School Readiness Test “Maturity Is The Key"

After about a year of studying at home, the students of Global Prestasi Montessori show a different atmosphere on Tuesday and Wednesday, 24 and 25 of March 2021. With the strict health protocols, through the temperature checks, by passing disinfectant rooms, and wearing masks, students seem enthusiastic about coming to school to take part in the School Readiness Psychological Test. The test is conducted by Global Prestasi Montessori in collaboration with Aswangga Wiyasa Indonesia covering cognitive, fine and gross motor aspects, social and emotional. This test aims to reveal children's school abilities and to see the level of maturity and readiness of children to enter Elementary School education. In addition, this test is conducted to see certain abilities of children that needed training, coaching or development.

Students are divided into small groups of 2-3 people with a predetermined time.  One small group work with one assessor. All the questions and instructions are presented by the assessor. In approximately 90 minutes, the students seem to be enjoying the test in the form of pictures and stories.  Some children seem enthusiastic about completing it, while others need time to adapt with the environment during the onsite test. Miss Fika, as one of the assessors, was impressed by the independence of the children. In her opinion, all those children are relatively easy to adapt with the new people and also respect all the instructions given by them. The same thing is also expressed by another assessor, namely Miss Andra. She also added that she was impressed by the health protocols implemented by the school such as, a healthy statement letter and supported facilities such as, disinfectant rooms, partitioned benches for both children and assessors. The assessors feel safe and comfortable with each other as well.

According to Miss Andra, the thing that needed to be the attention of parents, teachers, and school is that this test was not only to look at the cognitive point of the children.  More than that, the children who are able to follow the instructions and do assignments independently could be called the mature students. Miss Fika also said that the challenge for children in doing the test was about the time limit. Those who are not familiar with this time limit (time management) need to improve them because they will constantly face it at a higher level in the future. The test results are shared with the respective parents of the student.

There are some suggestions for parents and teachers in the written results of the test. "Maybe some parents think ‘oh this is just for their independence," yes, it is for independence, but it does not mean we just let the students do all the things alone without accompanists.  The students need to be accompanied. Being accompanists, it does not mean we assist them to finish all their work, but we need to be their facilitators in helping to give the instructions except if the students have big trouble at all.  For example, “If the students want to write the letter ‘a’, just let them write it by themselves, not written by the accompanists. We may lead them just by instructing if they have a problem in writing it," said Miss Fika. Finally, the main key to improve the children in achieving their readiness is patience from parents or accompanists and teachers. "Just be patient, that's the hard one. Parents may think that they are impatient, that's natural. We, parents or accompanists and teachers need to adapt to this situation," concluded Miss Fika.

Written by: Mis Ratih Indria Purwanti, Miss Bestaria Zendrato, and Miss Nova Manik
Edited by: Eti Triyana and Angela Manurung