Phenomenological study on enhancing education quality of madrasa: effective strategies from school principals perspectives

Introduction. The quality of education, both academic and non-academic, has always received serious attention from all education stakeholders. Because of that, they always focus on seriously improving the quality of these two aspects, especially the school principal. As the person in charge of education in Madrasas, principals are responsible for and play an essential role in improving the quality of education in the schools they lead. Aim. This study aims to explain the strategies used by madrasa principles to improve the quality of academic and non-academic education in their school environment. Methods. This research used a qualitative approach by interviewing ten madrasa principles in Samarinda, East Kalimantan. The results of the interviews were transcribed and analyzed qualitatively to find essential themes related to the research context. Results. This study found six strategies school principals use to improve madrasa's academic and nonacademic quality, starting from developing strong academic curriculum, implementing innovative teaching methods and technologies, creating a supportive learning environment, building a solid work team, a precise educational evaluation and monitoring system, and making a collaboration and good communication with parents of students. Practical significants. This research has implications for the importance of school principals having effective strategies to improve the quality of academic and non-academic education in the madrasa environment. Therefore, it is hoped that school principals will implement these six strategic steps in improving the quality of madrasas in the management they apply. It is also hoped that the head of the Islamic education office will educate school principals in the madrasa environment to equip them with managerial skills to improve the quality of madrasah education, both in the academic and non-academic fields.