources and statistical deficiency as challenges to modern school plant planning. The paper concluded that school plant is very essential to achieving positive outcomes in the teaching-learning process; because the site, size, arrangement and other aspects of the classroom, support amenities such as labs, toilets and other equipment can either be friendly or disgusting to teachers and students alike. The following recommendations were made: that government at all levels should increase budgetary allocation to education to 26%; there is need for government to involve school plant planners in the formulation and implementation of educational programmes, government at all levels to conduct adequate public enlightenment on school plant through the social, print and electronic media, among others.