Quality Education Award

H.E. Mr Cassam Uteem, President of Mauritius honoured Mr Jagdish Gandhi with the Quality Pioneer's Award at Port Luis in Mauritius, in recognition of Mr Gandhi's pioneering contribution in introducing the concept and practice of Quality Circles (QC) in education. Incidentally, the Ministry of Education has made SQC's compulsory in all government-aided schools in Mauritius. 

It was during his visit to Japan in 1992 that Mr Gandhi first came to know of Quality Control Circles (QCC) and how Prof. Ishikawa successfully shaped them as formal groups within factories and offices, for the purpose of improving the quality of manufactured goods and services on a continuous basis. The resultant quality revolution firmly established Japan as an economic superpower.

Mr Gandhi thought of using QC's in schools to inculcate quality awareness at a young age in children, following the age old dictum "Catch them young'. He envisioned that by inculcating quality awareness in children and thus shaping Quality Citizens in our schools, we could bring about a revolution in society. He collected literature on Quality Circles and upon his return introduced the idea in the CMS Principals Meeting. Dr Vineeta Kamran, Principal of CMS Kanpur Road Branch, responded enthusiastically and soon a group of five of her students constituted Quality Circle Jai Jagat — world's first Quality Circle by school children and prepared a case study "How to excel in examinations" under the supervision of Mr. P. C. Bihari, a QC expert working for Indian Railways. Their path-breaking effort won accolades at national and international levels and was proclaimed the most "Outstanding Case Study" at the International Convention of Quality Control Circles (ICQCC) at Hong Kong in 1994. ‘QC Jai Jagat’ was also invited by the Quality Circle Association of Sri Lanka to present its case study at their National Convention on Quality Circles in 1995 at Colombo. The introduction of QC's in education was hailed as a revolutionary development and international QC Guru's widely welcomed the introduction of QCs in education.

As the founder of Quality in Education, the school also had the opportunities of sending various student QC delegations at different International Conventions which include ICQCC'96, Malaysia; ICQCC'96, Bangkok; ICQCC'98, Mauritius; IQCC'98, Mauritius; ICQCC'99, Philippines; ICQCC'2000, Mauritius and ICQCC'2000, Singapore. The CMS Degree College at Kanpur Road Branch has a fully functional Student's QC Academy affiliated to QCI International, USA which regularly conducts QC Training Programmes, integrated with TQE (Total Quality in Education) at national and international levels.

The amazing effectiveness and success of QC's in educational institutions led to the formation of Student QCs in China, Malaysia, Singapore, Sri Lanka and many other countries. This further led to the organising of the first International Convention of Students' Quality Control Circles (ICSQCC) by CMS in 1997. The second ICSQCC was also hosted by CMS in 1999 while the third ICSQCC was held at Mauritius under the aegis of CMS in 2000. The fourth ICSQCC was also held at CMS in December 2001 and witnessed the participation of 14 countries. A 32-member delegation headed by Mr. Jagdish Gandhi is all set to represent India at the fifth ICSQCC being hosted by Scott County at Kentucky, USA in June 2002.
Even though the QC concept arrived in India in 1970's and about 800 Indian organisations used QC tools and techniques for quality improvement, it was left to the genius of Mr Gandhi to successfully graft an essentially industrial idea into the untapped field of academics. CMS has also established a World Council for Total Quality & Excellence in Education (WCTQEE) under the chairmanship of Mr. Jagdish Gandhi, which is engaged in imparting training to Managers, Teachers and Students on Student Quality Circles as an integral part of TQM. The WCTQEE has national offices in many countries including USA, UK, Switzerland, Singapore, Mauritius, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka etc.

Today, student QCs have been successfully formed in countries as far apart and as varied as Australia, USA, Mauritius, Switzerland, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Singapore, Bangladesh and many others. Everywhere, educationists are realizing that SQC's have the potential to transform today's staid educational scenario by inculcating quality awareness in students and teachers.