THE RELATIONSHIP OF TQM TO EDUCATION?

Today’s knowledge revolution has brought about rapid advances in technology. It as changed the way we work & think & is changing learning. To cope with the Information age every person requires a standard of education. High education Attainments are the right of each & every person needs to have a quality education. TQM in education has as its message the idea that every child has worth & demands The best possible chance in life. It an aspiration as relevant in Calcutta or Nairobi as in London, New York or Beijing. It may sound utopia, but it is after all to dreams like theseThat education should aspire, & it was for dreams like these that pioneers of TQM, Deming, Juran, Crosby, albeit in a different context, developed their ideas.
The customers & clients of the education service (students, parents, & the community) Deserves the best possible quality of education. This is the moral high ground in education & one of the few areas of educational discussion where there is little dissent. It is the duty educational professionals & administrators to have an overriding concern to provide the very best possible educational opportunities. As John West- Bernham has put it, “it is difficult to conceptualize a situation where anything less than total quality is perceived as being appropriate or acceptable for the education of children” (West-Burnham 1992) TQM as management model with its emphasis on leadership, strategy, teamwork, rigorous analysis & self- assessment has a universal message.
If TQM is boiled down to its essential it consist of no. of elements. The trick of TQM, the thing that makes it such a powerful management process, is that all of the elements are to be present and worked on in concert over a sustained period of time. There is no quick fix in making long-term improvement in quality especially in an area as difficult intellectually challenging as education. The elements are listed below.
Ø a institutional strong mission and strategic framework
Ø Strong institutional leadership that put the needs of students first.
Ø excellent teamwork amongst the staff of the institution (this parallels the famous quality circles in Japanese industry)
Ø an organizational culture that is open and consultative and allows faculty to make quality improvement decisions for their student within the overall strategic framework and goals
Ø A clear understanding throughout the institution of the importance of excellent customer care (this is sometimes defined as a student needs come first policy)
Ø A clear set of policies that give sanction to the quality improvement culture
Ø A clear set of performance indicators through which the success of the institution can be measured