TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT AND PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOL EFFECTIVENESS IN EDUCATION

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background to the Study

The development of any nation depends on the quality of its education and so conscious efforts are usually made to ensure educational quality at every level. One of the greatest concerns of Nigerians has been the issue of standard and quality of the educational system. This explains why uniform educational standard in the Federal Republic of Nigeria (2004) was established and the various measures made by the federal government to ensure quality in the educational system. The establishment of specific bodies to control quality in the various levels of education is a clear indication of the commitment of the federal government to assure quality. Some of these bodies include:

The National Primary Education Commission (NPEC), The National Board for Technical

Education (NBTE), the National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE) and the National Universities Commission (NUC).Therefore, effective administration of secondary school may be determined by total quality management (TQM).

TQM is a management philosophy and practice that aims at harnessing the human and material resources of any organization in the most effective way to achieve their organizational objectives. More recently, educational administrators have recognized the potentials of Total Quality Management (TQM) as applied to educational organizations in the sense that Total Quality Management is the cultivation and practice of quality in every person‟s tasks and activities through which the school system focuses on continuous improvement of all operations or functions in the process of work. Many institutions are conducting organizational development programmes like, seminars, workshops, conferences to enhance quality awareness and change the attitude of their employees towards TQM.

TQM emphasizes teacher competence, creativity, commitment, teamwork,

students‟ satisfaction and how educational administrators are expected to lead in order to realize the full potentials of all personnel in the educational organization (Okorie and Uche, 2004). If educational administrators could realize that, failure in education is a problem and a waste to the nation, quality management may be regarded as an ideal process for making a change in the education system (Gertsen, 2001). In today‟s economy; quality has become a high priority and is at the top of most agenda. Improving quality is probably one of the most important tasks any organization may be facing, whether private or public. Educational institutions are not foreign to this reality; on the contrary, they have also recognized the need to pursue this quest for quality and to deliver it to pupils and students alike. When talking about sources of quality education the following can be listed; teachers commitment, effective leadership, adequate resources and the latest technology applied, an appropriate curriculum, excellent examination results and the support of parents, just to mention a few (Sallis,2002). For the last 20 years, different economic circumstances have pushed education systems in many countries towards a system of privatization, transforming education into a new market and adapting education to the current demands of labour markets (Hirtt, 2004), including application of TQM in school administration. It is therefore, not strange to talk of application of TQM in secondary school administration in Ilorin West Education zone.

To really understand the meaning of Total Quality Management, quality will first be defined. Quality, according to International Organization of Standardization (2004) is the totality of features of a product or service that on its ability satisfy stated needs. Kemmerer (1994) examined the nature of quality in education and stated that quality is perceived as the level of achievement or performance and this is linked with the ability to function well in the school environment and meet the need of the entrepreneur. Okafor (1990) explains that the quality of a work refers to degree of goodness and excellence in the education sector. Quality refers to parameter which decides the superiority or inferiority of a product or service .Quality can be defined as an attribute which differentiates a product or service from its competitors, (Onuka 2003). Quality plays an essential role in every organization, business marketers need to emphasize on quality of their brand over quantities to survive many competitions. Quality education is measured by the extent to which the training received from an institution enables the recipient to think clearly, independently and analytically to solve relevant societal problems in any given environment.

Total quality management could be seen as administrative techniques. According to Ojo (2006), is a management style that is quality centered, customer- focused, factsbased, team driven and seminar-led aimed at providing satisfaction to the realization of organizational goal or objective. Total quality Management is a systematic approach to education reform (Deming, 2004).This philosophy also provides a framework that can integrate many positive developments in education, such as teamwork site-based management, cooperative learning and outcomes-based education. Total quality management is a management approach to long term success through continuous process improvement and customer satisfaction (Green, 2012). In a TQM organization, all members of the organization participate in improving processes, products, services and the culture in which they work. It is also an integrative philosophy of management for continuous improvement of quality of products (www.managementstudyguide.com/total).

Total Quality Management (TQM) is also a management model that emphasizes leadership, teamwork, strategy, continuous improvement, communication, commitment, customer satisfaction, cultural change, empowerment and self-assessment which should be understood as a long-term philosophy, rather than a short-term fix, and in our continuously changing world, it seems more necessary than ever. The rapid advances in technology result from a knowledge revolution which has changed the way people work, think and even the way they learn, and in order to deal with this information age, high standard in education are required. In fact, quality has become an integral feature of the education system all over the world. We are continually being faced with quality initiatives and controls not only from central government but also from awarding bodies. TQM is a quest for quality at all times.

