Antecedents of Primary School Quality: The Case of Remote Areas Schools in Indonesia

The policy of developing remote area schools’ quality in Indonesia is getting stronger. The government has set minimum service standards as a reference for schools’ development quality while remaining based on local, national, global, and 21st-century values. This study revealed efforts to improve the 21st-century school’s quality through the contribution of superior leadership, school climate, total quality management implementation, and the school principal’s performance approached quantitatively and analyzed descriptively using Structural Equation Modeling. Participants involved in the study were 147 remote area principals and teachers in two provinces in Indonesia. Results show that (1) school climate had the most dominant contribution to school quality and (2) there was a significant simultaneous effect among superior leadership, school climate, total quality management implementation, and the school principal’s performance on the school quality. Implications of the study’s findings from a theoretical and practical lens as well as recommendations for future studies are also discussed.