Tripusat of Education Principle in Elementary School Learning
Triyanto Triyanto, Suharno Suharno and Roy Ardiansyah
Faculty of Teacher Training and Education, Sebelas Maret University, Jl. Ir. Sutami No.36A, Surakarta, Indonesia
Keywords: Tripusat of Education Principle, Elementary School, Learning.
Abstract: Tripusat of Education is the educational principle of Ki Hajar Dewantara, a national figure who has a broad
and profound thought about Indonesian education. The Tripusat law emphasizes that the school system
includes three aspects: family, school, and community. This study aims to describe this principle in
elementary school learning. Data were gathered by literature review, observation, and interview. Research
subjects consisted of educators, parents, and community leaders. Data were analyzed by using Miles &
Huberman interactive method. Research indicated that the Tripusat principle integrated within the school
committee’s policy, but in fact, the involvement of families and communities is still minimal. School
dominated the implementation of learning. This study recommends that the role of parents and society needs
to be strengthened in the education system.
1 INTRODUCTION
Education is an essential component for a human to
improve self-esteem. A human who has an education
will be able to socialize with the surrounding
community. Education is also capable of raising the
level of a person as explained by Argyris et al.
(2011) that for many years the belief that education
can increase social equality and promote social
justice, has been predominant. Education can foster
social equality for educated people. Further Herera
in (Muhadjir, 2010) posits that through education,
the transformation of social and economic life will
improve, where through education, decent work is
easier to obtain. The most important educational
phase is elementary level learning or elementary
school. Elementary schools usually serve children
between the ages of five and eleven years old, or
kindergarten through sixth grade. Some elementary
schools comprise kindergarten through fourth grade
and are called primary schools. These classes
followed by a middle school, which includes fifth
through eighth grades. Elementary schools can also
range from kindergarten to eighth grade (Harmon
and Jones, 2005).
Learning period in elementary school is a time
when a child through the sensitive or golden period
in establishing of their self-competence. This
competence includes knowledge acceptance,
building attitude, and skills. These three domains are
essential in the children development. Therefore, the
role of the elements surrounding the children such as
schools, and society must be noticed and enhanced.
Factors that influence in learning classified into two,
namely internal factors and external factors. Internal
factors are factors that exist within the individual
being studied consisting of physical, psychological,
and fatigue factors. External factors are the factors
that influence in learning that exist outside the
individual composed of family, school, and
community.
Ki Hajar Dewantara explained that the
optimization of child competence is the
responsibility of all elements around the children. Ki
Hajar Dewantara's thoughts that intersect with the
kids learning environment called as Tripusat of
education principle which is educational system
should cover three aspects: family, school, and
society. These elements are mutually integrated and
interrelated to optimal educational services for
children to reach their competence. Technically, the
education of parents to their children should be
conducted and strengthened by school and
controlling by society as social environment of the
children (Hasbullah, 2000)
The role of the family in the learning process is
urgent because the family is the primary and first
learning environment for the children. The quality of
education in the household is determined by extent
the role of parents in it. Parents should prove the
Triyanto, T., Suharno, S. and Ardiansyah, R.
Tripusat of Education Principle in Elementary School Learning.
In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Sociology Education (ICSE 2017) - Volume 2, pages 391-395
ISBN: 978-989-758-316-2
Copyright © 2018 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved
391

ability of Parenting. These were by the following
statement “Parenting education programs can
provide parents with vital information about skills
and practices that may improve their children's
short- and long-term developmental outcomes”
(Finders, et al., 2016). Parenting programs will make
parents more acquainted with children for getting
relevant information as well as providing short and
long term planning for their children develop.
Without this ability, the role of parents will not be
optimal.
The function of the school is crucial also as a
basis for the establishment of quality human
resources. Through classes, children learn to build
skills for their future. The school function as a
socializing agent by providing the intellectual and
social experiences for children to develop their skill,
knowledge, interest, and attitudes that characterize
them as individuals and their abilities to perform
adult roles (Berns, 2004). The role of the School in
the learning process is more focused on learning in
the classroom. Learning in the classroom becomes
the primary determinant in shaping student
competence, this statement is following the opinion
of Umbach and Wawrzynski (in Hyun et al., 2017)
that the more faculty interacted with the students, the
more students were challenged and engaged in
meaningful activities. The more often the school
interacts with students, the more students gain useful
knowledge, the better the quality of learning the
better the quality of competence of the child.
The community has a significant role to
construct dan develop children skill, where the most
of the time of children spent in the community. The
formation of character and personality of the child
determined by the quality of the environment.
Society as a learning environment is giving a
contribution and a significant influence on the
growth of children. The outdoor environment should
promote social participation as well as gender
equality and inclusion and should be designed to
offer both access to a natural environment and
multiple opportunities for play (Miranda et al.,
2017).
In this case, the innovation of the preschool
environment should give a positive effect on the
child's development. The outside circumstances of
the school should promote social participation as
well as gender equality and inclusion or not
discriminate and should design solutions that offer
access to natural environments and provide
opportunities for children to play. It should be noted
that the meaning of playing here is learning which
integrated into social interaction with the
community.
Learning in elementary schools is a starting point
in shaping child competence. However, it does not
mean the child does not have the fundamental
knowledge. All of the students have their first
knowledge that bought when entering the
elementary school. Child's early experience was
gained when socializing in the community and
interactions with the family. This is the capital or
basis for children to establish their competence
sustainably both regarding knowledge, skills, and
character. The period when children in elementary
school is a golden period. Elementary School is the
period in which children receive basic knowledge of
science, the term of personality formation of
children, and the time to hone the skills of the child
as much as possible. This level is also a time when
the child or student indeed formed from all the
competencies, so it will be easier to identify, direct,
and optimize all the potential.
Tripusat is the ideal principle of education.
However, the implementation of the principle in
learning faces many obstacles. Community and
parents' concern for learning is very low.
The purpose of this research is to describe the
implementation of the Tripusat principle in the
implementation of learning in elementary school.
This paper also discusses the existence of Tripusat
principle in western education hegemony.
Learning in elementary school should be
striving to the maximum extent by all elements of
the educational program which mandated in the
National Education System No. 20 of 2003 that
education conducted in three spheres of informal or
family education, formal or school education, and
nonformal education or community. All scopes must
work together to develop student potential.
Therefore, it should be noted the integration of the
three components of education to support the
education at the elementary school because the
Elementary School period is the right time to
optimize the potential owned by the students.
2 METHODS
This research is related to the implementation of Ki
Hajar Dewantara's thought about Tripusat of
education principle in the elementary school. Type
of this research is qualitative research with case
study design which is conducted in Surakarta,
Central Java. The participant in this study is 95
peoples, included teacher (N=25), parents (N=50),
ICSE 2017 - 2nd International Conference on Sociology Education
392

and society public figure (N=20). The setting of this
study was in elementary school SDN Purwotomo
Surakarta dan SD Muhammadiyah 11 Surakarta.
These two elementary school have the same
characteristic. The pupils generally come from poor
family. Their parent spent much time for working to
get the money. So, they do not have more time to
assist their children in learning.
Data were gathered through interviews,
observation, and literature review. Instruments in
this research are observation guides and interview
guides. Data analysis technique used is interactive
analysis technique (Miles and Huberman, 2007),
collecting data, reducing data, presenting data, and
making the conclusion.
3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Tripusat of education principle is one of the
thoughts of Ki Hajar Dewantara. The emphasis of
this principles is on conditioning the learning
environment of the children in gaining learning
processes. The children have three places in their life
that became the center of education: family, school
and youth movement or community. When
investigated more deeply, the urgency of the
learning environment of children has a significant
impact on the development of potential children. Ki
Hajar Dewantara's thoughts have been
accommodated in the Sisdiknas Law which is
mentioned as informal, formal and non-formal
education.
Informal education is called the Nature of the
family. Family environment is the most flexible
education but has a major role in children's
education. The family is the first educational places
for children, unbound by time, and unstructured
education because the child does not seem to be
learning while learning. However, the essence and
urgency of the upbringing of the family will remain
visible when children mingle with other
environments. Because education in the household is
the primary and perfect education to carry out the
construction of the character or personality of the
children and the best place to get a social and
knowing self.
Formal education referred to as a college nature.
College nature is a place to get the legality to carry
out education. In the school, all activities are
organized and structured. Educational organizations
operate systematically to achieve goals that are
academically. The college nature organization or
school consists of planning, learning process,
evaluation, achieving learning objectives, and
curriculum implementation. It means that education
in the school is more emphasis on knowledge
through effective and organized learning.
The third type is nonformal education or natural
movement of youth. This social environment is a
society where children interact with their social
environment. The community of education is
nonformal education that delivers education
intentionally, planned and directed to all its
pluralistic members for the achievement of the social
welfare of its members.
Tripusat of education principle has been
implemented by the school through a good
relationship with parents and the community.
“Forms of communication are conducted through
school committee meetings involving parents
and community leader or public figure, where
representative’s parents become members of the
school committee (Interviewed, June 23, 2017)”.
Parents feel helped by the school committee
activities. They become more aware of activities
carried out in school. Parents or public figure
sometimes participated in student learning process
as a tentative teacher.
“They provide additional materials such as topic
social science administration by apparatus
(Interviewed, June 2, 2017)”.
The interesting thing is a few parents do not
understand the essence of the activities undertaken
by the school. Parents only know the name of the
activity, the date of the activity, and the budget used.
“They do not know the meaning or the essence
of the implementation of the activity
(Interviewed, June 12, 2017)”
On the other hand, parents lack the
understanding of the essence of activities performed
in schools, other facts found in the community are:
“The role of the community figured that they
only got information related to school activities
and they were not very familiar with the meaning
of the activities undertaken by the school.
