4.4.2 Comprehensive strategic planning

Integrated strategic planning is crucial to effective policy development. A teacher policy needs to be an integral part both of other education policies and of governments’ overall strategic plans.

In South Africa, the 2009 Teacher Development Summit called for the development and subsequent implementation of an integrated plan for teacher education and development. The government commissioned working groups and issued an Integrated Strategic Planning Framework for Teacher Education and Development in South Africa, which guides numerous actions for 2011–2015, based on the comprehensive review of the sector and aligned to its twenty-five-year education plan. Even given these coordinated efforts, inconsistencies still exist between these education plans and the National Development Plan, reinforcing the need for an integrated planning process (DBE and DHET, 2011).