ABSTRACT
W. Edwards Deming was unequivocal in his response–inspection in itself never brings about improvement. He gave the world a philosophy and a methodology to bring about such a transformation, and to achieve the seemingly impossible dream of 'joy in work'. Deming's work emphasises the futility of end-of-process inspection to control quality of product. All organisations form a system of interrelated components. The school system must have a purpose–there is no system if there is no purpose or aim. All the stakeholders of a school need to recognise its aims as having meaning and relevance to them, since they will be instrumental in bringing about 'success'. Office for Standards in Education's (OFSTED) stated purpose is 'Improvement through Inspection'. OFSTED's own system handicaps the inspectors from giving the advice needed to improve, unless they choose to do otherwise covertly. OFSTED allows for no understanding of in-process variation in inspection of a school nor, indeed, in its own processes.
