TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT

SHERWIN Y. CASTRO

Total Quality Management (TQM) is an art of organizing the whole to achieve excellence. It involves utilizing resources and quality methods to improve all processes to satisfy all the needs of the clients. TQM puts premium to quality brought about by the collaboration of members of the organization, and focusing on long range profitability through customers’ contentment, including benefits to so ci et y.

Having said such, TQM is definitely applicable in an academic organization. In fact, it has been long implemented in DepEd through the AusAid Continuous Improvement Program. In an academic setting, clients/ customers refer to the consumers of quality of education and those that support them in this endeavor— the students and their par en t s.

There are several features of TQM which makes it applicable to education. One is synergy or the concept that performance and production is enhanced by pooling the knowledge, skills, and attitude of individuals. The school head together with the teachers are suppliers of effective learning tools, environment, and systems to students, who are the primary customers. Students, in turn, are also considered as workers whose product is their own continuous improvement and personal growth.

Second is dedication to continuous improvement. In 2013, through the help of the Australian Aid, select 34 public elementary and secondary schools in the Philippines piloted CI projects that targeted common school problems like literacy and numeracy rates, dropout rate, and achievement rate. These schools were introduced to the 10step CI process in solving problem. Last school year, this CI process was integrated in our development of an Enhanced-School Improvement Plan. In TQM, the organization is recognized as a system and the work done within the organization must be seen as an ongoing process.

Another feature of the TQM that can well work in the academic organization is the principle that the success of TQM is the responsibility of top management. TQM practices include focus on the clientele/ stakeholder, commitment to change and continuous improvement, decision-making based on data, professional learning and focus on the system. If school leaders implement these TQM practices, they are able to provide a culture that entails quality in all aspects of the school’s operations and a holistic or total approach to the school’s improvement program.

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The author is Head Teacher I at San Vicente-San Francisco High School