Education is not just transferring knowledge, theory, and academic facts, taking care of exam questions, establishing graduation criteria, or just printing a diploma. Education is a process of liberating students from ignorance, disability, helplessness and dishonesty.
Therefore, the educational process is not limited to memorization and practice of mastering exam questions. The educational process, in addition to being directed at the formation of enthusiasm, motivation, creativity, tenacity, and self-confidence, also emphasizes the formation of awareness, discipline, responsibility, and a good learning culture. Such an educational process can be developed in accordance with the talents, interests, abilities, needs, characteristics, and learning styles of students. That is quality education.
However, in the current era of competition quality alone is not enough to build superior educational institutions. The managers of educational institutions must be able to make their institutions competitive. So, how to create quality and competitive education?
Quality and Competitive Education
Professor of Education Management, Dedy Mulyasana in his book entitled “Quality and Competitive Education” explained the capital and attitudes needed, suitable concepts developed to management concepts in order to create competitive vocational education.
To win the competition, education providers at least have a competitive attitude in carrying out their institutional duties. Related to this, leaders need to analyze the needs of students and map the trends and strengths of competition, set quality standards, and formulate demands for environmental needs and trends.
The needs analysis must be factual and measurable. That is why, analysis of learning or education needs is based on calculations of existing potentials, problems that occur, future trends, and demands for change and future challenges.
The intended competitiveness is the effort of educational institutions to prepare their students’ future in the midst of the complex challenges of the times.
Steps in order to strengthen the quality of educational institutions while opening opportunities to increase competitiveness, several strategic steps were formulated, including:
- Ensuring that more than half the components of an organization contain competitive advantage (HR, funding sources, learning facilities and infrastructure, vision, mission, programs, strategies, networks and cooperation, leadership, community carrying capacity and so on).
- Always update the mission, programs, and strategies deemed not according to need.
- Critical to various strategies implemented and sensitive to new strategies implemented by competitors.
- Oriented to the satisfaction of users of educational services. Therefore, leaders of educational institutions not only sell buildings, educational facilities, and science alone, but also sell the trust in which there is professionalism, worthiness, and satisfaction.
- Always be at the right time, with the right people, and in the right place.
- Efficient in using time, energy, thoughts, and funds, so that they can carry out strategic steps in carrying out the task.
- Always create a comfortable and pleasant atmosphere for all parties.