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Cooperative/participatory planning refers to cooperative/participatory planning process as a model, which calls for functional involvement of members of the society in the planning process in an attempt to enhance and ensure a more effective and responsive educational planning. Cooperative/ participatory model of planning views educational planning as a social process which of necessity requires the active participation of the other relevant specialists such as curriculum specialists, the various interests' groups such as the students' representative council, the teachers representative (N.U.T.), the Parent/Teachers Association (P.T.A.) and so on.It is seen as a model of planning which compels functional involvement of every unit of the society or representatives of all the stakeholders, that is the students, employers of labour, the host community, government and interested individuals and organizations.
Participation planning process can have many goals with a variety of communication models, as well as the decision in making actions taken by stakeholders during such a process. Practices involved in a planning process have their own goals based on political, cultural and economic factors that are relevant for them. The overall challenge is to make a careful definition of the needs of the intended audience or change to take place, in this regard the major factor is planning. Adequate planning must precede the implementation of all the educational innovation and changes. In most cases, it is at the planning stage that educational change fails. This is because the assumption of policy makers is frequently hyper rational Wise .Policy makers tend to think what to be changed without taking into cognizance on how the changes is to take place, i.e. how to work through a process of change.
Moreover, planning by policy makers often ignore those who are to implement the policies. Any policy maker who wants plans to succeed must engage in cooperative/participatory planning. For instance, at the government level, policy makers must work with those who will execute the plan i.e. public servants. At the school level, a principal must work with his teachers, the non-instructional staff and even students to succeed; there must be constant communication between planners and implementers.
One of the basic reasons while planning fails is that planners of change are unaware of the situations that implementers are facing, but with cooperative / participatory planning, where goals are clearly stated together, implementation strategies set out together and evaluation procedures stated together with this approach success is possible.
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