The Efforts to Improve the Quality of Education in North Tapanuli Regency

This study aims to describe in detail the condition of the quality of education in North Tapanuli Regency which has not been in line with expectations, and at the same time provides solutions that can be done to improve it. This study applies mixed method, library method and field studywith direct observation and collect information in the field. Based on the analysis, it is known that the quality of education in North Tapanuli regency still needs improvement which includes some aspects namely quality of graduates, quality of the learning process, competence of educators, facilities and infrastructure, and aspects of management, so that the quality of education can be improved. Efforts that can be done to improve the quality of education are improving teacher competencies, completing facilities and infrastructure, strengthening School-Based Management (SBM) and Integrated Quality Management (Total Quality Management), revitalizing cooperation between schools and the community, and maximizing educationmonitor.


INTRODUCTION
The quality of education becomes one problems faced by the government in Indonesia.There are some elements regarding to the quality of education such as quality of teachers and education personnel (principals, supervisors), teaching curriculu m, learning methods, teaching materials, learning facilities and infrastructure, and school management. These are interrelated in an effort to improve the quality of teaching and learning which culminates in improving the quality of education. St rat eg ic Plan namely by increas ing : act ive ro les o f students in th e classroo m, p arent / family ro les, teacher p erfo rman ce an d educat ion staff, access and serv ice qu ality Early Ch ildh ood Educat ion and secondary ed ucat ion t hrough a 12-year quality co mpu lso ry ed ucat ion p rog ram, s trengt hen in g t he quality assu ran ce o f edu cat ion s erv ices , cu rricu lu m rearrang ement , relevance of vocat ion al edu cat ion to the n eeds of th e world o f wo rk, st rengthen ing a co mp reh ens ive educat ion assess men t syste m, and improv ing education management .
The quality of education is mu lti-dimensional which covers aspects of input, process and output (outputs and outcomes). Therefore, indicators and education quality standards are developed holistically starting fro m inputs, processes and outputs.The low quality can be seen fro m several indicators: student learning outcomes (knowledge, attitudes and skills), teacher quality and teaching and learning process, facilit ies and infrastructure, quality of supervision and management or effectiveness and efficiency (Pananrangi, 2017: 238-242).
Crit icis m about the quality of education in Indonesia is very much exp ressed by education experts, education researchers, and education observers. Panjaitan et al. (2014: 111) states that problems in the world of education include: low physical facilit ies and quality of teachers as well as low opportunities for equal distribution of quality education and the relevance of education to needs. Tilaar (2006: 5-6) argues that the deterioration of the quality of national education does not lie in the intelligence abilit ies of Indonesian students, but is due to uneven opportunities in obtaining good education in the children of this nation.In addition, the role of the LPTK in particular as an institution for recruit ing teacher training is very important. Problems that occur related to the quality of education can be rooted in prob lems related to managerial quality of education leaders, limited fund s, facilit ies and infrastructure, educational facilit ies, med ia, learning resources, school climate, educational environment, and support fro m part ies related to education (Syaodih, 2006: 8 , the lack of co mpleteness of learning infrastructure such as computer laboratory rooms, language, biology, physics and ingredients for examp le the inadequate quantity and quality of computers, the learning process that still seems teacher oreinted with expository learning style so that the balance of soft skills with hard skills has not been achieved, there are still teachers who lack the scientific approach with the application of Pro ject Based Learn ing, Problem Based Learn ing, Cooperative Learning and Contextual Teach ing Learn ing, including lack of mastering authentic assessment design.In addition, there was noise between certification teachers due to lack of teaching hours, so the learning climate was disrupted. Some of the teachers who had received the prev ious certification allo wance were forced to no longer accept it just because the mandatory 24 hour load was not fulfilled any more. Th is is due to the increase in teachers transferred to the school only because of the teacher's request, not on the basis of the princip le of equity.Under these conditions, it will certainly affect the implementation of the learn ing process. The concentration of teachers who had felt co mfortable doing their work has become disturbed. The impact was also increasingly widespread because of the conflict between the teacher and the teacher in the same group of study fields, also between the teacher and the principal who were blamed for having passed the need for the newly transferred teacher to the school.Fro m the explanations stated in the background, the formu lation of research problems that will be focused as follows: 1) What is the condition of the quality of education in North Tapanuli Regency?, 2) What obstacles are faced in improving the quality of education in North Tapanuli Regency?, 3) What efforts should be done to improve the quality of education in North Tapanuli regency? Then, the writer entit led "Efforts to Improve the Quality of Education in North Tapanuli Regency " as the focus of the study in this paper. The writer is very motivated to review this topic because he hopes to contribute ideas to improving the quality of education, especially in North Tapanuli regency.

II. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE 2.1. The Quality of Education
According to Deming (in Usman, 2006: 410) quality is conformity with needs or suitability with needs. Relative quality is not an end, but as a tool that has been determined whether it has met the standards that have been set. The quality of education is multi-dimensional (holistic) covering aspects of input, process and output (outcomes). The declared quality is high if the students' academic and non-academic learning outcomes are high. Outcome was declared quality if graduates were quickly absorbed in the world of work, salaries were reasonable, all part ies recognized the greatness of their graduates and were satisfied.Similarly, Crosby asserted (in Hadis and Nurhayati, 2010: 85) that quality is something that is standardized or h inted at (conformance to requirement). A product has a quality if it is in accordance with a predetermined standard, the quality standard includes raw materials, production processes, and finished products. Quality is a dynamic condition related to products, labor, processes and tasks and the environment that meets or exceeds customer expectations. With these quality changes, it is necessary to increase or change the skills of labor, production processes and tasks, as well as changes in the company's environment so that products can meet and exceed consumer expectations (Garvi and Dav is, in Hadis and Nurhayati, 2010: 86). The quality of education is education that is able to produce graduates who have academic co mpetencies and vocational competencies, which are based on personal and social co mpetencies, as well as noble moral values, all of wh ich are life skills. They are capable of integrating faith, knowledge and deeds (Sudaradjat, 2005: 17).So the authors conclude that, quality education is education that has dimensions / components namely input, process and output (results) that have met predetermined standards, and produce graduates with established skills (life skills), both in academic, vocational, personal social competence and having character values.
school are arranged attractively, the teacher makes educational media or interesting teaching aids, g) Human interface (personal interface) that is upholding moral values and professionalism. For examp le, school citizens respect each other, democracy, and respect professionalism, h ) Easy to use: means school rules relating to the requirements for borro wing school facilit ies such as library books that are easy to apply, i) Having a special feature means having certain advantages such as superior schools in terms of mastering informat ion technology (ICT), j) Hav ing certain standards (conformance to specificat ion) means that they have met certain standards such as min imu m service standards , k) Having the element of accuracy (acuracy) means the accuracy in providing services such as schools are able to provide services in accordance with what the school customers want, l) Having uniformity without variation, there is no discrimination, for examp le in the implementation of rules and sanctions or punishments , m) Having the ability to serve (serviceability) is able to provide excellent service. Fo r examp le, schools provide suggestion boxes and suggestions that are able to be fulfilled properly so that customers feel satisfied.Furthermo re, in the EFA Global Monitoring Report (2005) or the Global Education Monitoring Report for All, it was argued that there are five d imensions of education quality which include: learner characteristics, enabling input that includes human resources and physical resources, teaching-learning process (teaching and learning), learn ing outcomesin accordance with expectations, (Daniel Goleman in Suparlan, 2004: 39).

