A formal sector plan was not developed until five years after the creation of the MOEHE but this does not mean that planning was ignored until then. A formal five-year plan was first discussed in 1998, and it took more than a year to prepare. UNESCO International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP) provided technical assistance in developing the plan, and the MOEHE set up two working teams; one focused on policy and another worked the details. Five-Year Education Development Plan 2000-2005 had five goals: 1) to provide access to education for all children, 2) to improve the quality of education, 3) to develop formal and non-formal education, 4) to develop management capacity in planning, administration, finance, and 5) to develop human resources across the education system.
Education Development Strategic Plan (EDSP) 2008-2012 has four goals: 1) to increase access of school-aged children and students of all education levels and improve the ability of the education system to retain them (Access), 2) to improve the quality of teaching and learning (Quality), 3) to develop the capacity for planning and management and to improve the financial and management systems used (Management), and 4) to realize a gradual conversion of the higher education sector from a supply-oriented to a demand-oriented sector, which will gradually guarantee more compatibility between higher education outputs and labor market(s) need from qualitatively and quantitatively (Relevance). Goal 1 to 3 is for pre-school, general, non-formal, higher education, and vocational education, and Goal 4 is only for higher education and vocational education.