Children’s Readiness for Entering the Primary School Among Full-
Day and Regular Kindergarten Students
Siti Nurina Hakim and Septiansyah Rizky Yuwana Putra
Faculty of Psychology, University of Muhammadiyah Surakarta, Jl. Slamet Riyadi Tromol Pos 1 Pabelan Kartasura,
Surakarta central of Java, Indonesia
Keywords: Children’s Readiness, Regular Kindergarten, Full-day Kindergarten.
Abstract: There are two types of kindergarten programs in Indonesia, the full day and the regular one. Both of them will
give different result on the readiness of children for entering the primary school. The aim of this study was to
determine the children’s readiness differences between full-day kindergarten students and the regular ones to
enter the primary school. The population of this study was kindergarten students in Boyolali, samples were
taken by purposive random sampling method, 81 students from Aisyiyah Kindergarten and Al-Hikam
Kindergarten were taken for this study. The data analysis method of this study was t-test method. Based on
data analysis result, there was an average children’s readiness difference between the full-day kindergarten
students and the regular ones, the average readiness value of regular kindergarten students was 144.31 while
the full-day ones was 155.82 with the significance of p=0.038 (p<0.05), which means there was a students’
readiness difference from both types of kindergarten. The result of this study indicates that: (1) there are some
children’s readiness differences for entering the primary schools. (2) The children’s readiness of the full-day
kindergarten students is high-catagorized. (3) The children’s readiness of the regular kindergarten students is
average-categorized.
1 INTRODUCTION
Children will experience physical, emotional,
cognitive and psychosocial development. One of the
conditions to optimize the children’s ability comes
from educational world. Therefore, Early Childhood
Education (ECD) is needed by children aged three up
to five years to optimize their abilities.
Before entering the primary educational level,
children should have a school readiness. According to
Prasetya (2006), the readiness of children to enter the
primary school can be seen by the ability of the
children to take care of themselves, capability to carry
out certain activities on their own initiatives, also
ability to control, manage and express emotions
appropriately. Viewed more broadly, according to
Hurlock (Sulistyaningsih, 2005), the children’s
readiness to enter the school consists of physical and
psychological readiness, which includes emotional,
social, and mental readiness.
2 LITERATURE REVIEW
Kindergarten is a formal early childhood education
(Sisdiknas, 2003). Kindergarten is one of education
for children aged 4 up to 6 years i.e. in preschool age.
Kindergarten curriculum is focused on the provision
of education stimulus to help the physical and
spiritual growth and development, thus children are
ready to enter further education.
Nowadays, there are two types of kindergarten
programs, the regular program and the full-day one.
Regular program has some advantages, such as the
absence of the variety of learning methods, the
children will feel easier in order to obtain the lessons,
thus the children do not easily get bored or tired when
they are in home. Besides, children have enough time
to play at home or hang out with family. While its
disadvantage is by using 3 hours effective time, there
is no other activities except in that time of playing and
learning. Thus, there is no development of creativity,
science or religiosity. It causes the lack of interaction
with peers and no establishment of an opened
communication with teachers. It is different from
full-day program, according to Anjaryati (Purwanto,
Hakim, S. and Putra, S.
Children’s Readiness for Entering the Primary School Among Full-Day and Regular Kindergarten Students.
In Proceedings of the Annual Conference on Social Sciences and Humanities (ANCOSH 2018) - Revitalization of Local Wisdom in Global and Competitive Era, pages 389-392
ISBN: 978-989-758-343-8
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389

2010), the positive impacts of full-day school are
increasing children’s cognitive ability,
superintending the diversity of children’s learning
needs from different abilities, giving better effects to
the disadvantaged children, and reducing the
achievement gap among the children. Full-day school
is also well known for emphasizing religious learning
than the regular one. Parents expect their children get
better religious education/character and moral
coaching in full-day schools. Besides positive
impacts, there is also a negative impact of a full-day
school. The opportunity and ability of children to
interact with their environment is socially and
emotionally tend to decrease. Children are also too
tired because of the decreasing of their rest time.
Children has been taught to socialize and play with
friends and teachers at school, but socialization
process in school is different from home. Socializing
and playing with family and peer groups or
neighbours at home is also important for children’s
social and emotional development.
Full-day school has more curriculum, therefore
the stimuli which are given to the children are more
than the regular one. According to Gandasetiawan
(2009), the more children receive a stimulus and are
allowed to explore the stimulus, the better children’s
potential would develop. If this process occurs in the
period of 0-6 years of children, when the brain can
records many stimuli, the children would be able to
learn and understand various responses which have
been obtained. In addition, full-day school students
are more independent and have better social ability,
hence children who are studying in the full-day
program have better readiness than the regular one.
3 METHOD
Population of this study was kindergarten students in
Banyudono subdistrict, Boyolali regency, Central
Java. Samples were taken by purposive random
sampling method. Samples of this study were B class
students from regular and full-day kindergarten.
There were 41 children from Regular Kindergarten
and 40 children from Full-day Kindergarten. Data
were collected using measuring instruments: Frostig
test, Nijmeegse Schoolbekwaamheids Test (NST),
both of them to measure the school readiness to enter
primary school; and Coloured Progressive Matrices
(CPM) to measure intelligence quotion (IQ). This
study used quantitative method and independent
sample t-test analysis.
4 RESULT AND DISCUSSION
Before testing the hypothesis, researchers tested
assumptions consisting normality and homogenity
testing. The result of the normality test showed a
normal distribution, it can be seen on its Kolmogorov-
Smirnov value 0.200 (p>0.05). The result of
homogenity test showed p=0.723 (p>0.05), which
means it is considered as a homogenous data
distribution, where both of the types have same
characteristics.
From the analysis of hypothesis testing, it can be
known that there was a difference mean value
between the readiness of the full-day school students
and the regular ones. The mean of readiness of full-
day school students was 155.82 and the regular ones
was 144.31 with significance of p=0.019 (p<0.05),
which means there was a difference readiness of
children to enter the primary school from both types
of school, where full-day school students had higher
readiness.
The difference was due to the fact that full-day
school had more curriculum than the regular one.
Regular school only had a type of curriculum which
was based on National Education Curriculum (NEC)
of the National Education Standards Agency, while
the full-day curriculum had three types of curriculum,
such as National Education Curriculum, Curriculum
of Ministry of Religious Affairs, and the Islamic
curriculum from its foundation. Each curriculum had
competence standards that should be achieved by
children, full-day school students needed more time
to achieve them. With more intensity to meet up at
classes, thus the amount of stimuli which would be
given became higher, therefore the children would
achieve the maximum competence. It was relatable to
Thorndike’s opinion on the law of exercise theory,
relations between stimuli and responses would be
bonded stronger by the increasing amount of
responses done towards the stimuli. By doing
exercises, the relationship between stimuli and
responses became stronger (Djiwandono,2002). It
was also supported by Gandasetiawan (2009) who
stated that the more children receive a stimulus and
are allowed to explore the stimulus, the better
children’s potential would develop. Hence, with the
increasing number of exercises, the result would turn
out better. Full-day school which had more
curriculum and time of learning, had given more
stimulations for children, thus the higher frequency
and intensity of learning could make children’s
potential development better and had more readiness
than the regular ones.
ANCOSH 2018 - Annual Conference on Social Sciences and Humanities
390

Table 1: Categorization of children entering elementary
school readiness.
Interval
Category
Emp.
Average
170.30 ≤ X ≤ 204.15
Very High
155.65 ≤ X ≤ 170.30
High
155.82 (F-
Day)
144.01 ≤ X ≤ 155.65
Medium
144.318
(Reg.)
129.85 ≤ X ≤ 144.01
Low
89.34 ≤ X ≤ 128.85
Very Low
Based on table 1, there is a different readiness
among the children from both types of program. Full-
day program had the average value 155.82 while the
regular one 144.318. The average readiness of the
regular program students was medium-categorized,
while the full-day program was high-categorized.