Obstacles in Improving the Quality of Education
There are some obstacles faced by goverment to improve the quality of education, including: a) Develop ment strategies in the field of education have been more input oriented. Such a strategy relies more on the assumption that if all educational inputs have been fulfilled, such as the provision of books (teaching materials) and other learning tools, provision of educational facilities, train ing of teachers and other education personnel, automatically educational institutions (schools) will be able to produce quality output as expected. b) Education management has been more macro-oriented Governed by the ranks of the bureaucracy at the central level.As a result, many factors projected at the macro (central) level do not occur or do not work as they should at the micro (school) level. In other words, it can be said that the complexity of the scope of the problem of education, often cannot be fully and accurately thought of by the central bureaucracy.
c) The imp lementation of education is not efficient and effective In education activities should be directed to the implementation of education that is effective and on target. The fact is that many occur in schools implementing education only as a mere formality, in schools there are some teachers who come to school only give assignments or notes after leaving the class without any explanation fro m the lesson and when the bell reads the new teacher returns to class just to collect assignments . d) Less developed educational innovations So far education has only focused on problems similar to solutions that are repeated again in the old way without improvement with the latest innovations and creative ideas. For examp le, the problem with the book of school packages is always repeated every year, we are trapped in the mechanism of instant profit fro m a handful of business people. Until the student book that is used next year cannot be passed on to the younger students. e) Low quality of physical facilities There are many schools and colleges that have damaged build ings, ownership and use of learn ing med ia is low, library books are not complete. While the laboratory is not standard, the use of informat ion technology is inadequate and so on. Even there are still many schools that do not have their own buildings, do not have a library, do not have a laboratory and so on. f) Low teacher quality The situation of teachers in Indonesia is also very concerning. Most teachers do not have sufficient professionalism to carry out their duties as mentioned in Article 39 of Law No. 20/ 2003, namely p lanning learning, carrying out learning, assessing learn ing outcomes, mentoring, conducting training, conducting research and community service. g) Lack of equitable education opportunities Opportunities to get education are still limited to elementary school level. Meanwh ile early childhood education services are still very limited. Coaching failure at an early age will certainly hamper the development of human resources as a whole.
content standards, process standards, educators and education personnelstandards, facilities and infrastructure standards, management standards, financing standards, and educational assessment standards as a guide to gathering informat ion fro m respondents . These standards were made reference to get informat ion by interviewingseveral principals and teachers from elementary to high school level regarding with the quality of education in North Tapanuli regency.

IV. RESULT AND DISCUSSION 4.1.The Overview of Educati on Quality in North Tapanuli Regency
Eight indicators of national education standards were used as parameters to get an overview of quality of education in North Tapanuli regency. It has not shown significant changes of graduate competencyafter the implementation of the 2013 Curriculu m. The quality of graduates has not yet been maximized. For examp le, there are still many high school graduates who do not have the skills or life skills that can support them especially when they do not continue their education to the college level. As a result they cannot compete in the world of work. Attitude is not as expected. The problem of students skipping learning, s moking, speeding in the city, gambling online at co mputer rentals, must be an important note for every educational institution, government, and parents in North Tapanuli regency. Furthermore, the development of the theme of local content learning (Crafts and Entrepreneurship) designed and chosen by education units does not seem to accommodate maximu m factual needs and is less oriented to the potential of the region. Actually there are many local lesson themes based on regional potential that can be developed by schools or educational institutions such as: ulos weaving, sihobuk bean processing, or also making guitars in accordance with the North Tapanuli regency characteristics, as well as being ab le to equip students to be independent.Learning process based on 2013 curriculu moriented to the scientific approach for example by applying Pro ject Based Learning (PBL) learning methods, Problem Based Learn ing (PBL), Discovery Learning, or Cooperative Learning. In fact, not all schools are able to imp lement these methods or approaches, especially schools in the sub-district of No rth Tapanuli. They still applies conventional learning models (teacher oriented).Based on the observations of the authors in the field, it may be said that not all teachers in North Tapanuli regency fully master the basic substance of the 2013 Curriculu m. Whereas, it is impo rtant so that they can work professionally in carry ing out their duties.There are still a number of schools in No rth Tapanuli regency that have not met the standard of facilit ies and infrastructure. For examp le the limitations of the study room, workshops, laboratories and facilit ies, lib rary, and co mputer units.There is still a polemic in the management of education, for examp le regarding the management of educational assistance fro m the government which should not be assigned to the principal, because the principal does not have the competence to the task. In addition, aspects of supervision or controlling are still weak.In terms of the funding budget in schools, until now the polemic found was the difficulty fo r principals in planning a one-year official trip financing, this was due to the urgency of wo rk meet ings. Included in this case is the polemic about the transportation costs of the National Examiners in schools that are located very far fro m the city center.After the imp lementation of 2013 curriculu m based assessment, in practice there is still a dualis m among teachers. The co mponents of the assessment are in accordance with the fo rmat of the 2013 results of the curriculu m learn ing report, there are still so me teachers who still do not understand it.

