Not all members revealed their educational background (roughly 10% of members did not fill in the lines for education), but from those that did there are two modes of analysis available.

First, one can look at the level of education of members. The most common level of educational achievement was the equivalent of high school (Algemeene Middelbare School, or upper-level pesantren education), followed closely by an undergraduate university degree. This is well above the average education level for the Indonesian population in the 1950s. Different parties also had marked differences in their members’ average educations, with Masjumi showing a higher level of university attendance than the other major parties.

Second, one can look at the type of educational institutions that members attended. We have categorized schools into six groups; in descending order of numbers they were Dutch schools, Islamic schools, national schools (e.g., Taman Siswa), overseas Islamic institutions, overseas non-Islamic institutions (mostly in the Netherlands, but also in other countries), and ethnic schools (Chinese or Arab institutions in the Indies).