The aim of this article is to analyse the evident use of the notion "educational quality" from the perspective of a critical "ontology of the present" by focusing on governmental relations. Through mapping present discourses on educational quality and related technologies, the authors analyse how our present concern with quality is part of a particular regime of government and self-government. In this governmental regime the "quality apparatus" seeks to assure an optimal relation between supply and demand. In conclusion, the perspective of a "creative ontology" of the educational present is introduced in order to formulate alternative ideas on education and in order to indicate the limits of education policy. (Contains 13 notes.)