The Dr J.J.Irani Award for Excellence in Education ceremony was graced by Mr. P Chidambaram, Honorable Finance Minister of India who was the Chief Guest along with Mr B Muthuraman, Managing Director, Tata Steel and Dr. Jamshed J Irani, Director, Tata Sons. The award ceremony was organised at XLRI Auditorium today amongst huge grandeur and show and the following schools were recognized for strong commitment to Total Quality Management (TQM) in education in order of merit:

A special recognition was given to Carmel Junior College for having the scored the highest points amongst the six schools. Based on the Malcolm Baldrige Criteria, this award was launched in January 2003 and was named as 'Dr Jamshed J Irani Award for Excellence in Education' because of Dr. Irani's never ending quest for quality.

In his welcome address, Mr. B Muthuraman, Managing Director Tata Steel said, "Education is a fundamental requirement in any city. Today Jamshedpur is very best in its quality of life, power, town and this award is an effort to bring about a similar system in education."

While speaking on the occasion, Dr. Jamshed J Irani expressed his views and said, "The greatest need in India is better education. Quality education for our children is essential to make this country the prime power that it is supposed to be."

After giving away the awards, Mr. P Chidambaram, Union Finance Minister, congratulated the participants and the winners and said, "I am glad to have come to Jamshedpur, on the occasion when this city is celebrating change, excellence, flowering of children, progress and prosperity. I would like to congratulate Tata Steel on instituting this award to recognize excellence in the field of education"

Schools play a profound role in developing the personality and the attitudes of people which thereafter plays a vital role in the growth & development of the country. Inspired by this thought and its own mission & purpose, Tata Steel embarked upon the task of bringing Excellence in Education through the Tata Steel Education Excellence Initiative.

To participate in the award ceremony, the schools had applied through an application as per guidelines provided in the 'Tata Steel Education Excellence Model'. This was followed by a two step process - the application assessment & a site visit to the respective school, where the schools were assessed against criteria like leadership, strategic planning, student and parent focus, information and analysis, faculty and staff focus, process management and organisational performance results

Thereafter, each school was provided a score on 1000 and the schools that cross a score of 600 became eligible for this prestigious Dr. J J Irani Award for Excellence in Education. In this journey for excellence the following six schools have crossed the score of 400 within three years since the assessment began.

While no school has reached the coveted 600 marks as yet, it must be remembered that Tata Steel, the first recipient of the prestigious JRD QV Award initiated by the Tata Group for promoting Business Excellence, took 6 long years to achieve this mark.