Implementation of Quality Assurance Management Basic Education (PAUD) in Indonesia

Early childhood education has a strategic role in human development. Therefore, quality education is needed. This study aims to determine the implementation of Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) / (PAUD) quality assurance management in Indonesia. A qualitative approach is carried out using the literature review method. The results show that implementing primary education quality control (ECCE) in Indonesia is crucial in ensuring a bright future for Indonesian children. In addition to the External Quality Assurance System, such as accreditation is also known as the Internal Quality Assurance System. Until now, SPMI has only been carried out at the Primary and Secondary Education and Higher Education levels. Until now, quality assurance has only been managed externally at the ECCE level, namely through BAN PAUD. As for the PAUD unit itself, there is no formal legal oversight of the implementation of SPMI. So we can see how the quality of ECCE in Indonesia until now is still very far from expectations.

Early childhood education has a strategic role in human development.
Therefore, quality education is needed.This study aims to determine the implementation of Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) / (PAUD) quality assurance management in Indonesia.A qualitative approach is carried out using the literature review method.The results show that implementing primary education quality control (ECCE) in Indonesia is crucial in ensuring a bright future for Indonesian children.In addition to the External Quality Assurance System, such as accreditation is also known as the Internal Quality Assurance System.Until now, SPMI has only been carried out at the Primary and Secondary Education and Higher Education levels.Until now, quality assurance has only been managed externally at the ECCE level, namely through BAN PAUD.As for the PAUD unit itself, there is no formal legal oversight of the implementation of SPMI.So we can see how the quality of ECCE in Indonesia until now is still very far from expectations.

INTRODUCTION
Early age plays a strategic role in the development of human life and requires good quality education.To achieve accountable quality early childhood education, each ECCE unit must have an education quality assurance system that is thoughtfully implemented.Early childhood education is a coaching effort aimed at children between the ages of birth and six (Suyadi, 2014).Without a quality assurance system, ECCE units' education and learning processes will run as is (Sufa & Setiawan, 2020).Without precise learning planning, not having an evaluation system, and measurable targets, educational outcomes do not have characteristics and advantages that are markers of the ability to develop the potential possessed by each student (Islami, 2018;Kurnaesih, 2019).It can be said that quality assurance at the ECCE level ensures the development of students' intellectual, emotional, social and spiritual intelligence potential to answer life problems quickly, precisely, and selectively (Islamic, 2018) Quality educational institutions are educational institutions that have been accredited and institutions that have reached quality standards.ECCE institutions are increasingly in demand and stand during society.Still, in reality, people, as education consumers, have not been able to distinguish between ECCE institutions that have been accredited (recognized by the government) and those that have not been accredited or not recognized by the government, and still experience confusion in choosing educational institutions for their children.Public awareness of the importance of early childhood education encourages educational institutions to present a quality education system.It enables educational institutions to improve the quality of educational institutions through accreditation programs conducted by the National Accreditation Board for Non-Formal Education (BAN-PNF).
School accreditation is mandated by the 2003 National Education System Law article 60, paragraph 1 states, "Accreditation is carried out to determine the eligibility of educational programs and units in formal and non-formal education pathways at each level and type of education."Furthermore, in paragraph 2, it is stated that accreditation of educational programs and units is carried out by the government and authorized independent institutions as a form of public accountability."Therefore, as a manifestation of the accountability process for implementing school accreditation, the government established a quality assurance institution called the National Accreditation Board (BAN), tasked with ensuring the quality of education per the minimum service standards set.Similarly, at the Early Childhood Education (PAUD) level, the National Accreditation Board for Early Childhood Education and Non-Formal Education is the quality assurance institution at the ECCE unit level (Ban PAUD dan PNF, 2019a).SPMI has previously only been conducted at the Primary, Secondary, and Higher Education levels.Until now, quality assurance has been managed solely externally at the ECCE level, via BAN PAUD.Regarding the ECCE unit, there is no explicit legal control of the SPMI implementation.Thus, it is evident that the quality of ECCE in Indonesia has not yet met expectations.Researchers believe that it is vital to implement an Internal Quality Assurance System in Early Childhood Education Units in order for each ECCE institution to achieve national ECCE requirements.
Based on the background above, the problem discussed in this paper is how to implement essential education quality control management (PAUD) in Indonesia.

