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Keshav Ram Singhal

Value Added Approach in Determining ‘Statutory and Regulatory Requirements in ISO 9001:2008 QMS’

One of the magazines published an article on ‘Statutory and regulatory requirements in ISO 9001:2008 QMS’ in its March 2012 issue (this article can also be seen at this blog post dated 23 Feb 2012 at http://iso9001-2008awareness.blogspot.in/2012/02/statutory-and-regulatory-requirements.html) and one of the readers of this article has made comments stating, “I was reading the Mar 12 issue and article on statutory requirements under ISO 9001. On p.10, self regulation has been stated to be regulatory requirement which is not correct.” Since the above comments have made by a top management executive working in an accreditation board, and such comments cannot be ignored, so as a co-author of the earlier published article, I decided to clarify authors’ point of view. I request my readers to please consider with the following:
i. Both statutory and regulatory requirements are those requirements that are required by law.
ii. Statutory refers to laws passed by a state and/or central government, while regulatory refers to a rule issued by a regulatory body appointed by a state and/or central government.
iii. A regulatory requirement can be termed as administrative legislation that constitutes or constraints rights and allocates responsibilities. It is somewhat different from the statutory legislation enacted by passing the law in the legislative assembly or parliament.
iv. There can be following types of regulations applicable on an organization – (i) Legal restrictions or responsibilities promulgated by a government authority, (ii) Self regulation by an industry through trade associations.

I wish to clarify that regulations on an organization can be of two types. We look at "regulatory" as something that is limited by an authoritative group, and that authoritative group may include (i) group appointed by state/central government, (ii) group formed by an industry through trade associations. In this competitive world, we see many codes, regulations and rules (formed by trade associations) takes the status of necessary regulations (as equivalent to law) required to be followed. I would like to clarify our point of view with examples given here in below.

Examples of group appointed by state/central government

First example, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) is a body appointed by central government through an ordinance. Its regulations are necessary to be followed by organizations dealing in securities.

Second example, Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) is a body appointed by central government. Its regulations are necessary to be followed by organizations dealing with insurance.

A list of a few regulatory bodies appointed by government may be seen at http://india.gov.in/govt/studies/annex/8.1.1.pdf.

Examples of group formed by an industry through trade association

First example, in banking, certain regulations and rules are issued by Indian Banks Association that is required to be followed by bank branches in India. ‘Indian Banks Association’ (IBA) can be termed as a trade association of banking industry comprising of public sector banks, private sector banks, foreign banks having offices in India and urban cooperative banks. Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) is not appointed by any state or central government. ‘Fair Practice Code’ or many other rules and guidelines framed by the Indian Banks Association can be termed as those necessary requirements, as equivalent to regulatory requirements, for the banking industry.


Second Example – Foreign Exchange Dealers’ Association of India (FEDAI) is a group of banks that deals in foreign exchange in India as a self regulatory body. FEDAI is not appointed by state or central government and it can be termed as a trade association of foreign exchange dealers. The role and responsibilities of FEDAI includes – (i) Formulation of FEDAI guidelines and FEDAI rules for Forex (foreign exchange) business, (ii) Rules of FEDAI also include announcement of daily and periodical rates to its member banks. Please note that FEDAI guidelines play an important role in the functioning of the foreign exchange dealers (banks) and its guidelines can be termed as those necessary requirements as equivalent to regulatory requirements.

There are so many self-regulatory bodies in India that are not appointed by any government. Please note that the self-Regulatory authority of a business or profession is a select Body of its members, which is responsible for growth and development of the profession in the background of its responsibility towards customers, society and State. A few more examples of self-regulatory bodies in India are Bar Council of India, Medical Council of India, Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, Institute of Cost and Works Accountants of India, Institute of Company Secretaries of India, Council of Architecture.

I request, please don’t go alone by a dictionary meaning or a limited meaning of the ‘regulatory’. Please consider a broader meaning of the term ‘regulatory’ in the interest of implementing an effective quality management system in an organization. The purpose of the quality management system is to have an effective quality management system that provides product/service to customer. If you refer to ISO 9001:2008 QMS Standard and/or its normative reference document, ISO 9000:2005, you will notice that the term ‘statutory and regulatory requirements’ has not been clearly clarified in any of the standards, although it has been stated in note 2 of the clause 1.1 of ISO 9001:2008 QMS Standard that statutory and regulatory requirements may be termed as legal requirements. Simply stating the term ‘statutory and regulatory’ as ‘legal’ does not clarify the meaning of the term in a broader way and this may be the reason why people look to this term differently. Even the term ‘legal’ has different meaning to different people. In one opinion a contract entered between two private parties can be termed as a ‘legal’ contract as it is legally binding on both parties.

There may be two approaches in implementing ISO 9001:2008 QMS Standard, first, a bureaucratic approach, and second, a value-added approach. To me, the approach of the reader, who made the above comments, appears to be a bureaucratic approach. Our emphasis is on a value-added approach to implement an effective quality management system in an organization to gain maximum benefits from the quality management system. I would request my readers, please don’t keep a bureaucratic approach, instead keep a value-added approach. A certification body or an accreditation body may have a bureaucratic approach as they are purely related to ‘certification’ business. My concern is to apply a value added approach.

The reader of the article also stated, “The article also does not clarify what statutory/regulatory requirements are to be considered. An organization may be subject to many laws – Income Tax, Excise, product related, fire safety, occupational health and safety etc. It would have been useful to clarify what is to be considered under ISO 9000.”

In this connection, I thank the reader who has provided us an opportunity to clarify the issue in relation to above query. I would like to clarify the following:
(i) ISO 9001:2008 QMS Standard is a generic quality management system standard that can be implemented by all organizations, regardless of type, size and product provided. So it is very difficult to provide a common example of statutory/regulatory requirements. However, please see a few examples* pertaining to organization specific given here in below to understand the issue in a better way.
(ii) ISO 9001:2008 QMS Standard – clause 7.2.1 (d) – stipulates determination of the statutory and regulatory requirements applicable to the product. Clause 7.2.1 (d) comes under product realization and has a direct effect on the product realization process of the organization and also on the product provided to customer.

ISO 9001:2008 QMS Standard requires an organization to determine and control the statutory and regulatory requirements applicable to the products (including services). It is up to the organization how to do this within its quality management system. We believe that a methodology as suggested in the article is followed; then the organization will be on the right path in establishing, implementing and maintaining an effective quality management system. I hope that readers will agree to authors’ point of view.

For an organization, implementing ISO 9001:2008 QMS Standard, should demonstrate that the statutory and regulatory requirements applicable to its products/services have been properly determined, are available and easily retrievable. The term ‘statutory and regulatory requirements’ is invisible in clause 8 of ISO 9001:2008 QMS Standard, however, internal auditors need to be aware of the general and specific statutory and regulatory requirements applicable to the products/services included within the scope of the quality management system.

Examples*:
(i) For the purpose of quality management system of a consulting organization providing financial, income tax, excise consultancy services; determination of income tax rules and regulations, financial rules and regulations, excise rules and regulations may be relevant statutory and regulatory requirements applicable to the product. But for the purpose of quality management system of other organizations, these may not be relevant. (ii) For the purpose of quality management system of an organization manufacturing children toys, then legal requirements related to the health and safety of children from toys may be the relevant statutory and regulatory requirements applicable to the product. But for the purpose of quality management system of other organizations, these may not be relevant.

‘ISO 9001 Auditing Practice Group’ has issued a guidance paper on ‘Auditing statutory and regulatory requirements’ (can be seen at the websites of ‘International Organization for Standardization’ and ‘International Accreditation Forum’) that states that nonconformities should be issued only in situations where identification has been made of the system deficiencies or of direct violation in respect of statutory and regulatory requirements applicable to the products/services of the organization. However, if nonconformities with other kinds of statutory requirements (e.g. health and safety, environment, etc.) are co-incidentally, detected during the audit, this fact cannot be ignored by the audits. It should be reported without delay. Accordingly, I feel that if any internal auditor comes to know noncompliance of any of the legal requirements during internal audit, it must be reported as CAR (corrective action request) as a measure to add value in the internal audit and such action will help the organization in improving the effectiveness of the organization’s systems including the quality management system.