TQM approaches for school administration were established to improve quality leadership; teachers‟ response to goals and to maximize quality as argued by (Kezner, 2006). And for a continuous school improvement, schools need to adapt to ongoing changes as needs are arising because change is inevitable. Essentially, Onuka (2003) stated that TQM has the following five major components: Total commitment to quality (effective leadership); total commitment to students' satisfaction; total commitment to continuous quality improvement i.e. always striving for programme improvement; total commitment to effective communication and teamwork which this study will concentrate on. According to Birnbaum (2001), TQM is a comprehensive philosophy of 'living and working in organizations, for organizational improvement. Its essence by this definition is quality improvement. Its application to the education sector was propelled by the fact that educating people was viewed the same as the business of producing goods and services in an economy (Nicklin, 2001). Total Quality Management (TQM) is applicable both in the industry and in education because both deal with the quality of people. Total Quality Management can be applied in secondary school administration through several ways which includes: Effective leadership (Total Commitment), Teamwork, Effective Communication, Customers satisfaction, Continuous improvement, empowerment among others, (Yang, 2003).

To effective leadership, total commitment is considered very important as both the leader and the subordinates are made to show total commitment to the organizational vision and mission. Leadership is the ability and willingness to set aside pride and recognize that leadership is more than being a „commander in chief. Leadership is principally „facilitators‟ function. It is the act of motivating and empowering the team as one goes through the trenches with them. In the application of TQM, school principals should maintain their role as facilitators and embrace all staff, professional and ancillary as partners in achieving a common goal.

Principals have to be prepared to give up time and sometimes even fund in order to ensure success that is desired in the school. Maxwell (1998) indicated that „effective leaders have to maintain an attitude of sacrifice in order to turn around an organization.

Principals have to be willing to do what it takes to go to the next level‟ Sometimes in order to build an effective school administration, principals (leaders) become agents of change in order to improve quality.

Effective leadership starts with the development of a mission statement, followed by a strategy that is translated into action plans down through the organization or school. In applying TQM, principals become committed in creating the goals, values and systems that guide the pursuit of continuous performance and improvement as leaders. A predominant theme in TQM literature is that strong commitment from management is vital. The foundation of an effective TQM application is commitment. Lack of administrators‟ commitment is one of the reasons for the failure of TQM efforts (Brown, Hitchcock, and Willard, 1994). It is also recorded that high levels of quality achievement have always been accompanied by an organizational commitment to that goal. High product quality does not exist without strong top management commitment.

Mann and Kehoe (1994) stated that principal‟s support for quality is a key factor in quality improvement. In the application of TQM all educational administrators are committed to quality, they are not only actively involved in quality management and improvement process, but also strongly encourage teachers‟ involvement in quality management and improvement process. In addition, they learn quality-related concepts and skills, and arrange adequate resources for teacher‟s training and education. The application of total commitment in secondary school administration improves teaching and learning as well as the school administration, and satisfies stakeholders (Students, teachers and parents) also motivates and encourages effective staff participation and good organizational results as to achieve a quality education. This is to say that total commitment is necessary in secondary school administration for effectiveness. The study will find out the extent school principals apply total commitment in school

administration.

Teamwork can be defined as activities of small groups of interdependent individuals that take responsibility for their organizational outcomes (Wineman and Serrato, 1998). Noted that teams are spreading rapidly in organizations like other qualityimprovement practices. The advantages of successful teams and teamwork are considerable. Teamwork practices place overall accountability for quality on the team, thus alleviating the potential for individual blame, and allowing greater sharing of information and cooperation within the work group to improve its functions continuously (Coyle-Shapiro, 1995). Teams and teamwork can be used to minimize the duplication of effort. Further, working in teams can be instrumental in teachers developing comprehensive and in-depth views of organizational issues and situations through the pooling of knowledge. Positive synergy resulting from good teamwork can be an important ingredient in maximizing the contributions of individual staff members (Murphy and Herberling, 2005). It is believed that well-implemented teamwork will contribute to success. In the application of teamwork, members must be cognizant of the teams' overall objectives rather than just being responsible for their own tasks and they must understand how their tasks are interdependent with others (Hackman and Wageman ,2005).This knowledge and awareness will give them a broader view of organizational issues and how they and their team fit in. Principals that apply teamwork involves their members in a well-designed team context, lead individuals to be more involved in their work, enable them to generate more constructive ideas and suggestions, and be more supportive of their teammates. They involve in doing the things that are required for an organizational program to be successful.

