During his Dutch banishment, Soewardi became active in the Indonesian student organization Indische Vereeniging (“The Indian Association”). There, he established the Indonesisch Pers-bureau, the Indonesian News Office, in Indonesia, using the term “Indonesia” formally for the first time ever in the same year. Later on, he started on his aspiration to create awareness among the natives of his nation by obtaining the Europeesche Akta certification, a prestigious pedagogic science diploma that will serve as the foundation for his school later on. In the course of his studies, Soewardi was attracted to the idea of educating children as spiritual beings espoused by Western educators Froebel and Montessori, as well as the Indian philosophy developed in Shantiniketan by the Tagore family. These added flesh to the bones of his unique educational system.
In September 1919, he returned to Indonesia and joined a school established by a relative, establishing his own school, the Taman Siswa National School, in Yogyakarta on 3 July 1922. He started to use the name “Ki Hadjar Dewantara” in 1929, when he became a mature man of 40. He shed his identity as a nobleman in order to become closer to the common people whom he loved and educated. By then, he fully embraced his vision of generating humanistic, nationalist adults who respect the sovereignty of the common people, instead of individualists and materialists. His philosophy of education is expressed in the Javanese language as ing ngarsa sung tuladha, ing madya mangun karsa, tut wuri handayani (“providing example from the front, encouragement from the side, a push from the back”). It remains the underlying philosophy of Indonesian national education, especially in his own Taman Siswa schools.
On 17 August 1946, Ki Hadjar Dewantara was named Senior Lecturer in the Higher Police Academy in Mertoyudan, Magelang, by Soekarno, then-President of the Republic of Indonesia. The same President then appointed him Indonesia’s first Minister of Education in 1956. On 19 December of the same year, he was awarded the Doctor Honoris Causa title from Gadjah Mada University.
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According to the Decree of the President of the Republic of Indonesia Number 305 of 1959, issued on 28 November 1959, Ki Hadjar was named Indonesian National Hero as well as Father of National Education for his massive contributions towards the development of education in our country. His birthday, 2 May, was declared National Education Day according to the Decree.
Ki Hadjar Dewantara died in Yogyakarta on 26 April 1959 at his home, several months before he was honored. His remains were laid to rest at the Taman Siswa Great Hall before he was interred in the Taman Wijaya Brata cemetery on 29 April 1959. (rp)