Ki Hajar Dewantara (2 May 1889 – 28 April 1959), born Raden Mas Soewardi Soerjaningrat into a noble Javanese family of Yogyakarta, was a pioneer in the field of education in Indonesia. He was the founder of Taman Siswa education system.

Ki Hadjar Dewantara studied at ELS (Europeesche Lagere School), then he continued his studies at Kweekschool (Teacher School) and Stovia (Javanese Doctor's School).

Active in the nationalist cause, he belonged to a faction favouring direct action and the use of Western methods to diminish the power of the Dutch. He was a member of the Bandung chapter of Sarekat Islām (“Islamic Association”), but later became a founder of the influential Indische Party together with Ernest Douwes Dekker and Tjipto Mangoenkoesoemo. His famous ironic essay of 1913, Als ik eens Nederlander was (What if I were a Dutchman?) contributed to his exile to the Netherlands between that year and 1918.

In the Netherlands he became converted to the idea of using Indonesian cultural traditions to cope with the challenges posed by Dutch colonial rule. He felt that education was the best means to strengthen Indonesians, and he was deeply influenced by the progressive theories of the Italian educational reformer Maria Montessori and by the Indian poet and philosopher Rabindranath Tagore.

Dewi Sartika (4 December 1884 – 11 September 1947) was the leading figure and pioneer for the education for women in Indonesia. She founded the first school for women in Dutch East Indies. She was acknowledged as a National Hero by the Indonesian government in 1966.

Dewi Sartika was born into a Sundanese patrician, R. Rangga Somanegara and R. A. Rajapermas in Cicalengka, on 4 December 1884. As a child, after school she often pretended to be a teacher while playing with her friends. After her father died, she lived with her uncle. She got education of Sundanese culture from her uncle. Also she got Western culture from a wife of resident assistant. In 1899, she moved to Bandung.

On 16 January 1904, she founded a school named Sekolah Isteri at Bandung Regency's Pendopo and later moved to Jalan Ciguriang and the school name changed to Sekolah Kaoetamaan Isteri (Wife Eminency School) in 1910. In 1912, there are nine Sekolah Kaoetamaan Isteri in cities or regencies in West Java (half of the cities and regencies), and in 1920 all of cities and regencies has one school. In September 1929, her school changed its name to Sekolah Raden Dewi.