Taman Siswa

Taman Siswa, meaning Garden of Pupils, was a Javanese educational movement and school system founded in Yogyakarta in July 1922 by Ki Hadjar Dewantara. Its official name is the Tamansiswa Educational Association Based in Yogyakarta. It was created to give schooling to Indonesian commoners at a time when education in the Dutch East Indies was largely limited to the colonial Dutch, a few Javanese noble families and other elites. The movement began with a kindergarten called Taman Idria and then added schools at several levels, eventually establishing a university, Universitas Sarjanawiyata Tamansiswa, in 1959. Its founding principles drew on the educational ideas of Froebel and Montessori and on the Tagore family's school at Santiniketan, and its guiding maxim, Tut Wuri Handayani, urges teachers to set an example, raise the spirit and encourage learners from behind. That phrase later became the motto of the Indonesian Ministry of Education.