Teamwork when applied throughout any organization results to essential component of the implementation of TQM for it builds up trust, improves communication and develops independence in the implementation of Total Quality Management (Oakland, 1999).TQM organizations discover the benefits of having effective teams at all levels. In many sectors of education, teams have been developed as the basic unit for curriculum delivery. This provides educational institutions with a strong platform from which to build a TQM culture. However, the application of teamwork in schools has often been limited to curriculum and management functions.

Principals that build an effective TQM culture extend teamwork and make it penetrate throughout the school and use in a wide range of decision-making and problemsolving situations. Quality improvement depends on hard work, which is best achieved through teamwork. The teams have some important functions which include: being accountable for the quality of learning; being responsible for making quality improvements in their area of responsibility; being a vehicle for monitoring, evaluating and improving quality; being a means of information to management on the changes necessary to improve provision. Application of teamwork can include designed training program that prepares individual to work effectively in a team environment, efficiently employ team productivity techniques such as team goal setting and team problem solving, and develop interpersonal skills and conflict management techniques necessary for teams to function well (Cohen and Bailey, 1997). Dimitriades, (2000) observed that the concept of teams and teamwork is of central importance to quality management in schools, teams can be established to be responsible for effective communication in school administration. Principals are expected to encourage the teachers to work in team to promote continuous improvement and effective communication. Therefore, this study determines the extent to which teamwork is applied in secondary school administration in Ilorin West Education zone.

Effective communication activities involved in school administration is interpersonal communication, which is defined as transmitting of information from one person to another. It is also a process of sharing and exchanging of ideas, feelings, information, and thoughts (Oboegbulem, and Onwurah, 2011). Apart from the need for effective communication and coordination in the management structure and process, the basic functions of education, rely almost on communication among teachers and students and co-ordination among various organizational structures and levels. In any institution where there is effective communication, there will be understanding among workers (teachers), harmony in work operation, good interpersonal relationship and easy realization of common objectives and goals. Communication is recognized for playing a vital role in effective administration of any organization which encourages teamwork. In application of effective communication, principals are to establish and encourage good interpersonal relationship among them, i.e. principals and teachers, teachers and principals and teachers to students so as to maintain a continuous improvement in the quest for quality Education. Therefore, the principals are expected to apply effective communication to a very great extent in other to achieve the organizational objectives. The study is interested in finding out the extent to which effective communication is applied in secondary school administration.

Continuous Improvement (CI) is defined as ongoing improvements that involve everyone in the organization (principals and staff members). In a similar vein, Gertsen (2001) describes CI as an improvement process that is systematically applied, carried out in small steps, and to a large extent relies on employee participation. According to Ehie and Sheu (2005) CI is as an umbrella concept for a wide range of tools and techniques to improve teaching performance, such as learning new innovations, CI is a long-term process of a stream of improvements and incremental changes integrated and realized in teachers‟ daily work. CI can be applied in teaching processes, and systems. It is targeted toward improved customers (teachers and students‟) value through improved methods of teaching and learning services, or improved performance in processes, such as reducing variations, defects, and other kinds of waste (Bergman and Klefsjo, 2003).Total quality management involves continuous and measurable improvement at all levels of the organization, ranging from company performance to individual employee performance or institutional performance such that continuous improvement, forever becomes an essential ingredient of success (Birnbaum 2004).Continuous Improvement as defined by Bessant, Caffyn, Gilbert ,Harding, and Webb (2001), is a companywide process focused on continuous incremental innovation sustained over a long period of time, being essential for meeting customers‟ varying needs. Continuous Improvement is considered an integral part of TQM (Deming, 2004). The intensity of global competition has led to even greater interest for continuously improving quality services and processes (Talha, 2004). There are many tools to achieve continuous improvement, including statistical methods and bench marking, but its main prerequisites are supporting culture, and a supportive leadership (Jabnoun, 2002). Juran (1994) observes that TQM stresses the importance of culture (environment) in designing, producing and improving quality services that satisfy customers (students, teachers and parents).