As a co-author of the earlier article published, I hope, I have clarified authors’ point of view in this write-up. However, if any readers still have any different opinion that may be brought out to our information.

- Keshav Ram Singhal

Happy Diwali Greetings

With best wishes,

Keshav Ram Singhal

Understanding Total Quality Management

Keshav Ram Singhal

An American, W. Edwards Deming, developed the concept of Total Quality Management (TQM) after World War II for improving the production quality of goods and services. TQM is a philosophy of management based on total quality and customer satisfaction. Fulfilling customer requirements and improving the way work is done to improve performance is TQM.1 U.S. Department of Defense (1991) states Total Quality Management (total quality approach) as: “TQM consists of continuous activities involving everyone in the organization in a totally integrated effort toward improving performance at every level. This improved performance is directed towards satisfying such cross-functional goals as quality, cost, schedule, mission need and suitability. TQM integrates fundamental management techniques, existing improvement efforts and technical tools under a disciplined approach focused on continued process improvement.”2

Dr. K. K. Anand (Past President, National Centre for Quality Management) describes TQM, “Total Quality Management as understood by me is a comprehensive concept underpinning excellence. It involves coordination amongst various levels/layers and parts for an organization. An organization cannot achieve excellence, unless there is this coordination between its resource and talent at various segments.”3 Suresh M Mody tries to explain TQM, “Total Quality Management is quality everything one does. It concerns not only the quality of products and services provided to the ‘external’ customers, but quality in everything one does. Thus it concerns the quality of the output of all processes, not just manufacturing processes, which was the focus of traditional quality control/assurance.”4

In 1993 when India was passing through many economic problems, some due to adverse balance of trade, D. L. Shah categorically suggested, “If we can make ‘Made in India’ label a certificate of quality, our exports will certainly pick up. To achieve this, our industries need to take up Total Quality Management (TQM) on a war footing.” He suggested, “The need of the hour is Total Quality Management.”5 Total Quality Management as a management strategy to achieve and improve quality suggested by D. L. Shah is relevant today for Indian industry.

Gopal K. Kanji says, “TQM is about continuous performance improvement. To improve performance, people need to know what to do and how to do it, have the right tools to do it, be able to measure performance and to receive feedback on current levels of achievement (Kanji, 1998).”6 Dr. R. H. G. Rau, Past President, National Centre for Quality Management opines, “Changes in the market place may leave any business floundering. TQM can alert the business to these changes when it is focused based on customers’ expectations. It helps in our always knowing what customer wants and needs.”7

Total Quality Management (TQM) has two major attributes. First, the customer is the final judge of quality and second, that quality is built into the design of a product rather than merely having it inspected after the product has been manufactured. The major objective of TQM is customer satisfaction with products and services. Dr. Mahesh Chandra says that innovative customer driven organizations are using Total Quality Management (TQM) to provide customers with quality products and services in a fast and responsive manner.8

ISO 8402:1994 defined TQM as the management approach of an organization, centred on quality, based on participation of all its members and aiming at long-term success through customer satisfaction, and benefits to all members of the organization and to society. TQM brings to quality concepts a long-term global management strategy and the participation of all members of the organization for the benefit of the organization itself, its members, its customers and society as a whole. TQM is a concept that goes beyond ISO 9000. ISO 9001:2008 QMS standard and TQM are not two different alternatives, nor is there any contradiction between them. ISO 9001:2008 QMS standard provides a strong base on which an organization can build a TQM culture with a focus on the customer involving all employees and demanding continual improvement. It is advisable for organizations to first provide a formal quality framework in the form of an ISO 9001:2008 QMS standard to create stability in the organization and achieve consistency in quality. When the system is well in place and has attained certification, the organization can start using advanced concepts and tools to enhance employee motivation and operational efficiency. Organizations can use ISO 9004:2009 standard, which provides guidelines on managing for sustained success of an organization. ISO 9004:2009 standard provides guidance to support the achievement of sustained success for any organization in a complex, demanding and ever-changing environment, by a quality management approach.9

