This paper reveals the hidden implications of the quality assurance (QA) mechanism for school education in Hong Kong from the perspective of social monitoring described in Foucault's (1979) book "Discipline and Punish". The QA mechanism aims to improve school education by introducing an accountability and development framework, represented by the external school review and school selfevaluation respectively. However, the policy requires that the school self-evaluation process be verified and endorsed by an external review by the Education Bureau, that the areas for self-evaluation be bounded and framed by a set of central performance indicators and that the school evaluation report be uploaded to the school web-based information management system. The result is that the effect of the professional control is greater than the effect on school development. In this paper it is argued that the concepts of social surveillance, discipline and power proposed by Foucault in "Discipline and Punish" prevail in the QA model. It concludes that the power of social control generated by the QA model is established and rooted in the system for monitoring school quality.
[Copyright © 2012 J.Edu. & Soc.]