(Interviewed, June 27, 2017).”
Parents and community should be involved in the
morals construction and creeds of the children.
Parents are not only involved formally in school
such as is a committee meeting but take the initiative
to accompany student when carried out activities
outside of school. The participation rate of parents,
need to be increased because of their business. The
Tripusat of Education Principle in Elementary School Learning
393

facts of the findings are an irony. Parents should
have a role to create a conducive learning
environment for students in the family environment:
creating a home-learning culture, prioritizing tasks
directly related to education, encouraging children to
be active in school activities and organizations,
Providing opportunities for children to develop
ideas, ideas, and activities that support learning
activities, create democratic situations, provide
adequate learning facilities, in accordance with the
ability of parents and school needs.
“From the community factor, they involved in
student activities directly such as Camp activities
and green walk (interviewed, July 4, 2017)”.
This study indicates that the role of society in
education has not been maximized. As explained by
Cohen and Uphoff (in Hermanto, 2014) that
community participation in development starts from
the decision-making stage, the implementation of
decisions, the enjoyment of results, and the
evaluation of activities. The role of the community is
not merely to know and give permission but from
planning to evaluation of student activities including
in the implementation of learning.
During the study, there were explicit attempts to
integrate the three social environments of children in
school committees. However, this form cannot run
optimally because of the rare meeting routine.
Usually, the meeting was conducted at the beginning
of the semester or when it will carry out an activity.
Regarding learning, some teachers have the initiative
to use a liaison to find out the activities of children
at home, but the liaison book has not run by
expectations. Some parents are reluctant or forget to
write children's activities at home. The role of
community or public figure in school activities is
still limited to knowing without a follow-up.
“The school just informs the community about
the business, so the role that should be given to
the students is not running maximally
(Interviewed, July 6, 2017)”.
The lack of parents' and community roles will
influence pupil’s competency, especially emotional
control related to children character. Samira et al.
(2015) stated that “to investigate the relationship
between authoritative parenting style and emotional
intelligence among students of bivariate Pearson
correlation test findings indicate a significant
relationship between Authoritative parenting style
and emotional intelligence among student’s spatially
strong relations with girls". Zabihullah and
colleagues (2012) investigate the relationship with
perceived parenting styles and EI and self-
handicapping that reached the conclusion that the
perceived parenting styles and components of
emotional intelligence, strength and style Efficiency
of excitement in people is the most important
predictor of self-handicapping, which is in line with
our results. Dhanajay and Indrajeet (2015) do the
same research on Indian children, the result
indicated that authoritative parenting style was not
all correlated with emotional intelligence of the
boys, girls or students. Though, some components
were correlated with emotional intelligence among
girls were studied. All those previous research
indicate that parenting influences the student
emotional character. It means that family plays in a
vital role for character education.
Educating character has crucial role for student
based on research conducted by Kamaruddin (2012)
that “Character education is not merely to teach
what is right and what is wrong to the child, but
more than that, character education inculcates the
habituation of the good that students understand,
able to feel, and want to do good. Character
education is a mission similar to moral education”.
The role of the school itself is still dominating.
The role of parents and society is still not visible and
real. Parents and the community hold that learning
and education are the school responsibility. Their
contribution is the fulfillment of budget and
licensing of school activities. Also, the insights of
parents, educators, and the community on the
meaning of Tripusat of education principle have not
been optimal for the children competence
development. Education in elementary schools
should involve the three active components for
children development and achieve their
competencies. By implementing the Tripusat of
education principle, the learning in elementary
school will reach the highest level. Collaboration
dan cooperation among parents, school, community
in student activities should be an increase in
optimizing the potential possessed by children both
regarding Knowledge, attitude and character, and
skills.
4 CONCLUSIONS
Tripusat of education principle has been formulated
in the Law on National Education System No 20 The
year 2003, namely informal, formal, and nonformal
education. Implementation of this educational
principle is not optimal. The role of parents and
community in the learning process is still
ICSE 2017 - 2nd International Conference on Sociology Education
394

minimalized and need to be improved. The school
still dominated the learning process of the children.
There are a few points of intersection between these
components through the school committee, but the
effectiveness has not been maximized. The obstacles
that occur are paradigm parents and the community
who think that education is the responsibility of the
school and a weak understanding of the urgency of
the Tripusat of education principle.
This study has implications for future research.
Studies on local theories about education are
increasingly exposed in the community and can be
implemented in education. The study also
recommends that school dominance should begin to
be reduced in the implementation of learning and
should involve and optimize the active role of
parents and communities in the implementation of
learning.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The researcher would like to thank Prof. Dr. M.
Furqon Hidayatullah, M.Pd. As Director of
Postgraduate Program of Sebelas Maret University
Surakarta, as well as teachers at SDN Purwotomo
Surakarta and SD Muhammadiyah 11 Surakarta for
their support and participation in research. This
research was funded by Sebelas Maret University.
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