Total Quality Management (TQM) is an enhancement to the traditional way of doing business. It is a proven technique to guarantee survival in world-class competition. Dale, Carol and Glen, the authors of Total Quality Management (Third Edition, 2010) analyze three words as: Total – Made up of the whole, Quality – Degree of excellence a product or service provides, Management – Act, art, or manner of handling, controlling, directing, etc. Therefore, the authors sum up, “TQM is the art of managing the whole to achieve excellence.” TQM requires six basic concepts: (1) A committed and involved management to provide long-term top-to-bottom organizational support. (2) An unwavering focus on the customer, both internally and externally. (3) Effective involvement and utilization of the entire work force. (4) Continuous involvement of the business and production process. (5) Treating suppliers as partners. (6) Establish performance measures for the processes.10

Total Quality Management is a comprehensive and integrated way of managing any organization in order to: (a) meet the needs of the customer consistently; (b) achieve continuous improvement in every aspect of the organization’s activities. TQM is fundamentally about change. For some organizations this may be very slight, perhaps only shifting the emphasis. For other organizations the change may be massive.11 Thus we come to a conclusion: “Total Quality Management is a demanding, disciplined yet humane way of managing an organization.”11

P. N. Mukherjee suggests eleven TQM steps to be a world-class organization – (1) TQM overview, (2) Set mission, (3) Identify customers, (4) Identify customer’s needs, (5) Define critical process and measures, (6) Set organizational vision, (7) Develop strategic plan for 10-20 years, (8) Develop annual plan for breakthrough, (9) Revise roles and responsibilities, (10) Form ‘quality council’ to set change strategy, (11) Annual review.12

Courtesy References:
1. Article – Management Education – A Challenge: TQM as a solution, Habiba Abbasi and Pratiksha Rai, Quality Management Practices, Excel Books, New Delhi, 2008, p. 450
2. Article – Imbibing Ethics in Technical Education: The TQM Approach, M. G. Bhatt, Quality Management Practices, Excel Books, New Delhi, 2008, p. 418
3. Pearls From The President, Quality Striving for Excellence, National Centre for Quality Management, Mumbai, May-June 1999, p.1
4. Article – Total Quality Management in Financial Sector, Suresh M Mody, Quality Striving for Excellence, National Centre for Quality Management, Mumbai, May-June 1999, p.6
5. Foreword, Total Quality Management, National Centre for Quality Management, Mumbai, May 1993, p. 3
6. Article – Excellence in Business Excellence Models, Gopal K. Kanji, Quality Striving for Excellence, National Centre for Quality Management, Mumbai, November-December 2000, p. 17
7. Article – Customer Sovereignty Management, Dr. R. H. G. Rau, Quality Striving for Excellence, National Centre for Quality Management, Mumbai, November-December 2000, p. 27
8. Article – Technological Innovations and TQM, Dr. Mahesh Chandra, Quality Striving for Excellence, Mumbai, March-April, 1999, p. 10
9. Implementing ISO 9001:2008 Quality Management System – A Reference Guide, Divya Singhal and Keshav Ram Singhal, PHI Learning Private Limited, New Delhi, p. 10-11
10. Total Quality Management, Dale H. Besterfield, Carol Besterfield and Mary Besterfield-Sacre, Pearson, 2010, p. 13-14
11. Total Quality, David Jeffries, Bill Evans and Peter Reynolds, Crest Publishing House, New Delhi, 2005, p. 2-3, 19
12. Total Quality Management, P. N. Mukherjee, Prentice-Hall of India Private Limited, New Delhi, 2006, p.48-50

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‘Correction’ and ‘Corrective Action’

There has been confusion among many people about the terms ‘correction’ and ‘corrective action’ as both terms relate to an action that is taken on a nonconforming product.

