THE POTENTIAL OF MTSN 1 YOGYAKARTA AS A QUALITY SCHOOL

MTSN 1 Yogyakarta is one of the junior high schools in the centre of Yogyakarta city, which has only just resumed face-to-face learning; on the other hand, this school is very selective about the students who enter MTSN 1 Yogyakarta. The school has class groupings consisting of research classes, excellence classes, tahfidz classes and regular classes, and with such class groupings it is easier for children to follow the interests each of them tends to have.

At that time, second-semester Chemistry Education students of UIN Sunan Kalijaga Yogyakarta were doing an internship, and there I learned that there are groupings according to the interests and abilities in each field that the students are keen on. These class groupings had only been built about 1.5 years earlier. And at that time they were hindered by Covid-19 in Indonesia. Now they are being built up again after face-to-face learning started again, because it has begun to be visible that children in the regular classes and the special classes are very different.

On my seventh day there, I heard that there was an OSN (National Science Olympiad) competition in various fields for MTSN 1 Yogyakarta students, and on average the students selected were those from the excellence classes, although it is not impossible for regular students to be selected too, but the excellence class children are more encouraged and given the opportunity first, because those excellence children are already used to being trained on separate problems and, not only that, excellence class children also have special hours after attending the same lessons as the regular classes; these special classes are given in accordance with the excellence class that has been chosen.

Regarding the research class in particular, what I know is that in this research class they are taught to focus on research and are trained to always think critically by observing the surrounding nature. Not only that, they are also taught how to structure their writing, with the aim of equipping these students from an early age by training them in the ways mentioned above. In this way, students in the research class motivate themselves by seeing their friends' enthusiasm. Therefore I would say that this research class is very suitable as an example for other MTS. Not only the research class, there is also a tahfidz class, which likewise has a special schedule after school; the after-school schedule of this special tahfidz class is reciting the Qur'an and memorising, so that the time is put to good use, and with this additional class children can be kept from overusing social media.

During this internship, I gained a great deal of valuable and unforgettable experience. During this 1-month-and-10-day internship, the teachers and students welcomed us very warmly and gave very good responses. Here we were taught not only to handle problems in the integrated science laboratory, but also to take part in everything the teachers do, such as serving as the duty teacher, filling empty class periods, and, lastly, taking part in the series of Sambut Mentari (Welcoming the Sun) activities, in which children are taught discipline so as to shape an excellent character for the nation's children. Not only that, my friends and I also served as supervisors or assistants in various practicums, and not only chemistry, among them as assistants in Physics, Biology and Chemistry practicums with various topics, so that, to conclude, with this internship we gained not only experience of the laboratory but also all kinds of experiences that will never be forgotten.