The assessment of the total quality management practice at the boarding region schools of primary education

Established for the compulsory primary education-instruction, The Boarding RegionSchools of Primary Education (BRSPE) mainly serve to the children of families at the Eastand SouthEast Region. The aim of these schools is to prepare talented and motivated studentsfor the middle school education. The purpose of this research is to determine the problemsabout the recent applications of Total Quality Management (TQM) approach at BRSPE. Asurvey is conducted to gather information about problems with the applications and of TQM.The data on opionions and suggestions of teachers and school managers is compared forsignificant difference.The first part of survey includes questions about participants. The second part ofsurvey includes questions about the principles of Total Quality Management. The informationis gathered from 162 teachers and 40 managers working at the Boarding Region Schools ofPrimary Education of 15 school districts of Tunceli and Elazığ. Frequency, percentage and chisquare are used for the data analysis.The results of study are:1. Teachers and managers have similar opinions about the physical construction ofBRSPE. Although they find the school buildings partly in good condition, neither theequipments nor the environment for social activities are sufficient for educationalgoals.2. There is a difference in opinion between teachers and managers about the work onhuman performance development for the educational goals. The difference is mostlyabout respect for people, participation of faculty, and continuing education of theprinciples of TQM. Managers are concerned about the sortage of teachers andsupporting workers. Beside managers and teachers think that the application of in-service training is not sufficient.3. Teachers and managers find inconsistencies between development efforts of qualityand effectiveness of teaching and educating and the educational aims. There is ameaningful difference between teachers and managers on whether the suggestions ofstudents about the course plans are utilized or not. Managers think that the satisfactionof students for the teachers is not an important component of instruction. The teammembers of quality development and problem solving partly know about the problemsolving techniques; however, they are not able to functionalize their knowledge.Teacher and managers also believe that the rewarding and encouragement is onlypartly used.Keywords:: Education, quality, Total Quality Management, The Boarding RegionSchools of Primary Education (BSPE), teachers and school managers opinions.