Improving Total Quality: A Priority

Improving Total Quality: a Priority
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Improving Total Quality: A Priority
The increasing need and demand for quality products and services is creating a dire need for quality education. As the world opens up to globalization and business and other institutions start relating through the international standards, learning institutions are facing pressure in the quality of education they offer to learners. A significant point of focus has been on not only the quality of service delivery, but also the quality in academic standards, considering that learning institutions are responsible for shaping the economic future of any country in the world today. International quality standard is no longer optional for any institution or company that wants to compete at the international level. Governments are also developing an interest into academic quality that learning institutions provide to their children. In the process of meeting the international standards for quality education, parents, students, governmental and non-governmental institutions are considering methods of enhancing the quality of education and reducing attrition rates. An attrition rate refers to the number of students that drop out of learning institutions due to low quality of education. Colleges may be comfortable with these figures and consider them as mere statistics, but their overall consequences to the quality of education and overall job market cannot be underestimated.
The primary concern on low quality in the learning institution of choice is in the manner in which parents and learners are short-changed. Tuition fees are expensive for students, and the government incurs a lot of resources in ensuring that students attain primary and secondary education before enrolling in higher education. It is an inconvenient and injustice to parent and stakeholders who have invested time and resources in the lives of young people. According to Octavian (2013), the concept of quality has grown to attract the attention of international organizations and media. Today, it is common to read in print media and watch advertisement videos that emphasize the need for quality measures. Potential employers have also been drawn into the concerns of quality of higher education. Graduates that have not attained necessary skills in a specific career are an additional burden for potential employers as the company has to incur resources in training and equipping them with skills. Higher learning institutions that do not meet quality standards tend to indirectly transfer the cost of training to potential employers, eating into the profits of the potential employer. Additionally, high attrition rates are a concern to the society where the students hail from. The goal of education is to make the members of the society responsible individuals that can solve issues. Unless the institution puts in place necessary measures to address the quality of customer service and education, the society cannot develop above its normal standards.
To address the rising quality concern in the education sector, scholars have proposed different solutions that may increase the quality of education. The first approach has to start with the reconfiguring of higher education. The starting point has to be on the staffs that provide education and customer service in the institution of concern. The institution has to start with realigning its staff members by increasing the standards of tutors that teach learners. There should be a complete overhaul of the old staff and introduction of new tutors will help motivate the existing students and restore confidence in the institution. The changes will also increase the morale of the remaining staff members who may be necessary in the transformation process that may not take place overnight.
Apart from introducing changes in staff members, introduction of training programs to the existing staff is also an efficient and promising technique of increasing the quality of education. Training programs should not only focus on junior staff members, but should start from top management and flows down the management leadership. The need for training programs is to empower tutors with the recent changes in quality management and the need for quality assessment programs in school. According to Otto, Huner, and Osterle (2011), master data quality management can be considered an effective metho...