Quality assurance and school monitoring

Responding to the rapid development of new knowledge, new technology and globalisation, education quality, quality assurance and school monitoring are key policy issues in many countries around the world, particularly those in the Asia-Pacific region (Cheng & Townsend, 2000). Quality in education can be defined in a number of ways, including the fitness of educational outputs for use (Juran & Gryna, 1988); the achievement of the mission and goals (Crosby, 1979; Mukhopadhyay, 2001); adding values to students or institutes (Saunders, 1999); continuous improvement (Deming, 1986); excellence, exceptional or high standard (Gaither, 1998); lack of defects (Crosby, 1979); and satisfying the needs and expectations of strategic constituencies (Cheng & Cheung, 2001; Crosby, 1979). Quality in education is multifaceted and multidimensional (Cheng & Cheung, 2001) and is described by some as a dynamic positive concept (Mukhopadhyay, 2001). One of the consistent features of concern with quality has been the establishment of quality assurance and school monitoring systems. Copyright © 2003 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht.