The Taman Siswa in Postwar Indonesia

Abstract

with its emphasis on a national education to unite the various cultural and ideological segments in Indonesia, has always been identified with the prewar nationalist movement. Established in 1922 by Ki Hadjar Dewantoro as the Nationaal Onderwijs Instituut Taman Siswa, the movement was to some extent a reaction to the deracinating effects of Western education.' In Siswa schools, attention was given to the study of what was then beginning to be accepted by some nationalists as the national culture. In Java, where most of the Siswa schools were located, Javanese music, plays, and classical dances were taught, while Western songs and related cultural activities were avoided. In the teaching of history, emphasis was placed on Indonesia's precolonial past. Vernacular languages were used as the media of instruction in the lower grades, while Malay and Dutch were taught only in the higher classes. English was included as a second or third language in the secondary schools. But above and beyond formal coursework, what Siswa offered were educational opportunities to those aspiring to social mobility but who, because of low social standing, had encountered difficulties in gaining admittance to government schools.2 By the beginning of the Second World War, Siswa had a total of 199 branches, with 207 schools, 650 teachers, and about 20,000 pupils.