TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT IN EDUCATION (MEM 631) This study argues that the most effective means of assuring the quality and standards of teaching is through the introduction of total quality management (TQM). The author demonstrates the application and relevance of TQM and outlines the techniques by which schools can implement TQM principles. Total Quality Management (TQM) is recognized as an effective management philosophy which is used as a strategy for business excellence. Although the concept of total quality management was advocated by Dr. W. Edwards Deming in the late1950’s in the USA; however, Japan was the first national who embraced this concept to recover their economy after the World War II. The success of TQM in Japan made this concept famous in many countries across the world. Originally, the concept was developed for manufacturing organizations; later on, it gained popularity to other service institutions, including bank, insurance, non-profit organizations, health care and so on. Lunenburg comments that TQM is also relevant to corporations, service organizations, universities, and elementary and secondary schools . Now, TQM is recognized as a generic management tool and applicable to any organization. According to Koslowski, in this age of intense competition, quality education is a major concern [2]. The pressure and demand for quality education are increasing. All concerned parties of the education are actively considering implementing TQM in education because it is believed that quality education is one of the fundamental building blocks of economic development. Regarding the applicability of TQM in education, there is a serious debate since this concept was initially developed for manufacturing organizations. It is essential to resolve this problem. While conducting an initial investigation it was also revealed that there are critical challenges in implementing TQM in education. It is also imperative to explore the nature of those challenges so that academic institutions can take proper measure proactively while pursuing TQM in education. Total Quality Management is a management approach that was instigated in the 1950s and has gradually become popular since the early 1980s. The term ‘quality’ is at the core of this philosophy. While defining total quality management, scholars took the opportunity to present their perceptions regarding this term in numerous ways; as a result, a good number of definitions appear before us with different connotations. Crosby states that quality management is a methodical way of ensuring that organized activities happen the way they are planned [3]. Short & Rahim define TQM is a proactive approach, to confirm quality into the product, service and design of the process and then to continually improve it [4]. According to these definitions, TQM is a plan, a systematic approach to ensure quality and continuous improvement. Deming describes TQM is a never-ending cycle of progress in the system of

1. Mary Grace I. Cruz

2. Total Quality Management in
EDUCATION

3.  Developed by an independent team and
published by UNESCO, the EFA Global
Monitoring Report is a reference that aims to
sustain commitment towards Education for
All

4.  In April 2000 more than 1,100 participants
from 164 countries gathered in Dakar,
Senegal, for the World Education Forum.
 The participants, ranging from teachers to
prime ministers, academics to policymakers,
non-governmental bodies to the heads of
major international organizations, adopted
the 2000-word Dakar Framework for Action,
Education for All: Meeting Our Collective
Commitments

5.  The Education for All Global Monitoring Report is
the prime instrument to assess progress towards
achieving the six 'Dakar' EFA goals to which over
160 countries committed themselves in 2000. It
tracks progress, identifies policy reforms and
best practice in all areas relating to EFA, draws
attention to emerging challenges and promotes
international cooperation in favor of education.
 The publication is targeted at decision-makers at
the national and international level, and more
broadly, at all those engaged in promoting the
right to quality education – teachers, civil society
groups, NGOs, researchers and the international
community.

6.  Goal 1 – Early childhood care and education
 Goal 2 – Universal primary education
 Goal 3 – Youth and adult skills
 Goal 4 – Adult literacy
 Goal 5 – Gender equality
 Goal 6 – Quality of education

7. ◦ Expanding and improving comprehensive early
childhood care and education, especially for the most
vulnerable and disadvantaged children
 Despite a drop in child mortality rates of nearly
50%, 6.3 million children under the age of 5 died
in 2013 from causes that are mostly preventable.
 Progress in improving child nutrition has been
considerable. Yet globally, one in four children
are still short for their age – a sign of chronic
deficiency in essential nutrients.
 In 2012, 184 million children were enrolled in
pre-primary education worldwide, an increase of
nearly two-thirds since 1999.

8. ◦ Ensuring that by 2015 all children, particularly girls, children in
difficult circumstances and those belonging to ethnic minorities,
have access to and complete free and compulsory primary
education of good quality
■ The primary school net enrolment ratio was 84% in 1999
and is estimated to reach 93% in 2015.
■ Net enrolment ratios improved significantly, rising at
least 20 percentage points from 1999 to 2012 in 17
countries, 11 of which were in sub-Saharan Africa.
■ While some increases in enrolment ratios are evident,
nearly 58 million children were out of school in 2012, and
progress in reducing this number has stalled.
■ Despite progress in access, dropout remains an issue: in
32 countries, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa, at least 20% of
children enrolled are not expected to reach the last grade.
■ By the 2015 deadline, one in six children in low and
middle income countries – or almost 100 million – will not
have completed primary school.

9. ◦ Goal 3 – Youth and adult skills Ensuring that the learning
needs of all young people and adults are met through
equitable access to appropriate learning and life skills
programmes
■ Reflecting improved transition rates and higher
retention rates, the lower secondary gross enrolment
ratio increased from 71% in 1999 to 85% in 2012.
Participation in lower secondary education has
increased quickly since 1999. In Afghanistan, China,
Ecuador, Mali and Morocco, the lower secondary
gross enrolment ratio has increased by at least 25
percentage points.
■ Inequality persists in the transition from primary to
secondary school. For example, in the Philippines,
just 69% of primary school graduates from the
poorest families continued into lower secondary,
compared with 94% from the richest households.

