SIX SIGMA in Education: FAD or Reality??
Dheeraj Mehrotra (MS, MPhil), National Awardee)
Head, TQM in Education Department,
City Montessori School & Degree College, Lucknow, INDIA
Quality is the culture of demand and education as an industry today has
mushroomed from over the years to a mega segment for profit making and
learning to earn for more. The essence of Quality demands commitment and as
one of our Quality Gurus, Jagdish Gandhi, the Founder of the Worlds’ Biggest
School, CMS, Lucknow, INDIA and the awardee of the UNESCO Peace Prize,
says, the mantra has to be Catch Them Young and Innocent. There is a time
now to encapsulate the art and cult of this routine otherwise job of the
academicians. We need to evaluate our system of educational and of course
the education process to produce best of Quality and Quantity being faced by
two customers the Parents and the Students’ the ultimate. Talking of Six
Sigma, the phenomenon of Zero Defect to negligence of the theory of 3.14 per
million, sounds far fetched.
It is good to agree and comment of the fact that the very business of education
today is just that—a business. It focuses more today on the bottom line and it is
important to stay on the competitive edge for all of its customers—from the
students and their parents to the faculty, staff, and donors, as well. At the
same time it needs to considered of the view that the act of education also has
a greater accountability today. This means that installing quality improvement
across the board is more important today than ever before. It is important from
both the business and academic sides. A quality improvement program can
improve all areas of education.
Six Sigma in education is a Quality Philosophy. It’s a
philosophy that talks about attainable short-term goals
while striving for long term objective. Our mission to have
a Total Quality Person (TQP) with a vision that Every
Child is Potentially the Light of the World and a Pride of
the Human Race
As of a common layman point’s of view, in education, Six Sigma pertains to
improving the quality of matter taught, the character generated of the pupils,
and the quality of study and school life. With the revolutionary usage of audio-
visual devices, like projectors, video conferencing, etc., the students can also
be asked to write papers on a particular subject and after the presentation of
papers, a discussion can take place on the respective subject. Under this
method of imparting knowledge of literacy with quality, the thinking, writing
and presentation skills of the students can be kindled. In addition, the existing
method of quality improvement through SQCC (Students Quality Control