4.2.The Efforts to improve the quality of education 1) Improvement on Teacher's Professional Competence
A professional teacher does not only teach but also educates, guides, directs, trains, assesses, and evaluates students. They must have four co mpetencies including1) Pedagogic co mpetence: ability to manage learning: understanding the foundation of educatio n and participants, being able to develop curriculu m, and designing learning, 2) personality co mpetence: faithful, wise, wise, authoritative, honest, democrat ic, and an examp le for students, 3) social co mpetence: able to communicate well or in society, and 4) professional competence: mastering the field taught.

2) Improvement on Education Facilities and Infrastructure
Educational facilities are one o f the educational factors that are deliberately held and used for the achievement of educational goals. Definition of educational tools and facilit ies as a tool factor, distribution, and use of each in the implementation of education.

3) Strengthen on SchoolBased Management (SBM) and Total Quality Management
The implementation of School Based Management is able to improve the quality of education through the independence of schools and school in itiatives in empowering all available resources, increasing the responsibility and concern of the school community towards the imp lementation of education, this is because all school communities are involved in decision making. SBM is also able to increase healthy competition between schools, because schools will try to improve their respective education to be superior to other schools (Nurkolis, 2003: 27 The education process does not only run in school but also outside school or family and co mmunity, and vice versa. Ki Hajar Dewantara called it the term "Tri Education Center", namely family, school and community. Therefore, between the school and parents it is necessary to establish a cooperation so that the educational process can run optimally. Not only that, this cooperation also needs to be established between the school and the business community and other educational institutions (Law Nu mber 20 of 2003 concerning National Education System). e) Maximizing Monitoring of the Imp lementation of Education No matter how good the planning and imp lementation of education is, but if it is not accompanied by intensive supervision, it certainly does not provide optimal results. By intensifying monitoring o f every education in all schools, and related units, it is certainly expected to imp rove the quality of education in North Tapanuli regency.

V. CONCLUSION
There are still some obstacles in improving the quality of education, namely: 1) Develop ment strategies in the field o f education have been more input oriented, 2) Management of education has been more macro-oriented, 3) The implementation of education is not efficient and effective, 4) Unqualified standardization is always changing, 5) Lesser of educational innovations, 6) Low of quality of facilities, 7) Lo w o f quality of teachers, 8) Lack of equitable education opportunities.
Based on the result of the study, it can be concluded that the quality of education in North Tapanuli regency is still not optimal in accordance with expectations, in terms of aspects of national education standards that have become provisions. Therefore, improvements are still needed in each area of the standard. There are several efforts that can be done by education stakeholders to improve the quality of education in North Tapanuli regency, namely: 1) Imp rovementon teacher professional competence, 2) Imp rovementon education facilities and infrastructure, 3) Strengthen on School-Based Management (SBM) and Total Quality Management (TQM ), 4 ) Revitalization on school collaboration with the community, and 5) Maximizing on mon itoring of education implementation.