Table 2: Readiness of Children Seen From NST
Equipment.
Category
Frequency
Empirical Average
F-Day
Reg
Ready
25
15
95.65 (F-Day)
Hesitant
10
15
92.75 (Reg.)
Not ready
5
11
Total
40
41
Information:
F-Day = Full-Day
Reg. = Regular
From table 2, based on NST test result, full-day
school had 25 students who were ready to enter the
primary school and 5 students who were not. While
regular school had 15 students who were ready and
11 students who were not. Full-day school’s average
readiness was in ready category (95.65) and the
regular’s average readiness was in hesitant category
(92.75). based on the data, there was an average
readiness difference between regular kindergarten
students and the full-day ones.
Table 3: Categorization Frostig Test Equipment.
Category
Frequency
Empirical
Average
F-Day
Reg
.
Above the
average
32
19
108.375 (F-Day)
101 (regular)
Under the
average
8
22
Total
40
41
From table 3, we can see children’s readiness to
enter the primary school based on Frostig test, in fine
motorical development, 32 students from full-day
school were above the average and 8 students were
average-categorized. While, 19 students from regular
school were above the average and 22 students were
under the average. In fine motoric development, full-
day school had higher average value than the regular
one. But, in categorization, there is no difference from
both types of kindergarten, both of them had above
the average fine motoric ability.
Table 4: Categorization Test Equipment CPM.
Category
Frequency
Empirical
Average
F-Day
Reg.
Very Good
18
14
Good
13
11
76.25 (F-Day)
Sufficient
4
6
63.38 (Reg.)
Low
4
8
Very Low
1
2
Total
40
41
From table 4, based on CPM test, there were 18
students from full-day school and 14 students from
regular school had very good intelligence, 13 students
from full-day school and 11 students from regular
school had good intelligence, 4 students from full-day
school and 8 regular school had low intelligence, 1
students from full-day school and 2 students from
regular school had very low intelligence. The average
intelligence of full-day school was good (76.25) and
the regular one was sufficient (63.38). based on the
data, it can be seen that there was an average
intelligence difference between full-day school and
the regular one.
Table 5: Categorization Readiness Children Entering
Kindergarten Following SD Full-Day and Regular
Education Program.
Score
Interval
Category
Frequency
Total
Reg.
F-Day
170.30 ≤ X
≤ 204.15
Very High
6
10
16
155.65 ≤ X
≤ 170.30
High
5
11
16
144.01 ≤ X
≤ 155.65
Medium
9
8
17
129.85 ≤ X
≤ 144.01
Low
10
6
16
89.34 ≤ X
≤ 128.85
Very Low
11
5
16
Total
41
40
81
From the table 5 above, it can be seen that there
were 21 students of full-day school had above the
average readiness to enter the primary school, 8
students had average readiness and 11 students had
Children’s Readiness for Entering the Primary School Among Full-Day and Regular Kindergarten Students
391

under the average readiness. While 11 students of the
regular school had above the average readiness to
enter the primary school, 9 students had average
readiness and 21 students had under the average
readiness. Based on the comparison above, majority
of regular kindergarten students had very low
readiness to enter the primary school while majority
of full-day ones had high readiness to enter the
primary school. However, there were still some full-
day school students had under the average readiness,
it was due to some other factors such as the
background of parents, teachers and environment.
5 CONCLUSIONS
Based on data analysis and discussion, we can
understand that: first, There are some children’s
readiness differences to enter the primary school
between full-day school students and the regular
ones, where full-day program has better readiness;
second, Children’s readiness of full-day students to
enter the primary school is high-categorized; third,
Children’s readiness of regular students to enter the
primary school is low-categorized.
Researchers hope this study can be useful for
ourselves in particular and others in general.
Feedback and criticism that will enrich the study
about children’s readiness for entering the primary
school issues will be accepted with pleasure. Thank
you.
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