THEORETICAL REVIEW
Many factors, such as superior human resources, adequate infrastructure, effective management systems, and visionary leadership of school principals, must support quality ECCE.The development of a quality culture in education units, especially in ECCE units, leads to the implementation of various quality essential education services based on quality learning culture and quality management culture based on schools and other cultures to maximize efforts to meet national education standards mandated by the government (Sobah et al., 2022).
Indonesia's Education Quality Assurance System is generally implemented externally (National Accreditation Board) and Internal (by education units independently).Until now, SPMI in education units has only been formally legalized in PP No.19 of 2005; article 49 is the management of education units at the primary and secondary education levels (KEMENDIKBUD, 2020).This program is implemented by selecting several elementary, junior high, and high schools to become model schools for developing the Internal Education Quality Assurance System (Sani et al., 2015).This quality assurance system has advantages, namely, the quality of the products produced is well guaranteed because the prevention of errors in the process is carried out strictly.The purpose of conducting education quality assurance is to improve the quality of performance, productivity, and efficiency and improve the quality of education following SNP (Islami, 2018).

METHODOLOGY
This research is a qualitative approach using the literature review method.The literature review aims to determine the implementation of ECCE quality assurance management in Indonesia.The journals and books to be dissected are Journal of Abosede (2016), Quality Controll in Early Childhood Education.British Journal of Education.And the book Quality Assurance for School Development.European Commission., as well as other resources related to quality assurance in ECCE in Indonesia.

The Concept of Early Childhood Education and Quality
Early Childhood Education is a sort of education delivered in Daycare Centers and Kindergarten schools to children ages 0 to 3 and 3 to less than 6 years old, respectively.It is a low-cost, community-based initiative for the holistic development of children aged 0 to 6 years (Uzodinma, 2001).ECE is defined by the National Association for the Education of Young Children-NAEYC (1991) as the education of children from birth to age eight.It encompasses policies and initiatives for children from birth to age eight.Early Childhood Education safeguards the rights of children to reach their full intellectual, emotional, social, and physical potential.It can be at home, daycare centers, playgroups/crèche, nurseries, kindergartens, and lower elementary schools (Abosede, 2016).Early Childhood Education (ECE) is commonly used interchangeably with Childhood Learning (ECL), Early Childhood Care (ECC), Early Childhood Development (ECD), Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE), Early Child Care Development and Education (ECCDE), and Early Care (EC) (Osanyin, 2012).
According to Wall, Litjens, and Taguma (2015), the quality of early childhood education is the most influential element in determining its scope and durability.Noting that international studies have diverse perspectives on what defines quality, it is possible to identify a number of standard elements (OECD, 2012).Class size, teacher-student ratio, formal staff certification level, and setting size are examples of structural quality (Anders, 2015).Process quality, in contrast, focuses on processes within early childhood education environments.Context, and specifically the contact that young children have with their immediate environment (Litjens andTaguma, 2010 cited in Wall, Litjens, andTaguma, 2015), as well as with space and materials, is a key aspect impacting process quality (Anders, 2015).Quality is a wholly subjective, valuebased notion that is entirely manufactured.Therefore, there is no single effective paradigm of early childhood education across all situations.However, there is widespread agreement that programs that assist children should be infused with their family's culture and values and be of high quality (Olaleye et al., 2009)

Education Quality Control
Quality means quality, degree, level.In general, quality can be defined as a thorough description and features of goods or services that demonstrate their ability to meet expected or inferred needs (Ali et al., 2022;Kuntoro, 2019;Kusnandi, 2018).Educational institutions are deemed to have "quality" if their inputs, processes, and outputs match the demands of educational service customers.A new educational institution might be called superior if its performance exceeds the requirements set by stakeholders (users).Because the needs of the requirements needed by users continue to evolve and develop, so does the understanding of quality (Qomar, 2009).
Quality assurance is conducting systematic reviews of educational programs and processes in order to maintain and improve quality, equity, and efficiency.While the design of quality assurance mechanisms (tools, methodologies, and actors) differs between national settings, their overarching goal is to improve teaching and learning in order to enable the best possible results for learners (European Commission, 2020) .
Approaches to quality assurance may incorporate both external and internal school processes.National or regional school evaluations and largescale student assessments are examples of external procedures.Internal procedures could include school self-evaluation, staff evaluation, and classroom-based student evaluation.These mechanisms serve distinct but complementary functions.They should ideally be part of a coherent and integrated system, with several instruments that support and reinforce one another.This fruitful collaboration may assure a clear emphasis on school growth by giving statistics on school climate and the well-being of all school community members, practical teaching and learning, and the impact of innovation.
The Eight Guiding Principles for Quality Assurance according to the European Commission (2020), namely: 1. Internal and external quality assurance systems must be consistent.
Systems should strive over time to achieve balance and coherence across the various mechanisms developed to meet stakeholders' demands and expectations in schools and the broader school education system.

