Quality in Education
(Quality, a dynamic and positive idea concern about passion and pride)
Quality is the top most priority and essential need of any organisation and quality improvement is probably the most important uncompromising task facing any institution. Idea of quality of one person may conflicts to that of another person. But we all agree on the fact that quality makes the difference between things being excellent or not and even the difference between success and failure. There are plenty of factors which determine the very quality in education include:-
Ü Outstanding teachers
Ü High moral values
Ü Great care and concern for students
Ü Excellent examination results
Ü Well balanced and challenging curriculum
Ü Creative, innovative and purposeful activities
Ü Application of the latest technologies
Ü Strong effective productive support from alumni, parents &local community.
Ü Appropriate availability of resources
It is a prime duty of educational professionals and administrators to have an overriding concern to provide the best possible educational opportunities and to satisfy their customers and clients i.e. students, parents and community. The professionalism implies a commitment and an obligation to meet the needs of students by employing most appropriate pedagogic practices. This imposes the considerable burden of responsibility on administrators and teachers to ensure both the management of institution and classroom practices are operating to the highest possible standards.
Total quality management (TQM) is a customer driven process providing strategies which clearly differentiate institutions from their competitors. TQM supports the accountability imperative by promoting objectives and measurable outcomes of educational process. The lack of any one of these imperatives can jeopardize institutional well being and survival.
There are two basic concepts /approaches of quality viz. Procedural concept and transformational concept
The procedural concept is about proving that things have happened in accordance with the predetermined specifications. It ensures that activities conform to requirement and is concerned to ensure consistency and conformity. It is based on the predominately hard indicators of measurable performance.
The transformational concept considers quality as a complex process with continuous improvement and organisational transformation. It focuses on softer and more intangible aspect of quality which include care,social responsibility etc. Transformational quality is achieved through the exercise of leadership. It is the leadership that establishes a vision, acts with missionary approach and builds the organisational culture which enables staff to provide quality services.
The procedural concept is about proving while transformational approach is about improving. It is more important about doing things right rather than just doing right things. In educational setting the transformational culture helps to enhance academic leadership and staff motivation. The pursuit of quality is an exercise requiring not only well developed and understood system and procedures but also transformational culture where individuals must be given responsibility for quality of the work in their area. Total quality management is about providing the customers with what they want, when they want, and how they want it.
The most tangible benefit of quality management is the reduction in unnecessary cost. An effective quality service also gives customers and users the confidence towards service provider.
STRATEGIC PLANNING PROCESS FOR QUALITY EDUCATION
A. Vision, Mission and Values:
(i) What is our purpose?
(ii) What is our vision and mission?
B. Learners Requirement:
(i) Who are our clients/customers?
(ii) What do our customers expect from us?
(iii) What do we need to meet customers’ expectations?
(iv) Which methods do we use to identify customers’ need?
C. Route to Success
(i) What are our SWOT ( Strength, weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats)?
(ii) How are we going to achieve success?
D. Quality Performance
(i) What standards are we going to set?
(ii) How we are going to deliver quality?
(iii) What will be the cost of quality?
E. Investing in People
(i) How should we make cost of our staff?
(ii) Are we investing sufficiently in staff development?
F. Evaluating Process
(i) Do we have process to deal with wrong things
(ii) How we will know about our success.
Vision: Statement about what our organisation wants to become. It should stretch the organisation’s capabilities and image. It gives shape and direction to the organisations’ future like shaping future in pleasant environment.
Mission: Precise description of what an organisation does It provides clear directions for the present and future actions.
Values: Principles through an organisation operates and seeks to achieve the vision and mission. They express the belief and aspirations of the institution.
INDICATORS OF QUALITY MANAGEMENT
Indicators are the result base accountability that enable us to assess progress towards the achievements.
Result based Indicators:
A result based accountability system often requires data on a number of different indicators. The comparison of actual indicators (often called Performance Standard) allows decision makers to evaluate the progress of the programs and policies. These indicators serve as “Red Flag” ; the ggod indicators provide a sense of whether expected results are being achieved. In general there are five important indicators for the Quality Management in Educational institutions.
Ü Discipline and punctuality of students and staff.
Ü Cleanliness and maintenance of school campus.
Ü Excellence in academic achievements
Ü Excellence in co scholastic achievements
Ü Organisational climate and satisfaction of customers
Value based indicators:
By using value added approach it is to plot students progress and to take corrective actions if the student is under achieving . A student who has excellent entry qualification but leaves with average average qualification will be put at par with the weak student who entered with poor qualification but through hard work and care of staff produced average performance.
QUANTIFICATION OF QUALITY INDICATORS:
The quantification of quality indicators is an important aspect in educational institutes. There are several measurable indicators that reveal fairly accurate information about the quality education like:
Ü Teacher –pupil ratio
Ü Number of teaching ours/days per session
Ü Expenditure on educational resources
Ü Achievement of minimum level of learning
Ü Frequency of ICT and multimedia use in teaching learning process.
Ü Number of hours available to students and staff to use educational resources like library and laboratories etc.
“The excellence starts to emerge when Quality is achieved and maintained seeking never ending improvement”. With this notion we must try to excel in every aspect of life including education in order to make better and glorified nation. 
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