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.