Quality Management in Hungary

Hungarian Quality Award for Public Education

The recognition of excellence is one of the key success factors in quality improvement. With the aim of recognising the outstanding performance of the schools and spreading the best practices in the field of public education (total) quality management, the Hungarian Minister of Education – in his Decree nr. 3/2002 of February 15, 2002 on Public Education Quality Assurance and Quality Improvement – established the Quality Award For Public Education.

The Model of the Hungarian Quality Award For Public Education is based on the set of criteria of the EFQM Excellence Model (Public Sector category) and the Hungarian National Quality Award Model, which is again based on EFQM. Accordingly, a public education version has been elaborated. Besides, the Award is based on the system of requirements of the COMENIUS 2000 institutional models .
The Quality Award For Public Education is awarded in two categories according to the requirements of the COMENIUS 2000 institutional model applied (I and II).

In the COMENIUS 2000 institutional model I and model II award categories (Award for Partner-Focused Operation and Award for Excellence, respectively) maximum 20 institutions can be awarded recognition per annum. From among the „finalists”, 3 per each category can receive a (gold-, silver- and bronze) award. Besides that 14 certificates of merit can be distributed.

The Quality Award For Public Education application is also open to public education institutions that have implemented a quality management system different from the COMENIUS 2000, but fulfil its requirements.
The Hungarian Quality Award for Public Education is the first award of its kind , specially aimed at recognising outstanding performances and spreading best practices in the field of public education. As such it is a very innovative award. The Award – as a form of recognition – has several advantages:

  • Introduces the structured self-assessment process in the field of education/teaching that enables the institutions to benchmark their results.
  • Highlights the excellent operational performance of institutions with setting up examples of best practices that can and should be followed by the other public education institutions.
  • Performance of the awarded institutions becomes assessable by their partners.

The model of the Hungarian Quality Award for Public Education

The self-assessment model of the Hungarian Quality Award for Public Education is a version of the EFQM Excellence Model, being the base of the European Quality Award, adapted to public education. The creation of this Model is a unique professional development, as until now, with the exception of the North American Malcolm Baldrige Award, the criteria system of all other national education quality awards was fully identical with the model used by industry. By the development of the Quality Award for Public Education, Hungary is fulfilling again a pioneer role in the field of school improvement.
 
The fundamental idea of the Quality Award for Public Education , similarly to that of the European and the National Quality Award Models, is that partner and employee satisfaction, and the positive social impact is achieved via well-founded strategy, built on the leaders and the employees as well as on the efficient management of the resources and the processes of the institution, will lead to excellent results.

Following this fundamental idea, the Model uses the same nine-box structure as the EFQM Excellence Model. However, the definitions and descriptions have been modified and the criteria subdivided into fewer criterion parts. In the Award category for Partner-Focused Operation – that is a simplified model – there are 25, whereas in the Award category for Excellence 30 sub-criteria have to be elaborated. The Enablers (criteria 1 to 5) and their criterion parts are about how the institution is achieving its results. The Results criteria (6 to 9) and their criterion parts are about what the institution has achieved or is achieving. The document to be submitted by the institution-applicant for the Award is 32 pages long in the category for Partner-Focused Operation and 40 pages long in the category for Excellence.

Keeping in mind the original concept of the Award we should not forget that the Model serves first of all the self-assessment process of the institutions against the HQAPE Model. Self-assessment means taking a hard look at the institution’s strengths and areas for improvement. It provides the basis for future strategy and improvement plans. We offer an assessment tool for public education institutions by the help of which they are able to measure and benchmark the results of their work in the area of quality improvement.