This study was designed to empirically examine how school principals’ servant leadership and teachers’ pedagogical competence contribute to primary school quality, with teachers’ work motivation positioned as the mediating variable in the relationships among these constructs. Research Methodology: The study employed a quantitative explanatory survey design involving 157 teachers as the unit of analysis from 21 public primary schools in Serang City, Banten Province. Primary data were collected through a structured five-point Likert-scale questionnaire and subsequently analyzed using the Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) approach with SmartPLS 4. Results: All proposed hypotheses were statistically significant. Servant leadership had direct effects on teachers’ work motivation (β = 0,515; p = 0,000) and primary school quality (β = 0,286; p = 0,000). Pedagogical competence also affected work motivation (β = 0,429; p = 0,000) and primary school quality (β = 0,180; p = 0,008). Among the three predictors, teachers’ work motivation emerged as the strongest determinant of primary school quality (β = 0,482; p = 0,000). Overall, the proposed model explained 73,6% of the variance in primary school quality. Conclusion: Efforts to improve primary school quality cannot be undertaken in isolation; rather, they require synergy among strengthening servant leadership, developing teachers’ pedagogical competence, and enhancing work motivation as an integrated strategy. Limitations: This study was limited to one subdistrict in Serang City, used a cross-sectional design, and relied on teachers’ perceptions as the sole source for assessing primary school quality. Contribution: This research provides empirical evidence that teachers’ work motivation functions as an important pathway linking leadership quality and pedagogical competence to primary school quality outcomes, while also offering considerations for education policymakers in designing school development programs
