Discussion of findings
The nature of educational planning process for sustainable development
is that type that brings about desirable changes in the curriculum and
educational practices. In hypothesis one, the result is significant in
the sense that for-casting or projection of future needs in planning
education is very imperative for sustainable development of education
system.
In support of above contention Omobola and Johnson (2010) in Atimno
Babalola, Moronkola & Atonda (2010) observed that in today’s knowledge
based society and global economy, education that is planned well lays
the ground work for poverty alleviation and sustain economic growth.
They went further to add that if sustainability is to be achieved in
planning education, educators who are planners should take a leadership
role, breaking new grounds to prepare the society for a change in a
world of increasingly diverse and growing populations, an expanding
economy and changing global environment.
In line with the findings of this study, UNESCO, (2006) in Atinmo et al
(2010) advocated that to implement education planning for sustainable
development, there is need to improve basic education, re-orientation of
existing education programmes at all levels to address sustainable
development, develop public awareness, understanding of sustainability
and provide training.
The result of the analysis in hypothesis two indicated that target
setting influence education planning, t-calculated value of 3.729 is by
far greater than the t-table value of 1.645. this further revealed that
influence of target setting in planning education was significant. This
finding corroborate the research work of Ogunsola (2013) in Ojedele,
Arikewuyo and Njoku (ed) (2013) where they affirmed that to set a
target, one needs certain goal or objectives or target to accomplish.
The planner(s) need to plan to guide the achievement of such goal, for
any target to be achieved data analysis concerning resources
availability, allocation and utilization must be continually done.
Furthermore, the result of hypothesis three indicated a significant
positive influence of data on effective educational planning for
sustainable development. These data covers the schools, students,
teachers and non-teaching staff, population, finance, facilities and
equipment, school inspection, assets and liabilities of schools and
standards.
Inspite of the importance of data in planning, Ogunsola (2013) in
Ojedele; Arikewuyo and Njoku (2013) observed that planning Nigerian
education system has some short-coming. A major short-coming in the
inadequate database available to our educational decision-makers. There
are mirage of challenges in obtaining adequate and reliable data for
statistical and quantitative analysis in planning education in Nigeria.
Essentially however, data and information on the education system are
required to make educational policies and plans. Data and statistical
analysis enable assessment and evaluation of resource implications of
educational developmental needs of the counting. The place of data and
statistical analysis therefore cannot be compromised today when planning
approach is now shifting from static planning to dynamic planning
(Adeyemi, 2010) generally, educational related data are needed for
adequate and result oriented educational planning and implementation.