The application of Quality Management to education systems

"Quality Management" has developed in the very global form of a project: project for the company, first, which must ensure its profitability and conquer new markets in an increasingly competitive universe, project for the personnel whose interdependence and responsibilities are affirmed whatever the hierarchical position of each, finally, project for the client, naturally concerned with the quality of the goods and services offered to him, but also with the conditions under which these the latter are produced, whether it be respect for the environment or more moral considerations regarding respect for the rights and dignity of employees. From this point of view, "Quality Management" as defined by A. Naji (2000) [1] '' is at the same time a strategy, a system, tools and methods. The principle of quality management is to mobilize all the actors of the company around the permanent search for quality at the different stages of production (from product design, to its actual production through the selection of suppliers and raw material). The strategic objective obviously remains the survival and development of the firm by reducing costs (associated with non-quality) and / or offering products clearly superior to those of the competition. It is a system (almost a philosophy) which associates and mobilizes everyone with the common objective around specific tools and methods aiming as well to track down the sources of non-quality at the level of the activities of different production stakeholders than to improve the design and production of the products themselves. It is accompanied by a set of reference standards (notably ISO standards) and certification procedures based on compliance with these standards. Supporters of this management practice illustrate its relevance by the success of the companies that have joined it (financial results, increase in market share, etc.). With the extension of these approaches to service management, it is tempting to want to apply it to the management of education systems whose performance, often poor compared to the resources committed, clearly calls for new methods of 'administration and steering. The exercise is not immediate: we can first discuss the presumed effectiveness of quality management by noting that it is carried by an enthusiasm which sometimes leaves little room for evidence of its particular relevance (section 1) ; we can then, and this will be the main object of this article, note that the education and training sectors present particularities which deserve to be highlighted (sections 2 and 3) so that this transposition, theoretically possible and desirable, take on its true meaning.