MA. THERESA F.

ALANO
PhD in Education

ISAIAS B. BANAAG, Ph.D.

Professor
EMGT 305
Course Title: Educational Planning and Physical Plant Management

A REFLECTION PAPER ON STRATEGIC QUALITY PLANNING FOR TEACHERS

IN THE NEW MILLENNIUM

Introduction

Strategic quality planning (SQP) is a systematic approach to defining long-term

business goals, including goals to improve quality and the means (i.e., the plans) to
achieve them. Many organizations have created a vision “to be the best,” toward a
goal of outperforming competitors. Many of these organizations fall short in achieving
this vision. Most do not align, or have difficulty aligning, their performance excellence
initiatives. This leads to lack of resources to complete projects, which in turn makes
them hard to justify.
To achieve a vision, it is necessary to align the annual goals to the major
change initiatives or quality programs and integrate them into the strategic plan. This
will ensure the new focus becomes part of the plan and sustainable.
Strategic quality planning is also the systematic process by which an
organization defines its long-term goals with respect to quality and customers, and
integrates them into a cohesive educational plan. It enables the school organization to
execute organizational breakthroughs to achieve a competitive advantage and quality
leadership.
The approach to providing organization customer-focused and quality-oriented
goals has evolved into a more robust strategic plan, incorporating these goals into a
hierarchy that includes the voice of the customer. A structured methodology must
include participation and consultation, a common language, training and extensive
brainstorming.
Strategic quality planning in schools emphasizes on the inclusion of the
teachers in planning focusing on the client (pupils) needs and in the end, producing
quality education.
Summary
Unprecedented change is happening in schools all over the world which also
includes South Africa which is also the focus of the article of Van Der Linde. And with
this change, effective strategic quality planning must be learned and applied by school
leaders so that it will not lead to crisis management.
Strategic quality planning even in education also reflects the principles of Total
Quality Management in businesses, which is somehow difficult and frustrating for
school leaders and managers to accurately plan for their school since it is changing
rapidly.
The main problem of contemporary schools is to stay ahead of changes in the
educational sector. And this problem leads to unprecedented pressure exerted as a
result of new technology, changes in teaching methods and limited resources.
According to Linde, schools have also recently shift the emphasis of their
orientation which is not only product oriented but both product and client oriented.
Thus, shifting the role of the school principal from a manager to a business
administrator.
Also to meet all the demands of these changes, quality planning and strategic
planning must be combined. It involves those forces in an institution’s strategy that will
reflect, in conjunction with the external environmental factors, the impact on client
needs (internal and external) as well as on quality-related organizational ability.
Linde also emphasized that in strategic quality planning, it is no longer the duty
of top management alone to manage the entire strategic planning process.
And rather referring it as strategic planning it is preferable to refer it as strategic
thinking by Loewen (1997) which includes the entire personnel and planned
continuously.

Reflection
Strategic quality planning which reflects the principles of Total Quality
Management implies a new way of thinking at education management. It shifts the
emphasis from the usual traditional, conservative approaches to creative, innovative,
interesting and exciting approaches which focuses on excellence in schools which
equates to quality education.
 Planning is essential to any goal that an organization wants to achieve, more
so if quality is to attained, thus strategic planning should be in place in all schools since
any educational institution aims for quality education.
Teachers in the new millennium has a big role to play in strategic quality
planning. They are active participants in the entire process and they are considered
co-responsible in this process. And also since teachers are the basic implementers of
any school plan, consultation with them is very vital to get the raw and real data and
assessment of the existing processes in schools. With this information and data,
school leaders and the school planning team will have a clear grasp on what is the
school’s present situation and where are they at the present in terms of the goal they
want to achieve and has previously targeted.
Teachers should also be well-informed on how strategic quality planning works.
In case of a public elementary school, teachers should be well guided on how the
strategic planning will be done, what are the preliminary activities or the pre-planning
stage, the planning process itself and the post-planning or the monitoring and
evaluation. They also must come to the realization as to who are their prime client and
who is in the center of the entire planning process. And in case of a public elementary
school, primary clients are the learners and the secondary are the parents and the
whole community as well. While its main goal is achieving quality education through
quality service delivery.
Getting the voice of the customer is also essential. It is done to make sure that
what is planned and delivered will answer to what is needed by the customers.
Strategic quality planning should also take place in schools to have better
control of the organization and to also focus all the personnel, teaching and non-
teaching. Into working with the common goal. This can be achieved with the
involvement personnel in the planning and making the goals clear to everyone and
this can be achieved. The school’s programs, projects and activities are all directed in
achieving that same goal thus having better control of the whole organization.
It may also develop leadership skills especially with the delegation of tasks in
the strategic quality planning. Teachers’ leadership skills may be discovered,
developed and enhanced as they are involved in the planning stage. They would also
have that sense of feeling that they are somehow part of the ‘management’ that
decides what needs to be achieved and accomplished by the school. They would also
have that sense of ownership, increasing the consensus and approval of the school
programs and projects internally and the ease in its implementation.
While Mintzberg regarded that strategic planning is actually programming and
suggested that it should be termed as strategic thinking or reflection, still it is
undeniable that strategic planning is at the core any planning process since it is
structured according to the agenda and follows steps and procedures as to strategic
thinking which can be chaotic since it cannot give immediate answers and not
structured.
And the most important is, with strategic quality planning, the future of the client,
that is the learners, will be in the center of the plan and on how to improve education
service delivery. It encompasses a customer-focused vision, which define the benefits
that can be expected with the school organization.