Professional Learning Community.
Quality assurance policies should support the professional learning community to utilize the best quality assurance data for school and system development to ensure the best learning opportunities for all learners.Quality assurance policies should support the professional learning community best to use quality assurance data for school and system development.

Accountability and shared trust.
Trust and respect among internal and external actors are required for effective school evaluation and improvement.

Supporting Innovation.
School leaders and teachers need opportunities to take considered risks to innovate and thrive.Careful attention to data about the impact of innovation, including potential unintended outcomes, is essential.

Understanding and Dialogue Together.
The quality assurance approach should support the development of a common language and a shared understanding among internal and external actors that the fundamental purpose of evaluation is to support school development.

Network.
Networks between schools and their surrounding communities can foster collective involvement, increase social and intellectual capital, and inspire new synergies within the school system.7. Investment in building the capacity of key actors to generate, interpret, and use data is critical.

Data from many sources.
A balanced view of school development and learner progress requires a variety of quantitative and qualitative data collected throughout time.This data should communicate the true story of the school and give the knowledge required to assist decision-making within and across the educational system.Many countries mix external and internal school evaluations, which can complement and support one another.School education systems that support the synergy of external and internal quality assurance procedures are thought to be more resilient to complex change processes (European Commission, 2020).

Quality Assurance of Early Childhood Education in Indonesia
Quality assurance refers to quality monitoring, evaluation, or review operations.Quality assurance activities are focused on establishing confidence by achieving the requirements or minimal criteria for input components, process components, and expected results or outcomes.Quality assurance in education organizes all educational activities and resources aimed at customer satisfaction (Mahmud, 2012).
The Regulation of the Minister of National Education Number 63 of 2009 governing the Education Quality Assurance System governs education quality assurance.Quality assurance is described in the law as a systemic and integrated activity in implementing education to increase the intelligence level of the nation's life.These actions are carried out by educational units or programs, academic unit/program organizers, local governments, governments, and communities, and they engage the business world.
The education quality assurance system is positioned institutionally as part of the broader function of education management.The education quality assurance system, as one of the roles of education management, performs duties and responsibilities in measuring and assessing the compliance of quality criteria established in policies or regulations.Education quality assurance activities focus on ongoing quality improvement by measuring and evaluating the quality of the education system, educational institution performance, and study program quality.The education quality assurance system can be considered as a policy instrument for speeding policy implementation in order to promote community or public education accountability.
As a result, accreditation is one of the strategies or procedures utilized in the education quality assurance system and overall quality management in numerous nations, including Indonesia.Accreditation is carried out in Indonesia to determine the feasibility of programs and educational units on formal and non-formal education pathways at each level and type (Article 60 PP Number 19/2005) via an audit, measurement, and evaluation approach carried out by the National Accreditation Board (BAN).
Data on the achievement of accreditation results in ECCE Units in 2018 throughout Indonesia, from all ECCE units carried out accreditation totaling 30,241, for A-accredited institutions amounted to 2,183 ECCE Units (7.2%), with most of them centered on the kindergarten group (70%).Then, the results of B accreditation amounted to 17,825 ECCE units (59%), with a large number in the kindergarten group (62.2%).Furthermore, there were 10,126 ECCE units (33.5%) for C accreditation, concentrating on kindergarten and family planning groups (81.7%).(Ban PAUD dan PNF, 2019b) .
Accreditation achievements at the city scope in West Java province: data shows that 186 ECCE institutions in Depok City in 2018 showed 105 kindergarten institutions (55%) accredited B and 63 (30%) ECCE institutions accredited C (Fithri & Anggraini, 2018).As for the results of documentation of accreditation achievement in formal education units (kindergartens) in West Bandung Regency, out of 232 kindergarten institutions, there are 108 that have been accredited, and the remaining 124 are not accredited.The causes of the large number of unaccredited kindergarten institutions include the unpreparedness of institutions in facing accreditation, insufficient socialization, inadequate infrastructure, and limited resources of principals and teachers in educational administrative knowledge (Aminah &;Amiliya, 2021;Fithri &;Anggraini, 2018).