Successful TQM implementation, according to Yin (2003), believes that principals are requires to be committed in every activity in the school so as to change the culture and a “quality culture” that is an ultimate goal. It is observed that continuous improvement processes activities and operations should be part of the management of all the staff in the institution (Escrig-Tena, 2004). He suggest that, for a continuous process improvement, principals should be able to employ the following tools: extensive gathering of information through bench marking and self-assessment, systems analysis and feedback as to be able to isolate problems and direct teachers towards those that have been detected so as to support the drive for quality in secondary schools administration and satisfy customers, especially in Ilorin West Education zone. Therefore, principals are expected to implement every activities of TQM by being fully involved in every action that quest for quality. The study seeks to appraise the extent to which continuous improvement is applied in secondary school administration in Ilorin West Education zone.

Customers (Students) Satisfaction: The concept of customers in relation to schools includes parents, teachers, stakeholders, communities and every interpersonal relationship (Bessant, and Francis, 1999). Customer Satisfaction is the objective of TQM. Deming (1998) considers customers to be the most important part of the quality line. Customers (students, parents, teachers and community) according to Gilmore, (1999), are indeed the purpose of product development and continuous improvement. Producing a high quality product or service that does not meet Customers'' needs and expectation will be a total waste for the schools.

Students‟ Satisfaction is largely dependent on continuous improvement and empowerment. Continuous improvement is required in order to satisfy customers' varying needs, while empowerment is necessary for bringing the decisions closer to the customers (Jabnoun, 2002).

TQM is a strategic business initiative and should be recognized as such in order to be successful. In order to achieve customers‟ satisfaction, principals are to understand students‟ needs as the focus for continuous improvement as to provide them with effective teaching and learning and also organize in-service training for teachers‟ effectiveness. Therefore, the study is concern to appraise the extent to which customers‟ satisfaction is achieved in secondary school administration. TQM can further be applied in secondary schools by being committed to strategic quality planning and providing human resources development in schools to motivate and realize the maximum potentials from teachers and also by being understandable and competitive.

Continuous school improvement and effective school administration is simply what comes out of an activity for what the principals put in, in terms of commitment to the work. Principals are required to establish an effective communication among teachers and student for effective teaching and learning, and also accept the responsibility for providing students‟ needs as a focus for continuous quality improvement. See Appendix II, for Total Quality Management Benchmark.

Appraisal, according to Harner (2005) is a judgment of value, performance or nature of something and peoples opinion about something. Appraisal, according to Bondesio, (2000) is defined as the act of assessing an expert in terms of achievement of goals and objectives. In this context appraisal is seen as the extent to which school principals apply TQM ideals in administration of secondary schools. To appraise the application of Total Quality Management in Ilorin West Education Zone is simply to ascertain the extent to which the principals apply the TQM components in secondary school administration. Appraisal helps to identify the linkages between principals and teachers‟ actions and unit-level outcomes. The information from appraisal is used to adjust organizational processes for continuous improvement of secondary school administration.

The principal is the person on whose shoulders rest the entire administration, success or failure of the school. The principal identifies and set goals and objectives of the school, which of course, must be in line with the national objectives, the principal analyses tasks and share responsibilities to the staff according to specialization and expertise (Uyanga, 2007).

Secondary schools can only be productive if there is effective and efficient management of  human and material resources in the system by the principals. The following are some of the duties of the principal : Ensuring that the multi-faceted problems facing the secondary school system do not hinder the efficient service delivery towards producing quality education in this country, ensuring that funds entrusted on them is properly utilized, ensuring the provision and maintenance of physical facilities, ensuring that teachers are motivated by their total commitment ,ensuring the supervision of instructional materials to ascertain effective teaching and learning. Principals are the executive leaders in secondary schools; they are in charge of administration, planning, coordinating, directing, and supervising, they are also referred as educational administrators. Principals are assisted directly by the vice principals and teachers.

Administration is an act of getting things done through the effort of others. Principals as administrators get things done through the help of vice principals and teachers, Vice principals act as principals in the absence of the principals; they direct teachers on what to do and carry out other administrative functions. The teachers are fully used to achieve the educational goals.

One cannot appraise the application of TQM in secondary school administration in isolation of vice principal and teachers. It is based on this that the study include principals, vice principals and teachers.

Gender refers to the socially determined differences between women and men, such as roles, attitudes, behaviour and values. Gender roles are learned and vary across cultures and over time; they are thus amendable to change. Gender is a relational term that includes both women and men. Gender can be equity or equality.

Equity is a process of being fair to both women and men. To ensure fairness, measures must often be available to compensate for historical and social disadvantages that prevent women and men from otherwise operating on a level playing field (Kendall, 2008). Equity can be understood as a means, where equality is the end. Equity leads to equality.

