November 27th 2019, children from 90 schools – India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Mauritius and Thailand came together at the ICSQC 2019, Lucknow to work on projects for social change using Quality Circles. Plastic reduction, stress management, reliance on social media were just some of the topics the children addressed and clearly are issues which children face the world over. Students were empowered to find solutions to their problems using their analytical skills and creative resources through the Quality Circle philosophy. The event provided the Quality community and students alike with an excellent opportunity to learn, exchange experiences, ideas and establishing a culture at grass roots level.
This year’s host, City Montessori School, Lucknow is the pioneer of introducing and institutionalizing the concept of Quality Control Circles in Education. The largest city school in the world, CMS now has 56,000 students over 18 campuses. Its Founder Manager Dr. Jagdish Gandhi became aware of Quality Control Circles on a visit to Japan in 1992. He noted how Professor Ishikawa successfully shaped QCC’s as formal groups within factories and offices to improve the quality of manufacture goods and services on a continuous basis. Dr. Gandhi realised the potential of introducing the Kaizen philosophy of continuous improvement and QC’s to students in schools at a young age. On his return from Japan, Dr Gandhi introduced the idea to Dr Vineeta Kamran, Principal and with the help of QC experts, CMS rolled out the QC philosophy in the school. In 1993, the world’s youngest and first Quality Circle at school level gave its first case study presentation at the Regional Convention on Quality Circles in Lucknow followed by a presentation to an international audience at the convention of ICQCC held that year in Hong Kong. It was there that David Hutchins and Don Dewar, two invited Keynote speakers suggested that the School should share their achievement with the world at large which they did in 1997. The event was such a success that they then repeated it every 2 years and named a Hall at one of the schools after David Hutchins in recognition for his support for this venture. They then went on to win the Most Heart Winning Case Study Award at the National Convention on Quality Circles. Following this success, there was no looking back for CMS and the school has had opportunities to send students to Conventions all over the world.
Next year’s ISCQC event will take place in Nepal (November 2020).