‘Correction’ is an action to eliminate the detected nonconformity. There may not be any necessity to do root cause analysis. Just eliminate the detected nonconformity, so that product conforms to requirements. Take an example – it is observed that the length of the rods manufactured is 3.001 meter, while the customer desired rods of length 3.000 meter. A further process of cutting the extra made length of rods will make the rods conforming to the requirements. This can be stated as ‘correction.’ As per Clause 8.3 (control of nonconforming product) of ISO 9001:2008 QMS Standard, the organization may deal with the nonconforming product by taking action to eliminate detected nonconformity.

‘Corrective action’ is an action that is taken to eliminate the cause of detected nonconformity or other undesirable situation. Accordingly, it is an action that is taken to prevent the existing problem from recurring. It requires root cause analysis of the problem. You should ask the question in the instant case – why rods are manufactured 3.001 meter instead of 3.000 meter? When you inquire why, you get an answer. You come to know that the manufacturing process is using a equipment/scale that is not measuring correct length. The equipment/scale requires calibration and verification. This action of calibration and verification when taken can be said to be an action to prevent the existing problem to happen again. This can be stated as ‘corrective action.’ Corrective action is a requirement of ISO 9001:2008 QMS Standard (Clause 8.5.2).

With best wishes,

Keshav Ram Singhal

Please make your reaction to the above post. It will take a few seconds. Comments are also invited. Thanks.

Document and Record in ISO 9001:2008 QMS

ISO 9000:2005 Standard on ‘Quality management systems – Fundamentals and vocabulary’ has defined document and record (please see definitions in 3.7.2 and 3.7.6). According to ISO 9000:2005 Standard, a document is defined as ‘information (meaningful data) and its supporting medium. In simple terms, we can say that a document provides guidance and/or direction for performing a work, making a decision or rendering judgement. A document may be written, video tape, physical sample, sample drawing, computer programme or otherwise. According to ISO 9000:2005 Standard, a record is defined as a document stating results achieved or providing evidence of activities performed. Records are a special types of documents (please see clause 4.2.3 – ISO 9001:2008 QMS Standard). Accordingly, we may construe the following:
- All documents are not records.
- All records are documents.

People generally confuse with document and record. To make the difference clear between document (other than record) and record, following will provide you the clear difference:
- A document (other than record) is a live paper, while a record is a dead paper.
- A document (other than record) mentions how to carry out an activity, while a record mentions how the activity is carried out.
- Documents (other than records) are subject to change, records are evidence of the activity performed and not subject to change.
- Documents (other than records) are approved and issued (or released) by designated authorities before issue. Records are generated and approved after the activity is over by designated authorities.
- Retention period of documents (other than records) generally are not mentioned as these are live paper, however we can specify the retention period of records.
- The changes in documents (other than records) are identified by Revision number/Issue number. Records are identified by format numbers.

Clause 4.2.3 of ISO 9001:2008 QMS Standard mentions requirements for control of documents and clause 4.2.4 of ISO 9001:2008 QMS Standard mentions requirements for control of records.

With best wishes,

Keshav Ram Singhal

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Need for a Mandatory Standard for Quality School Governance

Dr. Divya Singhal
&
Keshav Ram Singhal


Courtesy - Quality Striving for Excellence, April - June 2012

Power of education

Education is power. Education has power to change everything. Education is empowerment in many ways. It has power to eradicate ignorance, poverty and make individuals become independent. Education is the pathway to any nation-building in many ways:
• Education creates an enlightened society, a society build by responsive and responsible citizen
• Education enables the nation with ‘meritocratic’ bureaucracy with competent human resources to carry out day-to-day affairs of the state
• Education increases democratic participation of people as it enables people with more awareness
• Education increases people level of understanding that is very crucial to unite in diversity
• Education creates large number of professionals that are important resources for a strong society, a society set for development
• Education shapes the attitudes and behaviours and attitudes of citizens

Education alters an individual’s and even community’s collective perceptions, aspirations’ goals as well as the ability and the means to attain them. The level and spread of education has not only been an important precondition for sustained economic growth, both in the developed and the developing countries, but it has also played a critical facilitative role in the demographic, social and political transition of these Societies.Education is both an input and an output of the human development process. As input, education is indispensable for progress in all spheres of human development. As output, education is the axiom for building-up human capabilities, a focal interest of human development, given its primary role in enabling people to fully participate in socioeconomic and political development.