Gender equality means that women and men enjoy the same status within a society. It does not mean that men and women are the same, but rather their similarities and differences are recognized (Ugwu and Ijah 2011).Gender equality focuses on changes for both men and women. Gender analyzed the process to assess the differential impact of proposed or existing policies, programs, projects and legislation on men and women.

Gender analysis recognizes that the realities of men‟s and women‟s lives are different, and that equal opportunities does not necessarily, mean equal results. Key issues for analysis includes the gender division of labor; access to and control over resources; and decision-making capacity.

School Performance is a measure of how effectively resource are combined and used in order to accomplish specific and desirable result (Sofoluwe, 2000).School performance also task into cognizance both quality and quantity of the results achieved. For schools to be of improved quality, it is based not just on the number of graduates in the system but how relevant and competent they are in meeting the needs of the society (Fadipe, 2000). This is why Ukeji (1996) supported this idea by stating that education unlocks the door to modernization and it is the teacher who holds the key to that door. The principals are saddled with the responsibility of directing, guiding, and controlling teachers appropriately to ensure good quality education.

The quality of secondary education in Ilorin West Education zone of Kwara State over the years has not been encouraging due to poor management, lack of maintenance of school facilities and lack of availability of materials. Education quality is declining as a result of inadequate facilities. Most of the secondary schools are suffering because of lack of proper management and lack of total commitment, TQM preaches that quality education can be achieved only in an atmosphere of total commitment to quality teaching and learning, prudent financial management, teamwork, effective communication respectively. Additionally, it is important to state that one cannot achieve a desired educational quality in the absence of a functional school plant (physical facilities).

Quality school plant or facilities are needed for teaching and learning in educational institutions. However the level of infrastructural decay has tended to affect the quality of education. Inadequacy of facilities and decay of existing ones due to poor maintenance has been attributed to poor quality standard in education. It is clear that, if the facilities are adequately provided and managed, adequate teaching and learning could go unhindered.

The realization of organizational goals, to a large extent, depends on how effective the various arms of such organization are coordinated. There can however, be no proper ways an organization can thrive without adequate system of disseminating information from and to every member of such an organization. Education is one of the organizations which functions depend on effective communication among those concerned. Apart from the need for effective communication and co-ordination in the management structure and process, the basic functions of education rely almost on communication among teachers and students and co-ordination among various organizational structures and levels. In any institution where there is effective communication, there will be understanding among workers, harmony in work operation, good inter-personal relation and easy realization of common objectives and goals. Where there is lack of effective communication there will be chaos anarchy, overlap of function which may cause confusion and wastage of human and material recourses (Oboegbulem and Onwurah, (2011). The need for effective communication and better understanding between the students and the school authorities cannot be overstressed (Aiyepeku, 2000). He further stated that poor communication and understanding have been largely responsible for the spate of students‟ unrest and poor administration in many educational institutions in the recent past.

Lack of total commitment and teamwork has also lead to poor teaching and learning as well as improper administration in secondary schools and nonchalant attitude of some principals, principals being so autocratic, not involving their subordinate in decision making, fund not prudently used, and lack of teachers‟ empowerment.

Inadequate funding has distorted continuous improvement and students‟ satisfaction in the educational system. The resultant effect has been inadequate teaching and learning, poor performance of students and poor administration of secondary schools which TQM application is interested to correct.

Statement of the Problem

The desire for better quality education is generally shared in Nigeria as in many other countries .Though quality Education is the responsibility of all the stakeholders, especially the school administrators that play some key roles in the quality assurance process. One of the challenges that face the education system has always been to ensure that the quality of teaching and learning are maintained as well as administration.TQM is interested in ensuring that the satisfaction of need of students is achieved through equitable access to appropriate teaching and learning for life-skills programmes, achieving a 50 per cent improvement in every level of education, improving all aspects of quality and ensuring excellence at all levels of education which the federal government is fully committed to , by establishing specific bodies like the National Primary Education Commission (NPEC), The National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), the National

Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE) and the National Universities Commission (NUC) just to ensure quality in the Education system. In spite of all these, it is observed that Secondary schools in Ilorin West Education zone over the years has been suffering due to inadequate facilities for effective teaching and learning, lack of maintenance of existing ones, lack of commitment by principals, lack of teamwork, poor communication method, poor management, lack of adequate funding, no continuous improvement, poor performance of students in SSCE Exams which have put some parents on high jump of registering their wards in other states for excellent results and many more.

However, one possible way of improving this quality of education lies in the application of the ideals of Total Quality Management (TQM) in secondary school administration.

