Participation in the strategic planning process

The practice of strategic planning still appears to be rigid and bureaucratic for organizations that operate in rapidly changing environments such as those in Zimbabwe. Secondly, participation in strategic planning is not all inclusive; only a select few individuals do take part in the planning exercise. Colleges of education and the Ministry focus on the product activities, that is, crafting the strategic plan. They seem to ignore the process activities such as reviewing plans periodically and taking note of key performance indicators which promote continuous improvement. The participants in some instances receive no formal training in strategic planning and the planning processes are skewed towards control and compliance; and exhibit managerial accountability tendencies which lie within central bureaucratic approaches. There is therefore a need to ensure that the criteria for reviewing strategic plans should be developed by peers, and practitioners in the field, in consultation with national norms and standards for teacher education.