Accordingly, education correlates with nation-build. A nation cannot be built without education.

S. P. Punalekar writes that, "Education is considered pivotal for socioeconomic development strategies". Education is now conceived as Human Resource Development. He stated "Above all we need equalization of educational including opportunities and enrichment of social content in education including curricular restructuring. Social and cultural distance among the sections of students must be minimized.”

We cannot live without worthwhile access to education. If we look to developed nation, we find that these nations are set to impart knowledge through varied technology means. The future of a country depends largely upon the future of education. Reforms in education as the most important vision that we need to implement in order to reap its dividends.

Education, as fundamental right

In India, our policy makers have realized the importance of declaring education as the fundamental right. The Right of children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 (also known as Right to Education Act – RTE), passed by the Indian parliament on 4 August 2009, has come into force from 1 April 2010. The Right of children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 provides norms and standards to be fulfilled by every school related to: (i) Pupil teacher ratios at primary and upper-primary level, (ii) building norms to provide for all weather building, barrier free access, separate toilets for boys and girls, safe drinking water, kitchen facility, play ground etc., (iii) Minimum number of working days, (iv) Minimum number of working hours per week per teacher, (v) teacher learning equipment, (vi) Library, (vii) play material, games and sports equipment. This Act also requires all private schools to enroll children from weaker sections and disadvantaged communities in their incoming class to the extent of 25% of their enrollment by simple random selection.

It is required to provide education to every child for nation building, for which we need to set some standardized norms in education sector and in this regard Right to Education Act is helpful in many ways. Following are the key points of the legislation that expects to empower the nation through education:
1. Free and compulsory education to all children of India in the 6 to14 age group
2. No child shall be held back, expelled, or required to pass a board examination until completion of elementary education (up to class eight)
3. A child who completes elementary education (up to Class 8) shall be awarded a certificate
4. Calls for a fixed student-teacher ratio;
5. The Act applies to all over India except Jammu and Kashmir
6. There will be 25 percent reservation for economically disadvantaged communities in all private and minority schools
7. The reservation for economically disadvantaged communities to start with Class One beginning 2011
8. Mandates improvement in quality of education;
9. School teachers will need adequate professional degree within five years or else will lose job;
10. School infrastructure (where there is problem) to be improved in three years, else recognition cancelled;
11. Financial burden will be shared between state and central government on the basis of ‘Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan’ (Education for All).
12.. Private schools will have to face penalty for violating provisions of RTE Act.

Sixty-three years after independence, India has finally realized the importance of declaring education as our fundamental right. The notion of a fundamental right has great value in overcoming the objections and excuses that are consistently invoked to continue postponing the goal of universal elementary education. (PROBE Report)

Transforming education in India

While the government is making its efforts providing education to every child of the country, however, there is a challenge before the Indian authorities, how the education management can successfully address the need for quality education, and ensure its access even to those segment of population that are hard to reach. In this connection, NCQM past President Dr. R. H. G. Rau has rightly opined, “The challenge can be squarely met only when the country knits together the policy makers and the deployment contributors of the policies. We need to critically deliberate, discuss and debate on the initiatives taken so far and their measurable outcomes toward quality education across the country. Further, we need to arrive at what works to improve quality in both the existing and upcoming schools and colleges in all identified areas. This surely calls for a scientific and systematic study through better understanding of the global; initiatives that have shown positive results, and their adoption to Indian conditions.” (Quality Striving for Excellence, March-June 2010)

We have come across the infrastructure requirements for schools seeking CBSE affiliation. It states the following requirements:
- The school must have about 2 acres or as otherwise permitted measurement of land (owned by the school or the society running the school, or on lease for a minimum period of 30 years) and a building constructed on a part of land and proper playgrounds on the remaining land
- The school should have proper facilities commensurate with its requirements
- The school should provide minimum floor space of 1 square meter per student in the class-room
- The school will also provide proper facilities for physically challenged students
- The school should have suitable furniture in the class-rooms
- The school should have office equipments commensurate with the strength of students and staff
- The school should have needed equipment and facilities for science, home science, technical subjects, vocational subjects etc.
- The school should scrupulously observe prescription from local authority regarding safety, safe drinking water and sanitation
- The school should have at least 1 computer lab with minimum 10 computers or computer and students ratio of 1:20 and internet connection
- The school should have a well-equipped and spacious library with minimum of 1500 books and at least 15 magazine
- The school should maintain pupil-book ratio of 1:5

However, we notice that these are the requirements for schools that seek CBSE affiliation, not for all schools. At primary level education, schools are not required to seek CBSE affiliation, so it is required that the national policy makers should set minimum requirements for management and infrastructure of schools. Such framed requirements should be covered under statutory and/or regulatory requirements against which it should be mandatory for schools undergo yearly system audit.

During the National Quality Conclave of Quality Council of India (QCI), held on 9-10 February 2007 in New Delhi, the then President of India Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, gave the QCI a Seven-Point Action Plan, the first of which was developing benchmarks for schools. The then President referred to Quality of life encompassing Quality education with value system and productive employment. Accordingly, the QCI set before itself the task of developing a standard for accreditation supported with a rating system. The QCI, which provides the national accreditation structure to our country, entrusted the task to the Board that offers registration services for personnel and training courses. The Board’s education committee, after receiving inputs fro
m various interested parties, like educationists, administrators, Quality experts, teachers, parents and others, drafted the Educational Quality Management Standards (EQMS) for Schools.

The standard was developed by the QCI with a view to define and implement systems to:
• Provide educational services that aim to enhance satisfaction level of all interested parties,
• Provide a basis for assessing and, where required, rating the effectiveness of an educational Quality management system, and
• Develop Quality consciousness among interested parties involved in school activities.

QCI has issued ‘Accreditation Standard for Quality School Governance’ having requirements under following clauses –
Clause 4 – Educational quality management system
Clause 5 – Governance and management
Clause 6 – Resource management
Clause 7 – Educational service realization
Clause 8 –Measurement, analysis and improvement


ISO 9001:2008 QMS Standard is implemented by many schools for demonstrating the quality of educational services provided by the school and many schools in India are implementing accreditation standard for quality school governance developed by Quality Council of India, however it is observed that both standards, ISO 9001:2008 QMS Standards and Accreditation Standard for quality school governance, are generic in nature and voluntary for schools to implement. Schools generally implement ISO 9001:20008 QMS and/or QCI Standard to gain financial and other benefits. Quality in education in schools in India can be improved if we have a mandatory standard to follow by schools. Standards are vehicle for good governance, sharing of knowledge, technology and good governance. If we want sustainable development, we have to look forward for the quality education in our country.

There is a need to revamp the entire education system in our country, for which following need to be looked in to:
1. There is a need to create awareness for the RTE Act.
2. All schools should have basic infrastructure, including proper building, class-rooms, play ground, laboratories, library etc.
3. Every school should have dedicated and qualified teachers
4. Massively investment is needed in education of girls and women
5. Every school should have adequate number of teachers
6. There should be transparent and fair system to evaluate the performance of teachers
7. Raise investment in education
8. Bringing practical learning into school education system and creating an interest in learning is also very important aspect.

Times of India, 16 March 2012, reported a news item stating that a government primary school in Makhupura has no building and lacks basic amenities like drinking water and toilet. According to the report, students of the school sit in the mud all through the day to learn their lesson as their school building exists only on paper. However, their teachers are better off, as they have a table and a chair, which they keep in the nearby temple after school hours. The school has no provision for drinking water or toilet facilities and the students cross the highway to get water from nearby residents. There are nearly 80 students and two teachers in the school. This school is hardly 10 kilometers from Ajmer.

Many schools (specifically government schools) do not have proper infrastructure. What is needed in this regard is application of ‘Plan-Do-Check-Act’ cycle. Accordingly, at national level it requires to make standards for basic infrastructure and number of teachers. The standard should be a specific standard for education system that should define area of class-room, cleanliness, light and air, sitting facilities, black-board (or writing board) in the class-room, number of teacher criteria, evaluation criteria for teachers etc. The national standard should also define the responsibility – who will provide or do what? Next point is implementation of standard requirements for which necessary infrastructure, human resources, and financial support should be provided by the government. It may require huge amount of investment towards basic infrastructure that may be fulfilled by raising investment in education to at least 5% of the GDP. The third point is to check implementation at periodical intervals that should be done by internal monitoring and measurement processes, but there must be an independent body also to check the educational system of schools. The independent body should have trained and experienced assessors to check the school system and raise CA (corrective action) and thus the body should certify that basic infrastructure and availability of teachers in the school are as per standard’s requirements. The fourth point is to act on the basis of the results of check (monitoring and measurement) and if any correction or improvement is required that should be done without delay.

"Change does not necessarily assure progress, but progress implacably requires change. Education is essential to change, for education creates both new wants and the ability to satisfy them." - Henry Steele Commager

Courtesy:
- PROBE Team, Public Report on Basic Education in India (New Delhi, Oxford University Press, 1999)
- Eleven things that can transform education in India, ArindamChaudhuri, The Sunday Indian (8 January 2012)
- Quality Striving for Excellence, March – June 2010
- The Times of India, 16 March 2012
- RTE, 2010
- http://www.icbsc.com
- ISO Website
- QCI Website

Determining customer needs in a school

There is an interesting discussion in one of the linkedin groups, that ask two questions in this discussion - (i) How do you establish customer needs for a school? (ii) Who is the customer? To this discussion I replied briefly - (i) As a school authority I will establish customer needs by reviewing the admission form by which customer makes his requirements as regard to the admission sought in a class and the elective subjects communicated by him. (ii) Customers of a school are students and parents.


One of the members of the group commented, “Keshav: I understand that you would REVIEW customer needs by means of the admission form (a contract review process). What I am trying to establish is how you would initially define customer needs (as input to the design process). These are the customer needs which should be established in order to design organization structure, infrastructure, training methods and processes, measurement systems... even the information to be requested on the admission form).”


When we implement a quality management system in a school, following types of requirements are required to be determined in order to implement and maintain an effective quality management system:
- Customer requirements,
- Organization’s own requirements, and
- Statutory and regulatory requirements.


The question is how to determine customer requirements. Customer requirements are those requirements that are communicated by customer and what I feel that in the case of a school, customer requirements are communicated by customer initially at the time of taking admission and thereafter when he interacts with school authorities.

Generally customer requirements from a school are:
- Seeking admission to a particular class
- Seeking particular elective subjects
- The knowledge, abilities and competencies delivered to its students by the educational institution consistently meet statutory and regulatory requirements.
- Opening of new courses


So in order to design organization structure, infrastructure, training methods and processes, measurement systems, the school is required to meet customer requirements, organization’s own requirements and statutory and regulatory requirements.


In order to determine customer requirements:
- The school authorities should determine the customer requirements at the time of admission by review of the admission form
- The school authorities should determine effective methods of communication with students, parents and the society so that their requirements may be known to the school from time to time.


Sometimes, parents may complain or give suggestion with regard to a particular process or non availability of resource, then such communication are an effective means of establishing customer requirements. So for determination of customer requirements, the school authorities should have good communication methods in which monthly parent-teacher meetings may also play an important role.


With best wishes,

Keshav Ram Singhal

Why you implement or wish to implement ISO 9001:2008 QMS?

All over the world organizations are implementing ISO 9001:2008 QMS. The ISO Survey reveals that by end of December 2010, at least 1,109,905 ISO 9001:2008 certificates had been issued in 178 countries and economies. This indicates the universality of ISO 9001:2008 QMS. Just think and try to answer the question: "Why you implement or wish to implement ISO 9001:2008 QMS in your organization?" Please make your comments.

With best wishes,

Keshav Ram Singhal

A survey covering quality management system development, certification, accreditation and economic benefits

UNITED NATIONS INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT ORGANIZATION (UNIDO) has published a survey report 'ISO 9001 — Its relevance and impact in Asian Developing Economies' in 2012. The report is available online at the website of UNIDO at www.unido.org.

Thanks,

Keshav Ram Singhal