Currently, the “tahfiẓ Al-Qur‟an” program is no longer considered taboo. This is because the trend of Quranic memorization in Indonesia has developed over the past ten to fifteen years, and its existence is highly regarded in enhancing school competitiveness. Therefore, it is no longer surprising that Islamic and public schools compete to establish the Quranic memorization program as their flagship. This research aims to understand the planning, implementation process, and implications of the “tahfiẓ Al-Qur‟an” flagship program in enhancing school competitiveness at MI Muhammadiyah Sumampir Rembang Purbalingga.
This research is a field study with a qualitative descriptive approach, where the research subjects are the school principal, vice principal for curriculum, and representatives of teachers involved in the “tahfiẓ Al-Qur‟an” flagship program at MI Muhammadiyah Sumampir Rembang Purbalingga. The data collection techniques used in this study are observation, interviews, and documentation. The data analysis techniques employed are data reduction, data display, and drawing conclusions.
The results of this research indicate that the “tahfiẓ Al-Qur‟an” flagship program in enhancing school competitiveness at MI Muhammadiyah Sumampir Rembang Purbalingga has gone through planning stages consisting of four steps: (1) Establishing the program; (2) Determining program success indicators; (3) Designating program responsibility; (4) Developing activities and scheduling. Furthermore, the implementation process includes preliminary, core, and concluding activities. The “tahfiẓ Al-Qur‟an” flagship program in the 2022/2023 academic year resulted madrasah graduates who can achieve a minimum target of 1 juz by 62%, but the maximum target of 3 juz cannot be achieved. Additionally, the “tahfiẓ Al-Qur‟an” flagship program has implications in enhancing school competitiveness at MI Muhammadiyah Sumampir Rembang Purbalingga, namely: (1) the “tahfiẓ Al-Qur‟an” flagship program serves as branding for the Islamic school; (2) It increases the trust of the local community in Sumampir Village and surrounding villages to enrol their children at MI Muhammadiyah Sumampir; (3) It improves academic achievements in the field of Quranic memorization, both at the district and regency levels.