Educational Planning Practices and Administrative Efficiency in Public Senior High Schools in Ghana

<p>Educational planning practices are significant components in the establishment of administrative efficiency in public Senior High Schools (SHSs). Educational planning drives resource allocation, staff management, curriculum implementation, infrastructure development, budgeting, and policy execution in Ghana and many developing countries. This systematic review integrates empirical and theoretical researches published between 2020 and 2026 on public SHSs, where the relationship between educational planning practices and administrative efficiency was explored. The review examines how strategic planning, participatory decision-making, financial planning, human resource planning, ICT integration, policy implementation, and monitoring and evaluation all contribute to the administrative effectiveness of schools. The review took the PRISMA approach for literature review to guide its analysis of peer-reviewed academic journals, conference papers, dissertations, and policy documents. The findings show that effective educational planning enhances administrative productivity through decision-making, responsibility and accountability, instructional supervision, and resource utilization. However, there are challenges posed by a lack of appropriations, insufficient mechanisms for monitoring, political meddling, limited participation of stakeholders, as well as infrastructural deficits which are still obstructing effective planning in public SHSs. The review concludes that educational planning is an essential measure of administrative efficiency and advocates for the strengthening of data-driven planning, capacity building, decentralized decision-making, and digital planning systems in Ghanaian SHSs. The government of Ghana should improve SHSs planning through adequate funding, ICT integration, training for administrators on strong monitoring and evaluation. Future researchers should also delve into succession planning and administrative efficiency</p>