The Role and Functions of an Educational Program

What Is an Educational Program?

An educational program is an official, national, or regional document that outlines the set of objectives, content, and other elements to be developed for a specific educational level.

In that sense, according to Zabalza (1997), the program is the set of official teaching requirements issued by a central authority.

The program collects what is defined at any given cultural and social moment as the common and shared knowledge, skills, values, and experiences of a people. As it is presented in prescriptive terms, we refer to it as the set of learning experiences that all children in a school system must undergo.

The program includes the common minimums for the entire society, representing the shared structure of a culture and a general outlook on training needs, respecting the cultural and technical development of that society.

Functions of an Educational Program

The functions of the program, in relation to curriculum development, are organized according to its target beneficiaries. These are as follows:

Functions Relating to Teachers

• Control: By knowing the program, teachers can check if their students have achieved the minimum requirements.
• Comparison: It allows teachers to compare their students' achievements with those of students from other classes.
• Teacher Protection: The program provides guarantees to teachers against demands that go beyond the program itself, regardless of their administrative origin.
• Contract: The program acts as a commitment from the teacher, setting the formal requirements of what will be asked of students.
• Professionalization: The program contributes to teacher training through its demands, influencing initial training, selection, and in-service training or retraining.

Functions Relating to Parents

• Information: It serves as an informational tool for parents to understand what they can expect from the teacher or school.
• Collaboration Facilitation: The program helps avoid misunderstandings about the school's purpose and function, thereby facilitating collaboration.

Functions Relating to Students

It informs students of the commitment required of them.

Functions Relating to School Officials

• Foundation for Decisions: It provides a stable source of criteria on which officials can base their decisions.
• Control: The program serves as a yardstick for measuring progress in learning processes and the quality of results.

Functions Between Different School Levels

• Selection: It sets the conditions for completing one school level and entering the next.
• Coordination: The program defines the connection between the various stages of the educational path.

Functions for the School and Education System

• Innovation: Programs introduce new requirements into schools, and the dynamics they generate can make further innovations possible.
• Stabilization: At the same time, the program is a key stabilizing feature that cannot be overlooked. Any new initiatives or experiments must align with the program, passing through the filter of its minimum requirements.

The program is considered only the first step in curriculum development.