Implementing an Internal Quality Assurance System to Enhance Elementary School Education Quality

Abstract

An education quality assurance system is intended to enhance education quality and establish a quality culture in schools; however, some elementary schools in Indonesia still struggle with its implementation. Hence, this research aimed to suggest action steps as an option to enhance the implementation of the education quality assurance system in elementary schools. This research employed an action research design to investigate this issue and identify alternative solutions. The data were collected using a survey and semi-structured interviews with staff at one private elementary school in East Kalimantan province, namely a school principal, 31 teachers and two school foundation administrators. The findings produced nine action steps: 1) Building management commitment, 2) Setting up a quality improvement team, 3) Engaging in communication and socialization, 4) Building quality awareness, 5) Forming a quality control circle, 6) Mapping quality education, 7) Preparing a mapping instrument, 8) Collecting mapping data, and 9) Processing and analyzing mapping data. This research concludes that new school quality standards improved every year on being compared with eight points on the national education standards, and the national examination results exceeded the average national examination score at the provincial level. The increase in the average values of Standard 1–8 ranged from 0.6 to 1.5. In other words, these nine steps had an impact on obtaining school accreditation with a superior rating.