In addition to the External Quality Assurance System, such as accreditation is also known as the Internal Quality Assurance System.Internal Quality Assurance System (SPMI) is a systemic and integrated activity by education units or schools, education program providers, local governments, central governments, and communities to ensure the quality of education in an educational institution (internally driven) to supervise the implementation of education in a continuous manner (continuous improvement)) and improve the quality of education involving all elements consisting of organizations, policies, and integrated processes that regulate all activities to enhance the quality of education systematically, planned, and sustainably (Puspitasari, 2018).SPMI is a quality assurance system implemented by schools independently by involving all school components, including principals, educators, education staff, and all school residents (Prayoga, 2020).In implementing SPMI, a cycle has been established with five stages, namely (1) quality mapping, (2) preparation of quality improvement plans, (3) implementation of quality improvement plans, (4) Monitoring and evaluation of the process of implementing quality compliance), (5) Setting new standards and formulating quality improvement strategies (Istikomah et al., 2022) Quality Assurance in ECCE Unit is a system that ensures the implementation of learning following the National ECCE Standard (SN PAUD) contained in Permendikud No. 137 of 2014.Internal Quality Assurance is defined by evaluating each ECCE unit to achieve or exceed the ECCE National Standard.SPMI is independent and independent.SPMI is seen as one of the solutions to ECCE problems in Indonesia (Hakim et al., 2021) SPMI seeks to supervise Education units in Indonesia that are capable of organizing education to meet or exceed the established SN Education (Ragil et al., 2020).In turn, SPMI can be used as material for the National Accreditation Board's external quality assurance system (SPME) (BAN).The adoption of SPMI PAUD in higher education is carried out through the following stages by using the SPMI cycle: (a) Quality mapping is accomplished through activities based on ECCE National Standards for school self-evaluation (EDS).This activity produces a map of the achievement of national education criteria in educational units.as a starting point, issues encountered, and suggestions for improvement, (b) Quality improvement programs are created via quality mapping.The School Development Planning Document and Action Plan are the results of this planning process.(c) Implementing the quality improvement plan entails tasks related to ECCE unit management and the learning process.The outcomes of the implementation of this Quality Improvement Plan are the achievement of educational quality and the accomplishments of SN PAUD.(d) Monitoring and assessment of the quality improvement plan's execution, carried out to guarantee that the performance of quality improvement runs according to the program that has been developed.This activity produces a report on education units fulfilling national criteria and implementing quality fulfillment strategies.In addition, if there is a disparity between the program and the activity, recommendations for corrective action are provided.(e) Setting new quality standards and developing quality improvement strategies: According to the results of ECCE unit monitoring and evaluation, new quality requirements are greater than baseline norms (Suharsaputra, 2010).
According to the findings of a study conducted in 60 kindergartens in West Bandung Regency (Hakim et al., 2021), more than 58 percent of kindergartens are still not certified due to a lack of leadership and readiness of all aspects in kindergarten institutions.According to the findings, 98 percent of kindergarten schools indicated a need for SPMI development.Respondents also stated that an ECCE SPMI Instrument for implementation in the field was required.

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Implementing essential education quality control (ECCE) in Indonesia is critical to ensure that Indonesian children have a bright future.Accreditation is also known as the Internal Quality Assurance System, in addition to the External Quality Assurance System.SPMI has previously only been conducted at the Primary, Secondary, and Higher Education levels.Quality assurance has previously only been administered externally at the ECCE level, especially through BAN PAUD.In terms of the ECCE unit, there is no official legal control of SPMI implementation.As a result, we can see that the quality of ECCE in Indonesia is still far behind expectations.As a result, experts believe it is critical to establish an Internal Quality Assurance System in Early Childhood Education Units in order for each ECCE institution to achieve national ECCE requirements.

FURTHER STUDY
After conducting research on the implementation of Quality Assurance Management for Basic Education (QA) in Indonesia, there are several areas that still require further exploration.Therefore, further research could focus on developing a technology-based quality assurance management model to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of management processes in pre-school institutions.