Applying TQM attributes in the education context creates value for educational institutions, principals, teachers, and students. Therefore this study intends to appraise the extent to which TQM is applied in secondary school administration in Ilorin West

Education zone.

Research Questions

The following Research Questions were formulated to guide the study;

1. To what extent is total commitment applied in secondary school administration in

Ilorin West Education zone?

2. To what extent is teamwork applied in secondary school administration in Ilorin

West Education zone?

3. To what extent is effective communication applied in secondary school administration in Ilorin West Education zone?
4. To what extent is customer‟s satisfaction (staff and student) achieved in secondary school administration in Ilorin West Education zone?
5. To what extent is continuous improvement applied in secondary school

administration in Ilorin West Education zone?

6. To what extent is TQM applied in secondary school administration in Ilorin West

Education zone?

Research Hypotheses

The following null hypotheses were formulated to guide this study and were tested at 0.05 level of significance.

Ho1	There is no significant difference between the mean rating of male and female principals on the extent of application of total commitment in secondary school administration in Ilorin West Education Zone.
Ho2	There is no significant difference between the mean rating of male and female teachers on the extent of application of teamwork in secondary school administration in Ilorin West Education zone.
Ho3	There is no significant difference between the mean rating of teachers and principals on the extent of application of effective communication in secondary school administration in Ilorin West Education zone.
Ho4	There is no significant difference between the mean rating of vice principals and teachers on the extent of application of customer‟s satisfaction in secondary school administration in Ilorin West Education zone.
Ho5	There is no significant difference between the mean rating of principals and vice

principals on the extent application of continuous improvement in secondary school administration in Ilorin West Education zone.

Ho6 There is no significant difference between the mean rating of principals and teachers on the extent of application of TQM in secondary school administration in Ilorin West Education zone.

Purpose of the Study

The general purpose of the study is to appraise the application of Total Quality

Management in secondary school administration in Ilorin West Education zone.

Specifically, the study seeks to appraise:

1. The extent to which total commitment is applied in secondary school

administration in Ilorin West Education zone.

2. The extent to which teamwork is applied in secondary school administration in

Ilorin West Education zone.

3. The extent to which effective communication is applied in secondary school administration in Ilorin West Education zone.
4. The extent to which customers‟ satisfaction is achieved in secondary school administration in Ilorin West Education zone.
5. The extent to which continuous improvement is applied in secondary school administration in Ilorin West Education zone.
6. The extent to which TQM is applied in secondary school administration in Ilorin

West Education zone.

Significance of the Study

This study has both theoretical and practical significance. The theoretical significance of this study hinges on Statistical Quality Control (SQC) theory and Social

Technical System Theory. The Statistical Quality Control theory is propounded by Walter Shewhart in 1990s. The theory emphasizes on organizational effectiveness, and it states that for continuous improvement of quality and productivity that statistics will be used to identify areas of improvement. Social Technical system theory was propounded by Eric Trist in 1981. The theory emphasize on joint optimization with emphasis on achievement of both excellence in technical performance and quality in people‟s work lives. These theories support this work in the sense that TQM is a process that brings about a continuous improvement, which involves interrelationships, teamwork, total commitment among staff in order to achieve organizational goals.

Practically, the findings of the study will be of benefit to the government, educational administrators and planners, researchers and the society at large. The findings of the study will be of benefit to the government and educational administrators by creating awareness on the level of TQM application needed in secondary schools administration. The findings of this study will stand as an evaluation or assessment to administrators in their performance towards achieving quality education. The findings of the study will help planners to understand the level of quality education and also help them to identify the areas that need amendment. The study will be of help to researchers based on the fact that it will serve as a reference material to every research study relating to TQM.

Finally the society at large will benefit from the study through continuous quality improvement which will lead to high quality education. It is expected that the findings of the study will motivate those at the realm of administration to evolve new approaches and techniques for making educational system effective by orienting the administrators on the modern techniques that will ensure quality standard in secondary schools administration.

Limitation of the Study

The study appraised the application of Total Quality Management in secondary school administration in Ilorin West Education Zone. This study is limited to junior and senior secondary schools including technical, vocational and comprehensive schools in Ilorin West education zone. The content scope of the study focused on total commitment, teamwork, effective communication, customer‟s satisfaction and continuous quality improvement which form the major components of TQM in this study. The reason for choosing this scope is to determine the extent to which TQM is applied is secondary schools administration.

TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT AND PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOL EFFECTIVENESS IN EDUCATION

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