Quality Management, School Environment, and Digital Technology, as Predictors of Academic Success: A Pathway to Achieving SDG4 in Secondary Education

Abstract

The qualities will enable the full understanding of the factors affecting the level of education and academic outcomes of students to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG-4), particularly in secondary level where future competencies are developing. The three areas of related predictors of educational achievement in the high school discussed in this paper are quality management, the school climate, and introduction to digital technology. The synthesized framework that has been developed in this paper highlights that the quality management and the application of the digital technology and the school environment are all important predictors of the success of education in secondary schools. The paper states that the application of the digital technology to the learning environments and quality management systems, in their turn, affect academic success both directly and indirectly. The research design applied in the study is a mixed-methods research design to evaluate quantitative data, which is founded on the use of technology and data on student performance, and qualitative data collected using interviews, classroom observations, institutional records, and secondary exam data founded on school performance. The approaches to quality management, primarily, the approaches founded on the models of continuous improvement like PDCA, can be used to establish the linkage between the institutional resources and student outcomes by improving the quality of teaching and learning, accountability, and data-driven decision-making. These predictors together form an effective framework that has a direct contribution to the achievement of the SDG-4 objective of inclusive, fair, and quality education. To maximize in the most sustainable way the learning output and the minimization of the gaps in the achievements, the research narrows down to stating that the national education policy should consist of digital fairness, environmental improvement, and systemic quality assurance especially in the resource-constrained settings. It would be suggested that future research consider longitudinal and experimental research  design to establish causal relationship as well as offer policy solutions scalable.