10. ◦ Goal 4 – Adult literacy Achieving a 50 per cent improvement
in levels of adult literacy by 2015, especially for women,
and equitable access to basic and continuing education for
all adults
■ There are about 781 million illiterate adults. The
rate of illiteracy dropped slightly, from 18% in 2000
to an estimated 14% in 2015, which means the Dakar
target of halving illiteracy was not achieved.
■ Only 17 out of the 73 countries with a literacy rate
below 95% in 2000 had halved their illiteracy rate by
2015.
■ Progress has been made towards gender parity in
literacy but is not sufficient. All 43 countries where
fewer than 90 women for every 100 men were literate
in 2000 have moved towards parity, but none of them
will have reached it by 2015

11. ◦ Goal 5 – Gender equality Eliminating gender disparities in primary and
secondary education by 2005, and achieving gender equality in education
by 2015, with a focus on ensuring girls’ full and equal access to and
achievement in basic education of good quality.
■ At the primary level, 69% of the countries with data are expected
to have reached gender parity by 2015. Progress is slower in
secondary education, with 48% projected to be at gender parity
in 2015.
■ Progress in tackling severe gender disparity has been made.
Between 1999 and 2012, the number of countries with fewer
than 90 girls enrolled in primary school for every 100 boys fell
from 33 to 16.
■ Amongst out-of-school children, girls are more likely than boys
never to enroll in school (48% compared with 37%), while boys
are more likely to leave school (26% compared with 20%). Once
enrolled, girls are more likely to reach the upper grades.
■ In sub-Saharan Africa, the poorest girls remain the most likely
to never attend primary school. In Guinea and Niger in 2010,
over 70% of the poorest girls had never attended primary school,
compared with less than 20% of the richest boys.

12. ◦ Improving all aspects of the quality of education and
ensuring excellence of all so that recognized and
measurable learning outcomes are achieved by all,
especially in literacy, numeracy and essential life skills
■ Pupil/teacher ratios declined in 83% of the 146
countries with data at the primary education level. In
one-third of the countries with data, however, less
than 75% of primary school teachers are trained up to
national standards.
■ At the lower secondary education level, 87 of the 105
countries with data have a pupil/ teacher ratio below
30:1.
■ In 1990, 12 learning assessments were conducted
according to national standards, but by 2013 the
number had increased to 101.

13. According to Deming, a system of quality
improvement is helpful to anyone who turns out a
product or is engaged in service, or in research
and wishes to improve the output of the
organization.
The industrial analogy that compares workers and
managers to students and teachers is accurate and
appropriate. In schools, students are the workers
and products. Teachers and administrators are
managers.

14. How TQM applied in school setting?
TQM?

15. The hierarchy looks like this:
1. Students are the workers and the products. The
difference between success and failure of the
school depends on the quality of their work.
2. Teachers are the first level managers. Therefore
the teacher will be leader of the class,
emphasizing quality through non-coercive
management featuring student as worker and
teacher as coach, provoking the students to learn
how to learn and thus to teach themselves.

16. 3. Administrators are middle and upper level
management. The productivity of any school
depends mostly on the skills of those who
directly manage the workers, i.e., the
teachers. According to Deming, their success
in turn depends on how well they are
managed by the administration above them.
Therefore, any attempt at educational quality
are best centered around organizational
improvement efforts.
4. The Board of Education is the board of
directors thus responsible directly to the
clients, and board members are overseers
of the administration.

17.  Management by Result is no longer sufficient
to deal with the problems schools are facing.
In order to promote total quality, there is a
need to:
1. Quality Characteristics 1 - Change Management
Philosophy.
 The new management philosophy focuses on
achieving quality, which is defined as meeting
and exceeding the needs and expectations of
clients.

18.  A second focus is on the acceptance and
pursuit of continuous improvement as the
only useful standard or goal.
The philosophy holds that example and experience teach
little about theory, and that experience is not always
useful knowledge. However, the new philosophy is
based on the acquisition and application of knowledge.
This knowledge referred to as profound knowledge

19. Four Components of Profound Knowledge
In order to provide leadership for total quality, people in
leadership must be able to understand and apply these
concepts:
1. Systematic Thinking – this is the
interdependence of functions with their
sub-processes and of the organization
with its people. (a network of
interdependent components that work
together)
2. Theory of Variation – this is the
understanding of the difference between
common and special causes. An
understanding of variation will enable

20. Educational leaders to work toward quality
within the framework of individual
differences. The existence of variation is why
a state of zero defects does not occur and
why numerical goals are not feasible.
3. Theory of Knowledge – only through a
theory of knowledge can one understand the
past and predict the future. A major
component of total quality management is
prediction. Only through prediction and long-
term perspective can schools expect to
succeed over a long period of time.

21. 4. Knowledge of Psychology – the new
philosophy is based on the understanding of
people and their differences, and a
commitment to applying systematic thinking
to the people system. School leadership’s aim
is to free-up the potential of the different
attributes of the people of the organization.
Central to this new management will be the 14 points of
W. Edwards Deming, derived from industry and
geared toward a program of total quality management: