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Title: The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898; Volume XLVI, 1721-1739 - Explorations by early navigators, descriptions of the - islands and their peoples, their history and records of - the catholic missions, as related in contemporaneous books - and manuscripts, showing the political, economic, commercial - and religious conditions of those islands from their - earliest relations with European nations to the close of - the nineteenth century
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Language: English
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*** Start of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898; Volume XLVI, 1721-1739 - Explorations by early navigators, descriptions of the - islands and their peoples, their history and records of - the catholic missions, as related in contemporaneous books - and manuscripts, showing the political, economic, commercial - and religious conditions of those islands from their - earliest relations with European nations to the close of - the nineteenth century" ***
The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898
Explorations by early navigators, descriptions of the islands and
their peoples, their history and records of the catholic missions,
as related in contemporaneous books and manuscripts, showing the
political, economic, commercial and religious conditions of those
islands from their earliest relations with European nations to the
close of the nineteenth century,
Volume XLVI, 1721-1739
Edited and annotated by Emma Helen Blair and James Alexander Robertson
with historical introduction and additional notes by Edward Gaylord
Bourne.
The Arthur H. Clark Company
Cleveland, Ohio
MCMVII
CONTENTS OF VOLUME XLVI
Preface 13
Document of 1721-1739
Events in Filipinas, 1721-1739. Compiled from various
authors, fully credited in text 31
Bibliographical Data 63
Appendix: Education in the Philippines
Primary instruction. In various parts, as follows: I. First
governmental attempts. Vicente Barrantes; Madrid, 1869.
[Condensed from his La instrucción primaria en Filipinas.]
II. Organized effort of legislation. Daniel Grifol y Aliaga;
Manila, 1894. [From preface to his La instrucción primaria en
Filipinas.] III. Royal decree establishing plan of primary
instruction in Filipinas. José de la Concha; December 20,
1863. [From Grifol y Aliaga's La instrucción primaria en
Filipinas; as are all the following parts.] IV. Regulations
for the normal school. José de la Concha; December 20, 1863.
V. Regulations for schools and teachers of primary instruction.
José de la Concha; December 20, 1863. VI. Interior regulations
of schools of primary instruction. José de la Concha; December
20, 1863. VII. Decree approving regulations of municipal girls'
school.----Echague; February 15, 1864. VIII. Regulations for
the municipal girls' school. Manila Ayuntamiento; February 15,
1864. IX. Circular giving rules for the good discharge of school
supervision.----Gándara; August 30, 1867. X. Decree approving
regulations for women's normal school.----Malcampo; June 19,
1875. XI. Regulations for women's normal school.----Malcampo;
June 19, 1875. XII. Royal decree creating women's normal
school. María Cristina and Francisco Romero Robledo; March 11,
1892. XIII. Royal order approving regulations for women's
normal school. Francisco Romero Robledo; March 31, 1892.
XIV. Regulations for women's normal school. Francisco Romero
Robledo; March 31, 1892. XV. Decree elevating men's normal
school to the grade of superior. Hermenegildo Jacas; November
1, 1893; and A. Avilés and Manuel Blanco Valderrama, November
10, 1893. XVI. Regulations of superior normal school for men
teachers. Manuel Blanco Valderrama, November 10, 1893.
XVII. School legislation, 1863-1894 67
Dominican educational institutions, 1896-1897. [Unsigned
and undated.] 261
Report of religious schools, 1897. [Unsigned and undated.] 265
Educational institutions of the Recollects. [Unsigned and
undated; 1897?] 268
The friar viewpoint. In two parts. I. Education. Eduardo
Navarro, O.S.A.; Madrid, 1897. [From his Estudio de algunos
asuntos de actualidad.] II. Eladio Zamora, O.S.A.; Valladolid,
1901. [From his Las corporaciones religiosas en Filipinas.] 272
Education since American occupation. Editorial, and compiled
from various sources 364
ILLUSTRATIONS
Plan of Cebú Cathedral; drawn by Juan de Siscarra, engineer,
1719; photographic facsimile of original MS. map in Archivo
general de Indias, Sevilla Frontispiece
Autograph signature of Joseph Torrubia, O.S.F.; from original
manuscript in Archivo general de Indias, Sevilla 35
Title-page of Dissertacion historico-politita, by Joseph
Torrubia (Madrid, 1753); photographic facsimile from copy in
library of Harvard University 41
Map showing new route from Manila to Acapulco, presented to
Governor Fernando Valdés Tamón by the pilot, Enrique Hermán,
1730; photographic facsimile of original MS. map in Archivo
general de Indias, Sevilla 49
Plan of infantry barracks in Manila; drawn by the military
engineer, Thomas de Castro y Andrade, 1733; photographic
facsimile from original manuscript in Archivo general de
Indias, Sevilla 53
PREFACE
Most of this volume consists of the educational appendix which
is continued from the preceding volume. The only regular document
presented shows the general history of the islands for the years
1721-1739 both politically and religiously. The greater interest
in the volume centers about the appendix. For here we see the first
systematic attempts at a universal education in the Philippines, the
first real though rude awakening of the inert mass of a people to the
facts of broader life by the government establishment of primary and
normal schools. As might be expected the paternal element is chiefly
discernible in the laws and regulations made by the government. The
complexities of the educational question, a problem that Spain would
have been many years in solving, are well shown by the two documents
which give the friar side of the matter.
A brief summary of the principal events from 1721 to 1739 contains
several matters of interest. The murder of Bustamante by a mob
arouses much indignation at Madrid, but the attempts to ascertain and
punish the guilty ones prove ineffectual, and the affair drops into
oblivion. The islands are regularly harassed by the Moro pirates;
punitive expeditions are sent against them, but these are often too
late or too slow to accomplish any results. The coast villages are
fortified, much of this being done by the priests in charge of the
Indians. In 1733 the royal storehouses at Manila are destroyed by fire,
causing great loss to the treasury. Two years later, a Dutch fleet
demands satisfaction for the previous capture of a Dutch ship by a
Spanish coastguard, but retires when the Spaniards pay the value of
the prize. A controversy arises (1736) between the Recollects and
Jesuits over certain missions in northern Mindanao, in which the
Jesuits gain the upper hand. In 1737, one of the auditors makes an
official visitation of several provinces in Luzón, and reforms many
abuses therein. During 1738-39, a controversy rages in Manila over
the complaint made by the mestizos of Santa Cruz regarding unjust
exactions imposed on them by the Jesuits; the decision of the Audiencia
(sustained by the home government) is against that order.
The remainder of this volume is occupied by the educational appendix,
which is the continuance and conclusion of the review of education
begun in VOL. XLV. The first document, which comprises the greater
part of the appendix, treats of primary and normal instruction in the
Philippines, after the government really took such education under its
protection by special legislation. The subject is prefaced by extracts
and synopses from Barrantes which show the earliest legislation,
beginning with 1839 and culminating in the decree of December 20,
1863. Although the appointment of a commission is ordered in the former
year to draft regulations for schools, such appointment is delayed
until 1855, and a report is handed in only in 1861, the work of the
commission being stimulated perhaps by the fact that the governor
appoints an official in 1860 to draft regulations along the same
line. The chief point of debate in the commission is the teaching of
Spanish, the vice-rector of the university of Santo Tomás declaring
against such teaching but being overruled. The decree of December 20,
1863 is the greatest result of the work of the commission. The normal
school created by the decree is formally opened January 23, 1865,
although in operation since May 17, 1864. Irregularity of attendance
and vacations prove the greatest obstacles. Barrantes, who defends
the friars, concludes that the backwardness of primary education is
due rather to the laws of the Indies than to any class such as the
religious corporations; that before 1865 primary education was only a
shadow; and that the Filipinos have not yet sufficiently far advanced
to be granted the electoral right that they ask. The remainder of the
document is from Grifol y Aliaga's book on primary instruction. An
extract from the preface of that author shows that with the decree of
1863, new life is put into education, and that all the many decrees
and orders issued later by the government are harmonious in effect and
purpose; although they were in large part inoperative. Next follows
the royal decree of December 20, 1863, establishing a plan of primary
instruction in the islands. Its first part consists of the exposition
addressed to the queen by the minister José de la Concha, stating the
need of greater efficiency in the teaching system for the natives, in
order that they may develop spiritually and intellectually. The aim is
to diffuse the Spanish language. It provides for a normal school under
the immediate supervision of the priests. Following the exposition
is the decree proper, which decrees schools for each sex in each
village, and gives various details of such schools. The regulations
for the normal school of teachers for primary instruction end Aliaga's
book. They consist of twenty-eight articles which state the object of
the school; and the rules governing the scholars in their manifold
relations. Next come the regulations, dated December 20, 1863, for
schools and teachers of primary instruction for native Filipinos, which
consist of thirty-five articles. By these regulations, separate schools
are established in all the villages for boys and girls; attendance is
made compulsory for children between certain ages; instruction is to
be in Spanish, and the knowledge of that language especially striven
for; tuition is free to the poor, and equipment for all; religious and
ethical teaching is in charge of the parish priests. Rules are given
in regard to the teachers, and assistants, the textbooks, vacations,
the establishment of Sunday schools for adults, and the supervision,
which is put into the hands of laymen--that duty having thitherto
been performed by the parish priests, in so far as it was performed
at all. The interior regulations, consisting of fourteen articles,
for native primary schools, follow, as the preceding, dated December
20, 1863. They include rules as to the size of buildings, equipment,
duties of teachers, manner of keeping records, sending of monthly
reports, pupils and conditions of their admittance, attendance, system
of merits and demerits, examinations, etc. Religious exercises are
found to fill a considerable portion of the day. A government decree
of February 15, 1864, approving the regulations for a municipal girls'
school in Manila, is followed by those regulations of the same date,
which consist of twenty-six articles. The school is to be in charge
of the sisters of charity. Religious and ethical training is given
great prominence. The courses of study, comprising the elementary
branches, and needle-work, is outlined. There are both required and
optional studies. Girls are admitted at the age of five, and admission
is in charge of a member of the city ayuntamiento. Rules are given
governing the daily and term routine of the school in its manifold
relations. Examinations are both public and private. Supervision is in
charge of three women appointed by the governor of the islands. This
is followed by a circular of the superior civil government, dated
August 30, 1867, discussing, and giving rules concerning, school
supervision--an important document, showing well the Spanish love
of philosophizing. Commenting on the importance of the supervisory
function, the circular states the duties of supervisors, for on them
"depends the development and conservation of the improvements which
are being introduced." Since the supervision is partly in the hands
of the ecclesiastical government, the outcome can only be the best. A
rather lengthy quotation is made from a book on supervision, in which
the duties and qualifications of supervisors are outlined. Great stress
is laid on temperateness of action. The most delicate power is the
correction and suspension of teachers. Suspension must only be for
ethical and religious lack, and neglect of duties. The parish priests
in their duties as supervisors must see that the heads of families
recognize their responsibility in regard to sending their children
to school. Special privileges are to be given to those attending
school and learning the Spanish language--in which all instruction
is to be given. Primary instruction in the islands is in a backward
state, because of the few buildings and teachers, and the want of
uniformity among the children. Statistics of March 1, 1866 show the
number of villages in provinces or districts, the population, school
attendance, schools possible, and buildings. The government pledges
its support of the efforts put forth by the parish priests and the
provincial supervisors. The former are to hold annual examinations,
and are to have the children review their work when they confess and
take communion. The provincial supervision of the alcaldes is to be
exercised with the aid of a board composed of the bishop, parish
priest, and the administrator of the public finances. Reforms are
needed in teaching and supervision, and the efforts of the parish
priest must not be opposed. Boards not yet appointed must be appointed
at once, and monthly reports submitted. The government decree of
June 19, 1875, approving ad interim the regulations for the women's
normal school for primary teachers in Nueva Cáceres, is followed by
the regulations. These number fifty-two articles in all. The object
of the school is to train good moral and religious women teachers and
to make this school a model for other schools. The practice school
attached to it is an integral part of the public school system, wherein
an education is given free to poor girls. Those attending the normal
school may or may not be candidates for a teacher's certificate. The
program of studies shows elementary branches, and demands instruction
in Spanish and includes needle-work. The course lasts three years,
though an additional year may be allowed to graduates; and the
schedule of studies is to be sent annually to the governor for his
approval. The time spent in the practice school is not to exceed four
months in each year. Teachers' certificates are to be given to those
completing the course, and such graduates are to be given schools of
the proper grades, the method of marking being given. The school is
organized under charge of the sisters of charity, and the school of
Santa Isabel is to be used. The staff and their duties are enumerated,
among whom it is to be noted is a secular priest to administer to
the ethical and religious needs of the pupils. Pupils shall be both
day and resident, the requirements for admission being stated. Women
teachers may be admitted to the institution, if not over the age of
twenty-three. Instruction is free, and provided for from the local
funds. In proportion as the public schools are placed in charge of
normal graduates, the number of resident pupils supported from the
local funds is to be decreased to twenty-five, from whom vacancies
are to be filled. Resident pupils supported by local funds are to
teach ten years in the schools of Nueva Cáceres, under penalty of
making restitution of their expenses if they do not carry out their
contract. General public examinations are to be held at the end of
the term, when rewards are to be distributed. Various other data
regarding the running of the school in its different relations are
given. The moral and religious supervision belongs to the bishop of
Nueva Cáceres; secular supervision is in charge of the alcalde-mayor,
the bishop, and the administrator of public finances, and one member
of this board is to have immediate supervision for three months. A
royal decree dated March 11, 1892 creates in Manila a normal school
for women teachers under charge of Augustinian nuns. It is needed
as is proved by that of Nueva Cáceres. The study of Spanish is
compulsory. Expenses are to be met from the regular budget for the
islands. Among other data included in this decree, it is to be noted
that the certificate for elementary teaching is given for three years'
study and that for superior for four; and that a practice school,
whose expenses are to be met by the municipality, is to be annexed
to the normal school. This is followed by a royal order of May 19,
1892 approving the regulations for the above normal school, which
is followed in turn by the regulations bearing the same date, and
consisting of one hundred and fifty-four articles. This is a document
of considerable interest, for it goes into much detail concerning
the school in its relations to government, teachers, pupils, and
public. It is divided into various sections designated as títulos,
which are in turn divided into chapters. Título i states in the first
chapter the object of the school, and the subjects taught, which are
both required and optional. The expense of equipment is to be approved
by the general government. Chapter ii relates to the teaching force,
and enumerates their duties and names salaries. The total expenses are
to be seven thousand nine hundred pesos annually. Chapter iii gives
in detail the duties of the directress, which are mainly executive;
and those of the instructresses. Chapters iv to vii treat of the
duties of the secretary, the librarian, the assistants, and the
necessary help. Chapter viii deals with the board of instructresses,
which is composed of the regular teachers, and outlines its
functions. Chapter ix treats of the disciplinary council, which
must consist of five members at least, and is convoked by the
directress. Título ii deals with the economic management--chapter
i treating of the annual budget, and chapter ii of the collection,
distribution, and payment of accounts. Título iii has as its main
subject the teaching: of which chapter i deals with the opening of
the school, and the term in general; chapter ii, of the order of
classes and methods of teaching, etc.; and chapter iii, with the
material equipment for teaching. Título iv discusses the scholars:
chapter i, treating of their necessary qualifications, entrance
examinations, payment of entrance fees, and age of entrance; chapter
ii, concerning matriculation, in which there is much red tape;
chapter iii, of the obligations of the pupils, mainly in deportment;
chapter iv, of examinations--an important subject--which are divided
into ordinary and extraordinary, according to the time taken, and are
oral, written, and practical; chapter v, of rewards; chapter vi, of
certificates and decisions, and conditions under which they are given;
and chapter vii, of discipline and punishments. Título v, which is,
like all this document, laden with red tape, outlines the conditions
of the examination for degrees. The practice school annexed to the
normal school has its expenses met by the municipality, and is a
public school. For the present the normal school shall have only day
pupils, but if necessary later, they may enrol resident pupils. The
nuns in charge of the school have liberty to follow the institutes
of their order. This document is followed by a governmental decree
of November 1, 1893, elevating to the grade of superior the normal
school for men teachers in Manila, and approving provisionally the new
regulations of this school. This exposition by the reverend father
director shows that this school, created as an elementary normal
school by the decree of December 20, 1863, has been fulfilling its
function since its creation, and has made progress in the process of
better understanding between the Filipinos and Spanish authorities,
has diffused the Spanish language wider than ever, and encouraged
the arts and industries. It has had a difficult path, because of the
condition of its students who are far from homogeneous in preparation
and ability. It has been necessary to lessen the age limit at which men
may enter, because, as the average Filipino leaves school at the age
of twelve, he readily forgets what he has learned, and consequently
when he enters at the age of sixteen into the normal school, he has
to take a year in special preparation. The proposal to elevate the
school to the rank of superior can be done without any extra expense,
as it will be in charge of the same force as at present. The Manila
normal school compares with the best in Spain. A petition by one
A. Avilés, asking for the extension, and the decree proper, both
dated November 10, 1893 follow. Certificates from this school are to
have the same value and rights as certificates granted in Spain. The
regulations for the extension above-mentioned dated also November
10, 1893, follow. They consist of thirty articles, a number of which
are similar or analogous to those of the regulations of December 20,
1863, establishing the elementary school. These regulations discuss
the manifold relations of the school in regard to pupils, teachers,
supplies, examinations, etc. The selections from Grifol y Aliaga are
closed by a list of all the decrees, circulars, orders, etc., in regard
to primary and normal education in the Philippines from December 20,
1863 to July 20, 1894--in all one hundred and seventy-one. This is of
distinct value, as the course of legislation can be followed easily,
and one may note the new ideas that leaders were attempting to work
out in this period of Spanish unrest.
A series of short documents regarding the religious schools
follows. The first is a summary of the Dominican institutions for
1896-1897. The university of Santo Tomás has a total enrolment in all
courses of 3,059, and a total of 36 degrees are conferred. The college
of San Juan de Letran has a total enrolment of 5,995, which includes
professors, collegiates, day pupils, and servants; and has conferred
in all 177 degrees. The college of San Alberto Magno in Dagupan, has
an enrolment of 947, counting teachers. The school of Santa Catalina
de Sená shows an enrolment of 223, including the teachers, who are
nuns. A total enrolment of 83 is seen in the school of Nuestra Señora
del Rosario of Lingayén; while the school of the same name in Vigan
has 79. The school of Santa Ymelda founded in 1892, completes the
list, with an enrolment of 110. A report for the religious schools
for 1897 gives various statistics of the following institutions:
La Concordia, Santa Isabel, Santa Rosa, and Looban, the military
hospital, the hospital of St. John of God, the municipal school
[of secular foundation], and the hospice of San José, all in charge
of the sisters of charity in Manila; and certain of the provincial
schools. The third document in this series gives an account of the
educational institutions of the Recollects, probably for the year
1897. These are the beaterio of Santa Rita in San Sebastian, in the
suburbs of Manila; school of San José of Bacolod, Negros, opened in
1897, and under the auspices of the university of Santo Tomás; the
seminary school of Vigan, of which the Recollects had charge during
the years 1882-1895; school of Santa Rosa, of which the Recollects
were in charge in 1891.
The friar side of the educational question of the Philippines is well
set forth in two selections. The first is a chapter by Eduardo Navarro,
O.S.A., who spent many years in the islands, and who is, perhaps,
one of the best representative men of his order, and moreover, of
scholarly tastes. He introduces his subject in a somewhat philosophical
manner. Education and religion he declares to be synonymous terms when
taken in their real signification. It is the duty of the government
to choose the best educational method. The earliest laws passed by
the Spanish government in regard to the education of the American
Indians are extended later to the Philippines, but they prove most
unsatisfactory and unsuited to the conditions of those islands. They
provide for the teaching of Spanish to the aborigines, but in an
inadequate manner. The theme of the present chapter is to prove that
the friars are not responsible for the backward state of education
in the islands. On the other hand they early pass laws that are more
advanced than those passed by the government. Their laws have always
been consistent and have had but one aim. They have not endeavored
to retard the learning of Spanish, but they rather favored it. They
have done their best with the useless laws of the government. They
have founded and taught schools, paid the teachers, and have made
the textbooks, notwithstanding their immense toil. They have also
introduced many of the arts and crafts. The friars have gone farther
than the laws for they provided for girls' schools before the famous
decree of 1863. The passage of those regulations has robbed the parish
priest unjustly of much of his supervisory power, which has been
conferred except in so far as morality and religion are concerned,
on the civil authorities. It belongs by right to the friars, who
only use that power as it should be used. The parish priest knows
the people thoroughly, and as no laymen do. The Filipino cannot be
identified with the Spaniards notwithstanding all efforts of the
Spanish government. Navarro enforces his arguments by quotations
from Escosura, whom he criticises harshly for his expressions. While
modern ideas from abroad have made better sea communication, internal
communication has become worse. Good roads are especially needed and
the small barrios ought to be merged together whenever possible. That
the friars do not oppose education is shown by the many schools that
they maintain in Manila and the provinces. They should be allowed to
establish normal schools under their own direction. The parish priest
can best overcome the evil introduced by the free masons. The studies
chosen for the Filipinos must be fitted to their capacity. Our author
suggests the personnel of the Superior Board of Public Instruction,
in which he places a majority of ecclesiastics, and this Board should
revise the school laws. The majority of the Filipino students return
to their homes with plenty of vices but little learning, although
looked up to greatly by their fellow townsmen. This horde brings
disaster and ruin upon the people. The rector of the university
should have more power over the life and morals of the students,
for only thus can the Filipino students become really useful to Spain.
The second selection is a chapter written by Fr. Eladio Zamora,
also an Augustinian. Almost the last friar writer on the matter,
since he writes after American occupation, his remarks may be
assumed to be the present friar attitude. He begins with a quotation
from the preface of Grifol y Aliaga to the effect that until 1863
there had been no real legislation concerning education, for the
many decrees, etc., were isolated. It is rather the friars, says
Zamora, who are the first educators, teaching themselves or paying
teachers from their own funds. After 1863, the friars continue to
encourage education as supervisors. They build schools, and visit
the distant barrios whenever possible. On Sundays it is their custom
to inspect the copybooks, etc. The distance of barrios and villages
from one another makes teaching difficult. Many of the priests become
suspected as having a bad influence, for many criminals resort to the
barrios. The government orders the fusion of barrios into villages,
but the order is not obeyed. In 1863, the government takes control
of the schools founded by the friars. Under the new regime, so long
as the parish priest has supervisory action, the schools flourish,
but when that action ceases, so does progress in the schools, and
attendance becomes only nominal and a record on paper. The intention of
the government to have all teaching in Spanish fails of its purpose,
for the scholars can not understand it. The famous Maura decree of
1893 gives the local supervision to local municipalities, a law that
soon gives rise to serious trouble. Many unjustly blame the parish
priest for the ignorance of Spanish, but he has no time to teach
Spanish amid the multiplicity of his duties. Besides, it is easier for
the few Spaniards to learn the languages of the natives than for the
Filipinos to learn Spanish. The friars have not shunned the teaching
of Spanish, as is proved by a citation from Zúñiga. If the Tagálog
actors are allowed to use their native language in the theater,
because they do not know Spanish, is it consistent to demand that
all sermons and teaching be in Spanish? In spite of the early laws
requiring Spanish to be taught to the Filipinos, it is impossible
for Spanish to supplant all the numerous dialects. Zamora reproduces
portions of an open letter by W. E. Retana to Minister Becerra, in
which Retana decries the intellect of the Filipino, and declares that
it is absurd to think of teaching him in Spanish, but that the best
way of teaching it would be to settle 500,000 Spanish families in
the islands. Zamora gives a résumé of the history of the university
of Santo Tomás and the college of San Juan de Letran. The religious
corporations have kept abreast of the times in the manner in which
they have fostered education from the earliest period, and many
schools are due to them, some being founded by the tertiary order
of the Dominicans. Zamora criticises the capacity of the Filipinos,
asserting that they are teachable and quick in imitation, although
they never attain excellence in anything, but that they are utterly
devoid of originality. They have greater capacity than the American
Indian, and make fine clerks and the like, but they are lazy, and do
not strive to rise beyond a certain point. They learn vices but not
virtues. The Augustinians are the last of the religious orders to
take up superior education, by establishing an institute at Iloilo,
because a secular institution was planned for that place by Minister
Becerra in 1887-1888. Zamora emphasizes the importance of arts and
crafts for the Filipinos.
The appendix to our volume is brought to a close with a very
brief statement in regard to American education in the Philippines
since 1898. A bibliographical list of works treating of education
will enable the student to follow the course of American work. The
statement is concluded by the abstract of a philosophical address by
Dr. T. H. Pardo de Tavera before the American and Filipino teachers
in Manila in May 1906, in which he points out the beneficent results
of Anglo-Saxon teaching.
The Editors
November, 1906.
DOCUMENT OF 1721-1739
Events in Filipinas, 1721-1739. Compiled from various sources.
Source: This document consists of citations and synopses from
various authors fully credited in the text.
Translation: The translations and synopses are made by Emma
Helen Blair.
EVENTS IN FILIPINAS, 1721-1739
The Marqués de Torre-Campo "brought with him commission to take the
residencia of Bustamante; [1] and as it found him already dead, many
were the charges that resulted against him--which it would not be
difficult to prove, since the minds of the people were so inflamed
against him, as we have seen. Some of his friends, it appeared, were
accomplices in his delinquencies; some denied the charges, and, as
these could not be proved against them, it was necessary to declare
them innocent; others excused themselves by his violent proceedings,
and by their fear that he would kill them if they did not obey
him. Don Esteban Iñigo, who was charged, among other things, with
the exportation of rice, which caused a great famine in the islands,
replied that he had undertaken this trade with the governor because
he could not resist the latter, and feared that if he did not do so he
would lose the rice and all his property. Other persons alleged other
[reasons for their] exemption [from legal process], always blaming
the deceased--who, as he had no one to defend him, came out of this
residencia the most wicked man that can be imagined." [2] (Zúñiga,
Hist. de Philipinas, p. 469.)
The Council of the Indias gave answer to the royal Audiencia [of
Manila] that they had received the [papers in the] investigation of
the death of the governor, and were giving the matter due attention;
and at the same time came another order from the king to the Marqués
de Torre-Campo, in which the latter was commanded to take cognizance
of this affair and punish the culprits. The governor, who, it appears,
had little inclination to plunge into this labyrinth, a second time
consulted Father Totanes [3] and the Jesuits--who told him that,
just as he had before stayed the execution of the first order, he
ought to do the same with this one, until his Majesty, advised of the
governor's reply [to the first order], which had not yet been received,
should make another decision. Father Totanes in his advisory statement
exaggerated the ruin of the fortunes of the citizens of Manila, the
arrears [in the incomes] of the charitable funds, the scarcity of
rice, and the lack of those who might give alms (on account of which,
he said, many died of hunger), the cause of all these evils being
the mariscal. The father expatiated on his acts of violence, and the
consternation of the city, with which he strove to exculpate the action
of the Manila people, who had no other recourse, in order to escape
from such a throng of calamities, than to depose the governor from his
office. "But to what tribunal," he said, "were they to resort in order
to deprive him of his office? He had suppressed the royal Audiencia,
and held the archbishop and the ecclesiastics prisoners; and the city
[council] was composed of an alcalde-in-ordinary who was a nephew of
the governor, and two regidors who were his henchmen. Not having any
one to resort to, they tried to arrest the governor, in order to free
themselves from so many calamities; he resisted, turning his weapons
against the citizens, who wounded him mortally in defense of their own
lives; but this should be regarded as the misfortune of the mariscal
rather than the fault of the citizens." This statement, which veritably
is a seditious one, they presented to the king, in order to show him
the erroneous opinions of the religious of Philipinas; but it was a
calumny, for Father Totanes was not the oracle of the islands, and
most of the regulars thought as did the Jesuit fathers--who, while
condemning in their advisory report the act of the Manila people,
said only that the latter were worthy of the royal clemency. With
this came to a halt all the severity with which at first this process
was undertaken, and, the minds of people gradually becoming cool,
the prosecution entirely ceased, and all these who were inculpated
remained unpunished; the archbishop alone, he who had taken least
part in these commotions and disturbances, was chastised [4]--a worthy
prelate, who in imitation of Christ carried on his own shoulders the
sin of his people. (Zúñiga, Hist. de Philipinas, pp. 514-517.)
[As soon as the Spaniards abandoned the fort of Lábo in Paragua,
the Moro pirates renewed their incursions. When Zamboanga was
reestablished, they attempted to capture it, but were repulsed
with loss. In 1721-23 expeditions were sent out against the Moros,
but they failed to accomplish anything. [5] The sultan of Joló sent
an ambassador to Manila in 1725, to form a treaty of peace with the
Spaniards; this was accomplished in the following year at Joló, the
Spanish envoy being Miguel Arajón, the alcalde-mayor of the Parián at
Manila. By this treaty, among other provisions, the island of Basilan
was restored to Spain. Nevertheless, soon afterward the perfidious
Moros made several raids against Indian villages, captured many
vessels and burned them, and committed many acts of cruelty,--the
worst probably being the case of a vessel from Cebú, whose crew were
all killed by the pirates, who then tortured to death the Spanish
captain. Later, letters were received from Radiamura (the son of
Maulana) and other friendly chiefs in Mindanao, asking for prompt
action by the Spaniards against the Moro pirates, who, they claimed,
were threatening them with attack because of their friendship to the
Spaniards. Governor Torre Campo organized a punitive expedition for
this purpose, but the royal treasury was so depleted that the costs
had to be met by donations from the citizens of Manila and Cavite. The
armada was placed under command of Juan Angel de Leaño, with directions
to surrender the vessels and men to General Juan de Mesa when they
should reach Iloilo; and the governor gave the commanders definite
instructions, and powers for forming a treaty with the "kings" of Joló
and Mindanao. "The result of this expedition is not definitely stated,
except that it was successful; the fort of La Sabanilla at Tuboc was
taken, and a great number of the rabble [canalla] were slain, and among
them some princes and datos (the remembrance of which still continues
among them, to the honor of our arms); and a treaty for the cessation
of hostilities was drawn up, which the Moros, well punished, asked
for." (Concepción, Hist. de Philipinas, x, pp. 134-157, 184-198.)]
[On July 23, 1726, the galleon "Santo Christo de Burgos" was driven
by a storm on the rocks at Ticao, a long, narrow island adjoining
San Bernardino Strait, and so badly wrecked that it could not be
repaired. The auditor Julian de Velasco was on board the vessel, on his
way to Mexico; as the official of highest rank on the ship, he held
a conference with the officers, pilots, seamen, and other persons of
experience, and it was decided (after several vain efforts had been
made to save part of the cargo) to burn the ship and its contents,
great part of which were ruined by the water. This was a great loss
to the citizens of Manila, as all their investments for this year were
thus destroyed. (Concepción, Hist. de Philipinas, x, pp. 157-167.)]
[Torrubia enumerates the armed naval expeditions sent against the
Moro pirates during 1721-34, as follows: (1) An armada commanded by
Antonio de Roxas sailed from Manila on July 10, 1721; it seems to
have accomplished little, but cost the treasury much. (2) Another
was commanded by Andrés Garcia; he fought with a Moro fleet--date
not given, but probably in 1722--at Negros Island, and won a notable
victory. (3) In 1723 a fleet set out under command of Juan de la Mesa
y Aponte, warden of Fort Santiago at Manila; they went to Mindanao and
captured from the Moros the fort at La Sabanilla, "slaying an immense
number of that rabble, and among them several princes and datos." (4)
In February, 1731, four galleys were sent from Manila under command
of Ignacio Irriberri; at Zamboanga they collected the vessels already
there--two fragatas, four despatch-boats or champans, one taratana, one
falua, eight caracoas of Bisayans and two others of Lutaos--and went
to attack Joló, at which they found six forts defended by cannon. Here
they had a fierce battle with the Moros, of whom many were slain,
including two datos; then they ravaged the adjacent island of Talobo,
destroying its salt-works ("which are the entire livelihood of that
people"); and laid waste the district of the dato Salicaya, who,
with many of his people, was slain. In the same year Captain Pedro
Zacharias Villareal, with some vessels of the same fleet, attacked the
island of Capual, near Joló, and burned three villages and many boats,
and ravaged the fields, destroying their cattle and the salt-works
there. (5) In November, 1731, Zacharias was sent by Valdés Tamon with
a squadron from Manila to Zamboanga; at that very time, the sultan of
Mindanao, Maulana Diafar Sadibsa, was asking aid from the Spaniards
against his tributary Malinog, who had rebelled against him and had
secured the support of more than thirty of the principal villages on
the Rio Grande of Mindanao. This rebellion was caused by Malinog's
refusal to obey Maulana's demand that he restore to the Spaniards the
captives and spoil which Malinog, in conjunction with the Joloans,
had carried away in 1722-23 from Negros and Panay. It was learned that
Malinog was negotiating with the Dutch for succor, which they were
inclined to grant him. At a council of war (in which the Jesuits were
prominent) held in Zamboanga, it was decided to send Zacharias with
a fleet to Tamontaca, to aid Maulana and punish Malinog. The latter's
fort--which, like that in Joló, was constructed by a Dutch engineer--at
the entrance to his river, was captured by the united forces and large
amounts of military supplies were destroyed. Two leguas further up the
river, they attacked Malinog's principal town, defended by six forts;
many of the Moros (including their general, Tambul) were slain, three
of their villages were burned, and their lands devastated. Returning
to Zamboanga, the Spaniards harried the coasts of Joló and Basilan,
so thoroughly that, later, "in order to terrify the Moros, it is only
necessary to say, 'Here comes Zacharias.'" (6) In January, 1733, a
fleet under Juan Antonio Jove went to aid Maulana; but Malinog made
a sudden attack on Tamontaca, which he destroyed with fire and sword,
and slew Maulana, whereupon the Spaniards, disheartened, returned to
Manila. (7) Maulana's successor, Radiamura, asked aid from Manila,
which was granted; the citizens subscribed more than nine thousand
pesos in silver, and a fleet of forty-eight vessels was equipped. Under
command of Francisco de Cardenas Pacheco and Captain (soon afterward
made sargento-mayor) Zacharias, this fleet left Zamboanga on February
18, 1734, and went to Tamontaca. At Tuboc they attacked the sultan
of Tawi-Tawi, but the Bisayan auxiliaries of the Spaniards fled,
panic-stricken, and the Moro allies of the sultan swarmed in upon
the Spaniards, compelling them to retreat. They then went against
Malinog at Sulangan; at sight of the Spanish fleet, he set fire to
his village and forts, and fled up the river to Libungang--a place
which was strongly fortified by both nature and art. A fierce assault
was made on this stronghold, but the Moros could not be dislodged;
they killed many Spaniards with their unceasing discharge of balls and
small weapons, and finally, by poisoning the water-supply, compelled
the Spaniards to raise the siege. Then the latter went to Sulungan,
and remained there until that place was well fortified, and the
passage of the river securely closed to Malinog, who was thus shut in
from his allies the Joloans and Camucones. On April 20, Radiamura was
solemnly crowned as king by the Spaniards; and he agreed to allow the
entrance of Christian missionaries, the building of churches, and the
establishment of Spanish forts and garrisons, in his territories; also
to acknowledge his vassalage to Spain by furnishing a quantity of wax,
cacao, and other products of the country. Afterward, Zacharias made a
raid on Basilan, devastated the lands, and seized much and rich booty;
"so great was the spoil of the 'enchanted island' that, when the men
had laden our armada and the captured vessels [which numbered over
three hundred], they had to burn many articles because they could not
carry them away." (Torrubia, Dissertacion, pp. 68-90.) Cf. Concepción's
and Montero y Vidal's accounts of these expeditions.]
[The Marqués de Torre Campo, after eight years of clement and upright
government, was succeeded by Fernando de Valdés y Tamón, a knight of
the Order of Santiago, who took possession of his office on August 14,
1729. As an experienced and able soldier, he gave his first attention
to the fortifications and military equipment of Manila, which had
been sadly neglected. He tried to purchase 1,500 guns with bayonets,
but the Dutch refused to sell him these firearms. In May, 1730, the
pirates of Joló sent out a large expedition, with 3,000 men, against
the islands of Palawan and Dumaran, where they plundered the villages
and carried away many captives. They besieged the fort at Taytay
(the principal town in that part of Palawan) during twenty days,
but were obliged to retire with considerable loss, including some of
their datos. As it was evident that the islands could have no peace
or safety until severe punishment was inflicted on these pirates, an
expedition with over 600 men was sent from Manila in February, 1731,
under the command of General Ignacio de Iriberri. This force attacked
the town of Joló, which was well defended with forts and artillery;
and after a fierce contest the Spaniards captured the place, and burned
the houses and boats of the Moros. They also ravaged the islands of
Talobo and Capual, near Joló, and destroyed the salt-works there,
from which the pirates obtained much wealth; and returned to Manila
in the month of June. A prominent chief of Mindanao, named Malinog,
had revolted against Maulana Diafar, sultan of Tamontaca, securing the
aid of many datos on the Rio Grande, and negotiating with the Dutch for
their aid; in November, 1731, a small squadron was sent from Manila,
in answer to Maulana's petition for aid against the rebels; with the
aid of the Spaniards the rebels were routed, their forts destroyed, and
their villages and plantations ravaged and burned. Malinog, however,
kept up the contest, so that another Spanish expedition was sent
(January, 1733) against him; but while his town was besieged by the
Tamontacans and the Spaniards he slipped away with 300 pirogues and
invaded Tamontaca, where Maulana was slain by his foes. [6] His son
Amuril asked Governor Valdés y Tamón for aid against Malinog, which
was granted; and in February 1734 an expedition left Zamboanga under
command of General Francisco Cárdenas Pacheco, who placed a detachment
of the armada under Pedro Zacarías Villarreal. Their campaign against
the Moros was bravely fought, but was only partially successful, on
account of the fierceness and overwhelming numbers of the Moros. The
latter committed numerous depredations wherever and whenever they
could find opportunity, and the Manila government took measures for the
erection of lookout towers and fortifications at the coast villages,
and for sending coastguard galleys and other vessels to the points
most likely to be menaced by the pirates, so as to be ready to meet
or follow up any Moro vessels that might attack the Indian villages
or Spanish forts. In 1735, 2,000 Joloans and Mindanaos attacked the
fort at Taytay, but they were finally repulsed with great loss. In
this conflict, as often on like occasions, the native soldiers in the
garrison were encouraged and incited by the friars in whose spiritual
charge they were, to resist the fierce foe who attacked them. [7]
In 1735, Mahamad Ali-Mudin was raised to the sultanate of Joló, in
virtue of the abdication of his father Maulana. The latter plotted to
obtain possession of the fort at Zamboanga by treason, but the scheme
was unsuccessful; the news of this so angered Maulana (who was then
ill) that he hastened his own death. The new sultan of Joló professed
(1736) friendship to the Spaniards, and even joined them in a campaign
against the Tiron pirates; but in secret he encouraged the latter,
and sent them warning of the movements against them. (Montero y Vidal,
Hist. de Filipinas, i, pp. 438-452; his account is largely taken from
Concepción's Hist. de Philipinas, x, pp. 198-238, 337-375.)]
[On June 18, 1733, the royal magazines at Manila were destroyed by
fire, with all their contents, which included the supplies for the
two vessels which were soon to go to Acapulco. The royal treasury
had not the funds to make good this loss, and the galleons must sail
at a certain time, in order to secure favorable winds; the governor
therefore appealed to the citizens and merchants for help to meet the
expenses of equipping the vessels. They responded with a donation of
30,000 pesos, which the governor duly reported to the king, asking
that in view of the zeal and loyalty thus displayed by the citizens
their interest might be cared for in the pending dispute regarding
the Manila-Acapulco commerce. The losses sustained in the above fire
were estimated by the royal officials at 66,807 pesos. (Concepción,
Hist. de Philipinas, x, pp. 226-230.)]
The governor, not finding any corrective for the injuries which the
Moros were causing, held a conference of the principal citizens of
Manila. It was resolved therein that, so far as the funds in the
royal treasury would permit, some small armadas should be despatched
against the Moros; and that the coast-dwellers should be gathered
[into larger villages] at certain places, at the rate of five hundred
tributes to each one, in order that they might be able to resist the
pirates and build some little forts, which would inspire respect in
the enemy. [8] This precaution had already been taken by some of the
religious in charge of doctrinas--who, not finding any other remedy,
had built some fortifications around their churches, in order to
guard these and that the Indians might take refuge there when the
Moros came. Others had built some small forts on lofty places, in
order to protect the villages from the affronts of those robbers;
and at night the fathers would go to visit these posts, and watch lest
the sentinels fall asleep, performing at the same time the duties of
parish priest and military officer. As a consequence of this order
[by the government], there was no coast village which did not build
some fortification for its defense, but no aid was given to them from
the royal treasury. But the religious ministers, out of their own
stipends, paid the overseers and artisans; and by dint of entreaties,
persuasions, and threats obliged the people to give the materials and
the day-laborers [peones], expending much money and patient endeavor
for the sake of building these little forts. When the alcaldes-mayor
saw these fortifications, now completed, they began to wish to subject
them to their own authority; and they secured that in every one should
be stationed a warden subject to the alcalde's orders, and that a
certain number of men for the service of the fort should be furnished
to the warden by apportionment [from the respective villages]. The
warden regularly sent these men to work on his own grain-fields, or
compelled them to redeem the [compulsory] service with money. This
they had to do, usually leaving the fort abandoned--which is, for
this reason, very burdensome to the people; and here comes to be
verified what Señor Solorzano says, that all which is decreed in
favor of the Indians is converted into poison for them. (Zúñiga,
Hist. de Philipinas, pp. 526-528.)
[In October, 1733, a Spanish coastguard vessel captured a Dutch ship
near the southern coast of Mindanao, and seized its despatches and
instructions, "among these, the turban and crown which they were
carrying as a present for Malinog." When this event was learned at
Batavia, great indignation was aroused among the Dutch, and they
sent three warships, which anchored in Manila Bay (June, 1735) and
demanded satisfaction; the Dutch would not allow any vessel to enter or
leave the bay, and threatened to seize the patache "San Christoval,"
which was expected to arrive from Acapulco. Warning was immediately
sent to the commander of the latter, at the Embocadero; but the ship
was already wrecked on the shoals of Calantás. The silver on board,
745,000 pesos belonging to the merchants and 773,025 to the royal
situado, was transported by boat to Sorsogón, and the men removed the
cargo to land and erected fortifications for its defense in case of
necessity; the hull was then destroyed by fire, to prevent its being
used by enemies. The Manila government, seeing that it had no funds for
defense against the Dutch, and that the Acapulco galleon imprisoned in
the bay might lose the favorable winds for its departure, finally came
to a settlement with the Dutch, paying 6,500 pesos as satisfaction for
the captured Dutch vessel and its contents; the Dutch ships thereupon
retired. (Concepción, Hist. de Philipinas, x, pp. 375-410.)]
[In 1736, a controversy arose between the Recollects and Jesuits in
northern Mindanao. The Indians of Cagayan, and the Recollect minister
in charge there, Fray Hipolito de San Agustín, maintained a close
and friendly communication with the native chiefs of Lake Lanao, who
finally asked the Recollects (1736) to send missionaries to Larapan,
a Malanao village, in order to instruct and baptize their people. The
Jesuits were jealous of the Recollects, according to Concepción,
and incited a heathen chief named Dalabahan in the mountains of the
Cagayan district to attack the Malanaos, thinking that the latter
would blame their Cagayan friends for the hostilities; but the latter
were able to exonerate themselves from this suspicion, and remained
on amicable terms with the Malanaos. The demand of these for Recollect
missionaries had to go to Manila; the Jesuits, hearing of it, opposed
the request, alleging that the Lanao territory belonged to them. The
governor allowed the Jesuit claim, and the Malanaos appealed to the
king himself; but "this remonstrance had no result, these unfortunate
people being left in their barbarism--from which resulted to us most
serious damages, as will be seen in due time." (Concepción, Hist. de
Philipinas, xi, pp. 54-66.)]
[In January, 1737, the new archbishop, Fray Juan Angel Rodriguez, took
possession of his see; he belonged to the Order of Mercy, and was a
native of Medina del Campo, Spain. "He began to govern like an angel"
(Concepción; in allusion to his name). "He lessened the number of days
for church processions, in order to give opportunity for the business
of the courts, and for the necessary work of the people; he prohibited
the processions at night, on account of the troubles which are wont to
occur in them; he regularly attended the choir, and introduced the use
of the Gregorian chant; he taught the sub-chanters plain-song, which
they did not know," etc. (Zúñiga, Hist. de Philipinas, pp. 535-536.)]
In the year thirty-seven, Governor Tamon issued a commission and
powers to the licentiate Don Joseph Ignacio de Arzadun y Revolledo, in
order that he might, in accordance with the royal laws, which decree
that the provinces shall be visited every three years, fulfil that
duty in those of Pampanga, Pangasinan, and Ylocos. There he was to
inspect the fortresses, and the arms, ammunition, gunpowder, balls,
and other military supplies, also their condition and circumstances;
and to review the troops in the garrisons. He must investigate the mode
and form in which the wages due them were paid, and the fictitious
enrolments of men in the garrisons. He must also make lists of the
warrants which the alcaldes-mayor might have issued; and if he found
that these had not been confirmed by the general government, he must
annul them. He must abrogate the enjoyment of exemptions, proceeding
against those who should be guilty, in such manner as he should
find most convenient; he might allow claims, and render definitive
judgment in those of less value and amount than twenty pesos, placing
the others in a condition to be judicially decided. He received full
commission for the exercise and office of the said visitation, being
appointed deputy (and a warrant for his title thereto being issued)
in the offices of governor and captain-general in the provinces which
were entrusted to him, for whatever emergencies might arise or which
he might encounter, with superintendence over the other deputies who
might be in those provinces. It is true, this is the royal provision;
but it also is a fact that the governors profit by their opportunities,
when any auditor resists their unjust maxims, and the dread of this
often constrains the auditors to unbecoming acts of compliance;
and they live as parasites, dependents on that quarter, in order to
secure a shameful liberty and an inactive sloth.
Señor Arzadun set out on his commission, which he fulfilled with
integrity; he was an unassuming and affable man. Without causing
injuries to individuals, he reformed many abuses; and by mild measures
he added two reals to each whole tribute. This peaceable result ruffled
some persons, and led to various disputes with the ecclesiastical
judge, provisor, and vicar-general, which ended in favor of the said
auditor. Nor did he fail to have noisy controversies with some other
persons; but all this ended as peacefully as possible.
Another controversy, no less disagreeable, occurred at that time
between the fathers of the Society [of Jesus] and the mestizos of
Santa Cruz. The latter complained, in a petition presented to the
royal Audiencia, that with occasion of undertaking to build a bridge
across a lagoon which extends from their village to that of Quiapo
the fathers had compelled them to sign an obligation for two hundred
and fifty pesos in favor of the superintendent of the work, for its
cost and materials; and, for the payment of this, assessments had
been levied in their village among the mestizos, and various persons
had been arrested for not making their payments for this sum, part
of which was not yet collected. On examination of this complaint,
it was ordered that the auditor who was on duty for that week should
proceed to the investigation of these statements; and the completion
of such bridge was placed in his charge--for which he was to employ
the means and measures that would be mildest, these being entrusted
to his good judgment. In virtue of this order, the licentiate Don
Pedro Calderon Henriquez, auditor of this royal Audiencia, made the
investigation and examined the witnesses, which resulted in verifying
the complaint made. It appeared from the judicial inquiry that the
land of that village belonged to the Society; and the auditor drew
up a formal statement, saying that the inhabitants of that village,
who possessed no landed property, were paying ground rents that were
exorbitant. He declared that the money for the cost of that bridge
ought not to have been levied among the Sangleys and mestizos, even
though they belonged to that village; and that consequently the owner
of the land ought to pay it--citing laws i and v of título xvi, book
iv of the Recopilación. [Here follows a relation of the various legal
proceedings in this controversy; after hearing all the evidence in the
case the decision of the court was against the Jesuits. It was shown
that part of the land in question did not belong to them, and they were
ordered not to disturb the tenants of it in their possession, and not
to collect rents from them. They proved their title to other lands,
but were warned that they must no longer exact, as they had been doing,
three and one-half pesos as ground-rent for the sites occupied by
the huts which the colonists erected within the grain-fields so that
they might more conveniently cultivate the lands. "By this sentence
the Jesuits lost some three thousand pesos a year for the [rents of
the] ground-plots of the houses; each married man had paid them three
pesos, and each unmarried man and widow a peso and a half--and this,
besides, for houses and lands which belonged to those people." The
Jesuits pleaded ecclesiastical immunity, and claimed that they had a
right to the rents in question. A long and clamorous dispute arose,
in which manifestoes were issued on both sides; it appears to have
lasted from March 28, 1738, to July 1, 1739. The Jesuits appealed to
the king, but Auditor Calderon's sentence was sustained. (Concepción,
Hist. de Philipinas, xi, pp. 79-89.)]
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL DATA
The matter in this volume is obtained from the following sources:
1. Events in Filipinas, 1721-1739.--From various sources, fully
credited in the text.
2. Primary instruction.--In its various parts, as follows: I--from
Vicente Barrantes's La instrucción primaria en Filipinas (Madrid,
1869), condensed from pp. 97, 98, 147-151, and 166-168 (from a copy
belonging to the Library of Congress); II--from Daniel Grifol y
Aliaga's La instrucción primaria en Filipinas (Manila, 1894), extract
from preface (from a copy belonging to the Library of Congress);
III-XVII--from the above book, pp. 1-7, 11-16, 117-132, 148-157,
132-136, 41-52, 61-100, and 425-445, 401-405.
3. Dominican educational institutions, 1896-1897.--From an unsigned
and undated MS. belonging to Rev. T. C. Middleton, O.S.A.
4. Report of religious schools, 1897.--Same as no. 3.
5. Educational institutions of the Recollects.--Same as no. 3.
6. The friar viewpoint.--In two parts. I--from Estudio de algunos
asuntos de actualidad (Valladolid, 1897), by Eduardo Navarro, O.S.A.,
chap. vii, pp. 123-165; II--from Las corporaciones religiosas en
Filipinas (Valladolid, 1901), by Eladio Zamora, O.S.A., chap. v,
pp. 235-273, from a copy belonging to Rev. T. C. Middleton, O.S.A.
7. Education since American occupation.--Editorial, and compiled from
various sources, fully credited in text.
APPENDIX: EDUCATION IN THE PHILIPPINES
Primary instruction. In various parts as follows.
I. First governmental attempts. Vicente Barrantes; 1869. II. Organized
effort of legislation. Daniel Grifol y Aliaga; 1894. III. Royal
decree establishing plan of primary instruction in Filipinas. José
de la Concha; December 20, 1863. IV. Regulations for the normal
school. Ut supra. V. Regulations for schools and teachers of primary
instruction. Ut supra. VI. Interior regulations of schools of primary
instruction. Ut supra. VII. Decree approving regulations of municipal
girls' school.----Echague; 1864. VIII. Regulations for the municipal
girls' school. Manila Ayuntamiento; 1864. IX. Circular giving rules for
the good discharge of school supervision.----Gándara; 1867. X. Decree
approving regulations for women's normal school.----Malcampo;
1875. XI. Regulations for women's normal school. Ut supra. XII. Royal
decree creating women's normal school. María Cristina and Francisco
Romero Robledo; 1892. XIII. Royal order approving regulations for
women's normal school. Francisco Romero Robledo; 1892. XIV. Regulations
for women's normal school. Ut supra. XV. Decree elevating men's
normal school to the grade of superior. Hermenegildo Jacas; and
A. Avilés and Manuel Blanco Valderrama; 1893. XVI. Regulations of
superior normal school for men teachers. Manuel Blanco Valderrama;
1893. XVII. School legislation, 1863-1894.
Dominican educational institutions, 1896-1897. [Unsigned and undated.]
Report of religious schools, 1897. [Unsigned and undated.]
Educational institutions of the Recollects. [Unsigned and undated;
1897?]
The friar viewpoint. In two parts. I. Education. Eduardo Navarro,
O.S.A.; 1897. II. Eladio Zamora, O.S.A.; 1901.
Education since American occupation. 1906.
Sources: The above documents are obtained as follows: The first
document is obtained in its various parts from the following:
I--from Vicente Barrantes's La instrucción primaria en Filipinas
(Madrid, 1869), condensed from pp. 97, 98, 147-151, and 166-168
(from a copy belonging to the Library of Congress); II--from
Daniel Grifol y Aliaga's La instrucción primaria en Filipinas
(Manila, 1894), extract from preface (from a copy belonging to the
Library of Congress); III-XVII--from the above book, pp. 1-7,
11-16, 117-132, 148-157, 132-136, 41-52, 61-100, 425-445,
and 401-405. The second, third, and fourth are obtained from
MSS. belonging to Rev. T. C. Middleton, O.S.A., of Villanova
College. The fifth is obtained from the following sources:
I--from Estudio de algunos asuntos de actualidad (Valladolid,
1897), by Eduardo Navarro, O.S.A., chapter vii, pp. 123-165;
II--from Las corporaciones religiosas en Filipinas (Valladolid,
1901), by Eladio Zamora, O.S.A., chapter v, pp. 235-273 (from a
copy belonging to Rev. T. C. Middleton, O.S.A.). The last document
is editorial and a compilation from sources fully indicated in
the text.
Translations: These translations and compilations are made by
James Alexander Robertson.
PRIMARY INSTRUCTION
FIRST GOVERNMENTAL ATTEMPTS
A royal order of November 3, 1839 [9] prescribed that a committee be
specially appointed to draft a set of regulations for the schools
of the Philippines. [10] The creation of this commission or board
was delayed until 1855, being appointed by Governor Manuel Crespo,
February 7, of that year. The re-admission into the archipelago of the
Jesuits on March 21, 1852, had given a new impulse to the teaching of
Spanish in the schools, that organization always having been greatly
inclined to the teaching of that language. [11] The instructions
given to the commission appointed by Crespo, were as follows:
"1. To draft regulations establishing and making uniform the teaching
in the schools; with expression of what is to be taught in schools
of both sexes, paying especial attention in their measures to the
encouragement of the Castilian language.
"2. To determine the number of men and women teachers who are to be
appointed, this need to be regulated by the number of tributes of
each village.
"3. To report on the advisability of establishing a school for teachers
in this city, without neglecting at the same time to state whatever
is of service for it, and appears advisable for the end and object
to which the expediency of this matter is directed.
"The commission was also recommended 'to draft a plan and project
for the establishment of a normal school in the city of Manila, from
which teachers instructed and suitable for teaching in the provinces
might graduate.'"
The report of this commission, March 7, 1861, shows but few meetings
and but little accomplished, since its creation, until the year
1860. In the last months of that year and the first of 1861 their
deliberations began to take form and were completed. Already on
August 10, 1860, Governor Solano had commissioned an official of
the secretary's office to draft a project for reform along similar
lines to the one which the commission was to draft. He completed that
draft on the twenty-first of the same month, and his results may have
spurred on the commission to finish its work. The fundamental points
given to the above-mentioned official are as follows:
"1. Establishment in Manila of a normal school, as a seminary for
teachers.
"2. That the pupils of such school, who are candidates for teachers,
proceed from the various provinces in the proportion of one to each
50,000 or 60,000 inhabitants, their expenses to be paid from the
local funds.
"3. That in the normal teaching, the studies with application to
industry and the arts predominate.
"4. That the certificate shall not be issued to any pupil at the end
of his course, unless he can write and speak Castilian fluently.
"5. Regulation of schools in the villages, all of them to be supplied
with well-endowed pupils from the normal school.
"6. Prohibition to teach to all who cannot prove their ability by
the proper certificate and good deportment.
"7. That the supervision in teaching belong to the provincial chiefs;
and in regard to the moral and religious to the parish priests.
"8. That the normal school have a practice school for boys, under
the charge of the pupils."
Doubtless the commission was influenced by the work of the
above-mentioned official. The chief point of debate in the meetings
held by the commission was that of the teaching of the Spanish
language. One of the most influential and active members of the
commission was Fray Francisco Gainza, then vice-rector of the
university of Santo Tomás. He voted against the teaching of Spanish in
the schools on the grounds that a unified language might open the door
to Protestantism in the islands, but he was overruled by the votes
of all the rest, even Fray Domingo Treserra, a Dominican. Governor
Lemery, who took charge of the islands in the early part of 1861,
also charged the Jesuit José Fernandez Cuevas to draw up a project
for educational reform.
The next step and the greatest one yet attained in the matter of
primary education was the decree of December 20, 1863, [12] with
its attendant regulations (q.v., post). The normal school provided
for by this decree was formally opened January 23, 1865, although it
had been in operation since May 17, 1864. As might be expected it was
found that there were more scholars from the island of Luzón, who took
advantage of this normal school, than from the Visayas and Mindanao,
on account of the distance. On this account Barrantes advocates
the founding of another school in Cebú. Teachers from the normal
schools were placed in charge of their schools with great ceremony,
in accordance with an order of the government, July 18, 1868. The most
serious obstacles against which the Board of Education had to struggle
were irregularity of attendance and the matter of vacations, as it
was necessary to designate a distinct period in each province, and it
was utterly impossible to follow the regulations. Also the management
and supervision fails in great measure because it is diverted from
the direct oversight into the hands of secondary officials.
In 1836 there was but one school of primary instruction in Manila,
which was attended by 80 pupils. In 1867, there were 25 schools,
with an attendance of 1,940 children, a number which advanced by 1868
to 30 schools with 3,389 children. The results in the provinces were
also remarkable for the same period. In 1867, thirty-eight provinces
showed 593 schools and in 1868, 684, with 25 more in course of
construction. (Pp. 147-151.)
Barrantes's conclusions (pp. 166-168) are interesting. Among them
are the following:
"We believe that we have demonstrated that the backwardness of primary
instruction in Filipinas is purely relative, and cannot be imputed
to the country or to any class, and much less to the ecclesiastical
corporations, but to the spirit and letter of the laws of Indias
and the royal decrees, which did not succeed in giving legal life in
that colony to a service which did not exist, or was not at that time
understood, in the mother-country.
"We have demonstrated that before 1865, primary instruction, properly
so-called, was a vain shadow in the archipelago, since all the duties,
all the administrative responsibilities of the department weighed
upon public officials incompatible in purity with those duties and
responsibilities; upon public officials, who, not being administrative,
could and ought to drive out that imposition; upon public officials
to whom no element or aid was given, while they were loaded with a
leonine contract of an absurd and inconceivable character. And we
have demonstrated this with the proof that the true responsibilities,
in spite of the express text of the law, have not been exacted,
because it was impossible to exact them or even the administrative
public officials subject to them.
"We have demonstrated that this confusion of principles could and
ought to engender a struggle between classes in the eighteenth century,
prejudicial at the bottom to primary instruction, whenever, in order to
unburden itself mutually of unjust responsibilities, the administrative
element threw the responsibilities upon the ecclesiastical element,
accusing it of being hostile to the teaching of Castilian; and this
element not being able, in its turn, to investigate the accusation,
acted in such wise that it appeared to accept it."
There are not schools in almost every village, and the identification
of the Filipinos with the Spaniards has not progressed so far as has
been declared, especially in the matter of intelligence; and "it
is not certain that the condition of the institutions of teaching
authorizes one to believe the Filipinos capable of making use of
political rights so grave and so dangerous as the electoral right,
in the form that they ask." [13]
ORGANIZED EFFORT OF LEGISLATION
[In his preface to his book La instrucción primaria en Filipinas
(Manila, 1894) Daniel Grifol y Aliaga, who occupied an official post
in the department of public instruction in the General Division of
Civil Administration, and was secretary of the administrative board
on school questions in the Philippine Islands, speaks as follows.]
Until the end of the year 1863, [14] when the memorable royal decree,
which established a plan of primary education in Filipinas, arranged
for the creation of schools of primary instruction in all the villages
of the islands, and the creation of a normal school in Manila whence
should graduate educated and religious teachers, who should take charge
of those institutions, was dictated, it can be said that there had
been no legislation in regard to primary instruction in these islands;
for, although it is certain that orders directed for the purpose
of obtaining the instruction of the natives, and very especially,
the teaching of the beautiful Spanish language, are not lacking,
some of those orders being contained in the Leyes de Indias and in
the edicts of good government [Bandos de Buen Gobierno], it is a fact
that those orders are isolated regulations, without connection, and
the product of the good desire which has always animated the monarchs
of España and their worthy representatives in the archipelago, for
the advance and prosperity of the archipelago, but without resting
on a fixed foundation, for lack of elements so that such foundation
might exist. [15]
Before the above-mentioned epoch the reverend and devout [16] parish
priests came to fill in great part, and voluntarily, the noble ends
of propagating primary instruction through these remote regions,
with the aid of the most advanced of their scholars themselves,
who devoted themselves to the teaching of their fellow citizens,
receiving scarcely any remuneration for their work and trouble, and
without being regarded as teachers or having any certificate which
accredited them as such.
The above-mentioned royal decree of December 20, 1863, and the
regulations of the same date, established and unfolded a true plan for
primary instruction, which has served as a basis for the innumerable
number of orders relative to the said department, which have been
dictated from day to day, both by the government of the mother country
and by the former superior civil government, by the general government,
and by the General Division of Civil Administration of these islands,
in order to attain the degree of perfection which this most important
department of public administration--the foundation of the culture
and the welfare of the villages--obtains in Filipinas today.
That same accumulation of orders, [17] which have produced the rapid
advancement of public instruction in this archipelago, has been the
motive for a certain apparent confusion, which, in reality, does not
exist, for there is observed in those orders an admirable harmony,
which is explained if one bear in mind that they have all been dictated
for one and the same end, with one desire, and for the same purpose:
namely, that of obtaining the greatest advancement of education in
this far-distant Spanish province, and that of benefiting the noble
class of teachers.
The confusion to which we refer, which, we repeat, is in its essential
no more than apparent, must disappear from that moment in which
all the orders in regard to the matter are methodically compiled,
arranging them so that they might give as a resultant that harmonious
whole of which we spoke before.
So we understood it, when we had to occupy ourselves in its detailed
study, when we took charge of the department of public instruction
in the General Division of Civil Administration [Dirección de
Administración civil]; and for the purpose of being able to fill the
office which had been committed to us to the best of our ability,
we undertook the work of compiling, arranging, and annotating all
the orders relative to primary instruction in these islands. When
we had made considerable progress in our task, it occurred to us
that, by publishing the compilation which we were making for our own
private use, we might, perhaps, be doing a good service to the teaching
profession, to the local inspectors of primary instruction, and to all
persons who are engaged in this department, by reason of their duty....
This book will also serve to make patent the very great interest
with which the government of his Majesty and the worthy authorities
of the archipelago have viewed this important department, [18]
dictating continuously orders inspired by the most genuine sentiments
of patriotism, directed through obtaining the greatest degree of
instruction and culture for the natives of this rich country, and
above all, so that all of them might speak the harmonious Castilian
language, in order that that language may be one more bond of union
between these islands and the mother country.
ROYAL DECREE ESTABLISHING A PLAN OF PRIMARY INSTRUCTION IN FILIPINAS
EXPOSITION
Madam:
The constant desire and permanent rule of conduct of the august
predecessors of your Majesty have ever been to introduce into the
territories under your glorious crown across seas, the light of
evangelical truth, and with it the principles of a civilization
suitable for their respective necessities. The governments and their
delegated authorities, with the powerful aid of the missionaries,
and of the clergy in general, both secular and regular, have tried
to accommodate their policy in regard to the Philippine Archipelago
to these principles. But the extent of so vast a territory, the
character and customs of a portion of its population, and the lack of
an organized system of primary instruction, have been the reason why
the knowledge of the Castilian language, and in consequence of the
ignorance of that language, the propagation of the most elementary
ideas of education remain in a remarkable condition of imperfection
and backwardness. It is unnecessary to explain the evils that such
a condition occasions to the natives in the casualties of social
life, in their relations to the public authority, in the exercise of
those relations which are confided partly to the said natives, in
the onward march and progress, in fine, of that country so fertile
in the sources of wealth. It is reserved for your Majesty to bring
to this condition of affairs the remedy suitable for it, which for
some time the superior authorities of Filipinas have been demanding,
and in regard to whose urgent application the royal commissary,
appointed to study the administration of said islands, has lately
called the attention of the government. For this object is directed
the subjoined project of a decree and the regulations which accompany
it. They have been formed by the aid of the documents submitted by
said functionaries. They agree in spirit, in tendency, and even in
the prime basis of the solutions which they propose. Said project
setting forth from the necessity of broadening as much as possible
the teaching of the holy Catholic faith, of the language of the
fatherland, and of the elementary knowledge of life, of creating
capable teachers for that purpose, the lack of whom is the principal
cause of the above situation, and that the basis of all education is
the solid diffusion of our holy religion, establishes by means of its
ministers a normal school under the care of the fathers of the Society
of Jesus, whose pupils will have the right and express obligation
of filling the position of teachers in the schools for the natives
with pay, advantages, and rights during the exercise of that duty,
and later after its honorable discharge, and who shall be capable
of attracting the youth of the country to this now humble class [of
employes]. It provides the means for joining teachers of both sexes
until they graduate as teachers from that institution, and until a
normal school for women teachers respectively is organized. It creates
in all the villages of the archipelago schools for elementary primary
instruction of boys and girls, with the obligation of attendance on
the part of such, and with Sunday classes for adults. [19] It confers
on the parish priests the immediate inspection of said schools,
with powers suitable to make that inspection effective, and the
exclusive direction of the teaching of the Christian doctrine and
ethics is vested in the prelates. And as a complement to the system
which it establishes, it demands for the future, although after the
expiration of a suitable time, the knowledge of the Spanish language
as a necessary requisite for the exercise of public charges and duties,
and for the enjoyment of certain privileges inherent thereto.
The application of all progress in a country presupposes pecuniary
sacrifices, and although not excessive, some are contained in the
establishment of the projected plan. Nevertheless, if the expense which
is produced is divided among the different villages of the archipelago,
and charged to their local funds, it is to be expected that it will
neither be felt very sensibly nor will the general budget of the
island be obliged for the moment to contribute an advance, certainly
difficult today, when the calamities which have happened recently in
one part of the Filipino territory have caused so considerable and
extraordinary an expense to bear down upon it.
The minister whose signature is affixed, taking as his fundamental the
above reasons, the Council of State having been consulted, and with
the concurrence of that of the minister, has the honor of submitting
for your Majesty's approval the subjoined project of a decree. Madrid,
December 20, 1863. Madam, at the royal feet of your Majesty,
José de la Concha
ROYAL DECREE
In view of the reasons which have been explained to me by my minister
of the colonies, after having consulted with the Council of State
and with the concurrence of the Council of the ministers, I therefore
decree the following:
Article 1. A normal school for teachers of primary instruction
is established in the city of Manila, in charge of and under the
direction of the fathers of the Society of Jesus.
Said school shall have the organization prescribed by its regulations
and the expenses caused therein shall be defrayed by the central
treasury of ways and means. [20]
Art. 2. Spanish scholars, natives of the archipelago or of Europa,
shall be admitted into said school under the conditions prescribed by
the regulations. After the termination of the studies prescribed by
the said regulations, such scholars shall obtain the title of teacher.
The pupils of the normal school, to the number and in the class
designated by the regulations, shall receive a free education; and
those who take advantage of such provision shall be obliged to exercise
the duties of teacher in the native schools of the archipelago, for
the space of ten years following their graduation from the institution.
Art. 3. In each one of the villages of those provinces, there shall
be at least one school of primary instruction for males, and another
for females, in which education shall be given to the native children
and Chinese of both sexes.
The regulations shall determine the proportion of the increase in
the number of schools for each village in proportion to its population.
In all the schools there shall be a Sunday class for adults.
Art. 4. The instruction given in said schools shall be free to the
poor. Attendance on the part of the children shall be compulsory.
Art. 5. The schools for males shall consist of three classes; to wit:
entrada [i.e., entrance]; ascenso [i.e., promotion, or intermediary];
and termino [i.e., final], of the second class, and termino of the
first class. They shall be supplied with teachers graduating from the
normal school in accordance with the qualification which they shall
have obtained at the conclusion of their studies, their promotions
depending upon their seniority and merit combined.
The schools of termino of the first class, namely, those of Manila
and its district, shall be supplied with teachers by competitive
examination among the teachers, with the certificate from the normal
school, with experience as teachers.
Art. 6. Classification of the schools, in accordance with the preceding
article, shall be made by the superior civil governor, [21] after
consultation with the superior commission of primary instruction,
and after the report of the chief of the province. Once the respective
classification is fixed it can be changed only in the same manner.
Art. 7. The teachers shall enjoy the salary and other privileges
prescribed by the regulations. [22] Said salary, as well as the
foundation of the school, acquisition, and conservation of school
supplies and equipment, and the rent of the building where there shall
be no public building, shall constitute an obligatory expense on the
respective local budget.
Art. 8. In the villages where the superior civil governor so decrees,
as its small population so allows, the teachers shall fulfil the duties
of secretaries [23] to the gobernadorcillos, enjoying for such duties
[concepto] an additional pay proportioned to the local resources.
Art. 9. The teachers appointed from the normal school cannot be
discharged except for legitimate cause and by resolution of the
superior civil governor, after a governmental measure drawn up
with the formality set forth in article 6, and after hearing the
interested party.
Art. 10. Examinations shall be held in the normal school at periodic
times, and in the manner determined by the regulations, in order
to choose a person with the title of assistant teacher. Those who
obtain such certificates shall manage the schools for the natives
in the absence of teachers, and shall in all cases exercise the
duties belonging to their class in the schools which are to have such
assistants according to the regulations. Said assistants shall have
the salary and perquisites prescribed by the regulations, the first
being an obligatory expense on the local budget.
Art. 11. The mistresses of schools for native girls need the
corresponding certificate for the exercise of their duties. Until
a normal school for women teachers is established, that certificate
shall be issued in the form prescribed with the fitness determined by
the regulations. The salary and perquisites which they are to receive
shall be fixed by the same regulations, the first being an obligatory
expense on the local budget, as are the other expenses expressed in
article 7 regarding the schools for males.
Art. 12. Teachers and assistants shall be exempt from the giving of
personal services so long as they exercise their duties, and after
ceasing to exercise them, if they have exercised them for fifteen
years. After five years of duty, the teachers, and after ten, the
assistants, shall enjoy distinction as principales. [24]
Art. 13. The teachers of both sexes and the assistants shall have
the right, in case of disability for the discharge of their duties,
of pension under the conditions prescribed by the regulations.
Art. 14. Teachers and assistants with certificates, who shall have
exercised their duties suitably for ten and fifteen years respectively,
shall be preferred in the provision of posts of the class of clerk,
established by the decree of July 15 last, without the necessity
of furnishing proofs of fitness, as well as in the provision of
employments not subject to the abovesaid royal decree which are to
be appointed by the superior civil governor, [25] and do not demand
conditions of special fitness in which the above are lacking.
Art. 15. The superior inspection of primary education shall be
exercised by the superior civil governor of the islands, with the aid
of a commission which shall be established in the capital under the
name of "Superior Commission of Primary Instruction." Said commission
shall be composed of the superior governor as president, of the right
reverend archbishop of Manila, and of seven members of recognized
ability appointed by the first named. [26] The chiefs of the provinces
shall be provincial inspectors, and shall exercise their duties with
the aid of a commission composed of the chief, of the diocesan prelate,
and in the latter's absence, of the parish priest of the chief city,
and of the alcalde-mayor, [27] or administrator of revenues. [28]
The parish priests shall be the local inspectors ex-officio and shall
direct the teaching of the Christian doctrine and morals under the
direction of the right reverend prelates.
The regulations shall designate the powers of the commissions and
above-cited inspectors.
Art. 16. After a school has been established in any village for
fifteen years, no natives who cannot talk, read and write the
Castilian language shall form a part of the principalía unless they
enjoy that distinction by right of inheritance. After the school
has been established for thirty years, only those who possess the
above-mentioned condition shall enjoy exemption from the personal
service tax, except in case of sickness.
Art. 17. Five years after the publication of this decree, no one who
does not possess the above-mentioned qualification, proved before
the chief of the province, can be appointed to salaried posts in the
Philippine Archipelago.
Art. 18. The superior civil governor, the chiefs of the provinces,
and the local authorities, shall have special care in promoting the
fulfilment of the requirements of this decree, adopting or proposing,
according to circumstances, the necessary measures for their complete
fulfilment.
Art. 19. Decrees [cedulas] of petition and request shall be sent to the
right reverend archbishop and the reverend bishops of the Philippine
Archipelago, in order that they may arouse the zeal of the parish
priests for the exact fulfilment of the duties vested in them by
this decree, in what relates to the supervision of the teaching of
the natives, and very specially to that of the holy Catholic faith
and the Castilian language.
Art. 20. Special regulations shall detail minutely the organization
of the normal school and of the schools of primary instruction for
the natives.
Given at the palace, December 20, 1863. It is rubricated in the royal
hand. The minister of the colonies,
José de la Concha
REGULATIONS FOR THE NORMAL SCHOOL FOR TEACHERS OF PRIMARY INSTRUCTION
FOR THE NATIVES OF THE FILIPINAS ISLANDS [29]
Of the object of the normal school
Article 1. The object of the normal school is to serve as a seminary
for religious, obedient, and instructed teachers, for the management
of schools of primary instruction for the natives throughout the
whole archipelago.
Art. 2. The scholars shall be resident, and subject to one and the
same rule and discipline. For the present the number of day pupils
fixed by the superior civil governor may be admitted, provided that
their antecedents give hope that they can pursue their studies with
advantage, and that their deportment corresponds to the good name of
the institution.
Art. 3. In the same locality of the normal school, although with
the fitting independence and separation, there shall be a school of
primary instruction for non-resident boys, whose classes shall be
managed, under the supervision of a teacher of the normal school,
by the pupils of the same.
Of the branches and duration of the studies
Art. 4. Education in the normal school shall comprise the following
branches:
1. Religion, morals, and sacred history.
2. Theory and practice of reading.
3. Theory and practice of writing.
4. An extensive knowledge of the Castilian language with exercises
in analysis, composition, and orthography.
5. Arithmetic, to ratio and proportion, elevation to powers, and
extraction of roots, inclusive, together with the decimal metric
system with its equivalent of local weights and measures.
6. Principles of Spanish geography and history.
7. Idem of Geometry.
8. Common acquaintance with physical and natural sciences.
9. Ideas of practical agriculture with reference to the cultivation
of the products of the country.
10. Rules of courtesy.
11. Lessons in vocal and organ music.
12. Elements of pedagogy.
Art. 5. During the sessions of the normal school, the teachers shall
speak only the Castilian language, and the scholars shall hold their
classes and other literary acts in the same language. They shall be
strictly prohibited from expressing themselves in any other language,
even in their daily recreations and common intercourse within the
precincts of the institution.
Art. 6. The studies mentioned in article 4 shall run for three years,
and during the six months of the last term [curso], the scholars shall
have practical exercise in teaching, by teaching in the classes of
the primary school annexed to the normal school, which is established
by article 3.
Scholars shall not pass from one course to another without proving
their efficiency in the general examinations, which shall be held at
the end of each year.
During the first four years of the installation of the school the
studies shall be completed in two years.
Art. 7. The scholars of the normal school who shall have completed
the courses of their studies and shall have obtained by their
good deportment, application and knowledge, the mark of excellent
[sobresaliente] in the final examinations for the three consecutive
years shall receive a teacher's certificate, in which shall be
expressed their creditable mark, and they shall be empowered to
teach schools of ascenso. Those who shall not have obtained the
mark of excellent, but that of good [bueno], or fair [regular] in
the above-mentioned examinations, shall also receive a teacher's
certificate with their corresponding mark expressed therein and they
shall be able to teach schools of entrada. Finally, those who shall
have failed in said examinations, if after they shall have repeated the
exercise, shall have merited approval, shall only receive certificates
as assistant teachers.
Art. 8. If any one of the scholars of the normal school shall desire
to continue his studies for another year, in order to perfect himself
therein, he may do so, on condition of paying from his own funds
his annual board, if he shall be a resident student, and if, in the
judgment of the director of the institution, no inconvenience arises
from his remaining in it.
Of the scholars of the normal school
Art. 9. The resident scholars of the normal school shall be divided
into regular [de número] and supernumerary [30] resident pupils. Both
those who aspire to the said classes and to the class of day scholars,
so long as there shall be any of the latter, must have the following
qualifications:
1. To be natives of the Spanish dominions.
2. To be fully sixteen years old, that requisite to be attested by
certificate of baptism or any other equivalent public document.
3. To suffer from no contagious disease, and to enjoy sufficient
health to fulfil the tasks suitable for the duties of teachers.
4. To have observed good deportment which shall be proved by
certification of the chief of the province and the parish priest of
the village of his birth or habitation.
5. To talk Castilian; to know the Christian doctrine and how to read
and write well: proof of which shall be made in an examination held
before the director and teacher of the school.
Art. 10. The regular resident scholars shall receive their education
free, and shall pay nothing for their support, treatment, school
equipment, and aid from the teaching force. [31]
Art. 11. The regular resident scholars shall be obliged to fulfil their
duties for ten years as teachers in the schools of primary instruction
for the natives, to which they shall be assigned by the superior civil
government. In case of not fulfilling that obligation they shall be
indebted to the state for the expenses incurred in their education and
teaching. The same thing shall happen if they leave the normal school
before the conclusion of their studies without legitimate cause and by
their own will or that of their parents, or are expelled from it for
lack of application, or bad conduct. The model for calculating the
expenses caused by said scholars during a given period shall be the
board paid during the same period by a resident supernumerary scholar.
Art. 12. Places as regular resident scholars shall be supplied
by the superior civil government to natives of the provinces of
the archipelago, in proportion to the respective census of the
population. As the number of aspirants for the places of supernumerary
resident scholars continues to increase, the class of regular resident
scholars will continue to decrease, the reduction beginning with those
belonging to the provinces nearest the capital. Said class shall be
suppressed when it happens that there are among the supernumerary
[resident] scholars enough teachers with whom to supply the schools
of the archipelago. In any event, the regular [resident] scholar,
who shall have entered the school, shall have the right to keep his
place, and such place shall only be suppressed when his course shall
have been ended.
Art. 13. The supernumerary resident scholars shall pay the institution
eight pesos per month for their board, and their rank in the school
and other things will be equal to that of the regular scholars.
Art. 14. Only those young men shall be admitted as day scholars
who, besides possessing the requirements demanded from the resident
scholars, shall live in Manila or in its neighborhood, under the charge
of their parents or in charge of a guardian and under such conditions
that it can be assumed that they will find in their domestic hearth
examples of virtue and morality. Such class of scholars shall receive
school equipment free, and if they are poor, their textbooks.
Of the director, teachers, and dependents of the normal school
Art. 15. The normal school shall be directed and governed by the
fathers of the Society of Jesus. At the head of the same there shall
be a director to whose authority shall be subordinate the teachers,
scholars, and inferior employes, and such director shall have the duty
of directing the education and teaching, presiding at the literary
ceremonies, visiting the rooms, watching over order and domestic
discipline, correcting those who infringe the rules, and expelling
pupils in the cases and under the conditions expressed in the interior
regulations of the school, and he shall inform the suitable authority
of the extraordinary measures and determinations of a serious nature
which he believes it necessary to take.
Art. 16. Under the director's authority there shall be at least four
teachers, one of whom must be at the same time spiritual prefect of
the school, charged with directing the consciences of the scholars,
with presiding at religious ceremonies, and with distributing the food
of the divine word. Under his peculiar charge also shall be lessons
in sacred history, morals, and religion. Another of the teachers
shall fill the special post of prefect of customs, and his principal
occupation will be to accompany the scholars and to have care of
them in the ceremonies of the inner life of the institution. The
other two teachers shall be occupied principally in the teaching of
other matters.
Besides the director and teachers, the school shall have the brother
coadjutors who shall be considered necessary. There shall also be
one porter, and the other indispensable subordinates.
Art. 17. The salaries to be received by directors, professors,
coadjutors, and subordinates, as well as the allowance for expenses of
materials, shall be fixed by the superior civil governor by agreement
with the right reverend archbishop of Manila, information of which
shall be given to the government for its approval.
Of examinations
Art. 18. At the end of each month in each one of the classes of the
normal school, there shall be a private examination in all the subjects
studied during that period. A like exercise shall be held at the end
of the first semester each year, in regard to the branches studied
during that time. At the end of the course, a general examination
shall be held. This exercise shall be public and in the presence of
the authorities and persons of distinction in the capital, and shall
be terminated with the announcement and distribution of prizes.
Of holidays and vacations
Art. 19. The holidays of the normal school shall be Sundays,
feast days, Ash Wednesday, the day set aside for the commemoration
of the faithful dead, [32] and also the saint's days and birthday
anniversaries of their Majesties and the prince of Asturias, and the
saint's day of the superior civil governor.
The shorter vacations shall extend from Christmas eve to Twelfth-night,
during the three carnival days, [33] and from Holy Wednesday until
Easter. During said vacations, the resident scholars shall remain in
the institution.
The longer vacations shall last one and one-half months, and shall be
during the time of the greatest heat. The resident scholars may pass
to the bosom of their families for the period of the longer vacations.
The scholars may go once a month to the house of their parents or
guardians.
Of rewards and punishments
Art. 20. The degree of excellence of the scholars shall be recompensed
by honorable marks, which shall be kept in the book of the institution;
and by annual prizes, whose solemn distribution shall take place at
the termination of the public examinations.
Art. 21. Punishments shall be: public censure; deprivation from
recreation and the walk; banishment and separation from the other
scholars; and if these are not sufficient, the definitive punishment
shall be expulsion from the school. Expulsion shall irremissibly take
place because of any contagious disease, for notable laziness and
lack of application, for serious lack of respect to the teachers,
and for bad conduct or depraved morals.
Art. 22. As a reward shall also be the public reading of the marks
of good deportment, application and progress; and as punishment the
reading of the contrary marks. That shall be done monthly for that
purpose, assembling in one place all the scholars with their teachers,
in the presence of the director.
Of the interior regulations of the school
Art. 23. An interior regulation for the school shall be made, which
shall specify the daily distribution of time on the part of the
scholars, the order of their studies, and the division of classes,
religious and literary exercises, conduct, food, and clothing, as well
as the duties of the scholars respecting the teachers, and those of
their parents and guardians in respect to the institution.
Of textbooks
Art. 24. The director of the normal school shall propose at the
approval of the superior civil government, a list of books which
can be used as textbooks by the scholars, to which the masters shall
subject their explanation. Such list shall be revised according as
is advised by circumstances.
The teachers shall give their lessons in the courses of which it
is advisable for this system to make use, under the authority of
the director.
Of special examinations to obtain certificates as assistant teacher
Art. 25. Examinations shall be held in the normal school every
six months, to choose those who shall be given certificates as
assistants. Those who present themselves at said examinations shall
have the qualifications described in article 9, for those who aspire to
enter the school. They shall be conversant with the matters prescribed
in article 4; and their examinations shall be public and held before
the director and teachers of the normal school.
Art. 26. There shall be no other mark in such examinations than those
of passed or failed.
Of the issuance of teachers' and assistant teachers' certificates
Art. 27. The superior civil governor shall have the right to issue
certificates as teacher and assistant at the proposal of the director
of the normal school.
Art. 28. Certificates as teachers shall contain the mark which shall
have been obtained and the class of schools for which such persons
are qualified.
Madrid, December 20, 1863. Approved by her Majesty. [34]
Concha
REGULATIONS FOR THE SCHOOLS AND TEACHERS OF PRIMARY INSTRUCTION FOR
THE NATIVES OF THE PHILIPPINE ARCHIPELAGO
Article 1. The teaching in the schools for natives shall be reduced
for the present to the elementary primary grade, and shall comprise:
1. The Christian doctrine and principles of morality and sacred
history suitable for children.
2. Reading. [35]
3. Writing.
4. Practical teaching of the Castilian language, principles of
Castilian grammar, with extension of orthography.
5. Principles of arithmetic, which shall include the four rules for
integers, common fractions, decimals, and denominate numbers, with
principles of the decimal metric system, and its equivalents in
the usual weights and measures.
6. Principles of general geography and Spanish history.
7. Principles of practical agriculture, with application to the
products of the country.
8. Rules of courtesy.
9. Vocal music.
The primary teaching of girls will include the matters expressed
by numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, and 9, of the present article, and the
needle-work suitable to their sex.
Art. 2. Primary instruction is obligatory for all the natives. The
parents, guardians, or agents of the children shall send them to the
public schools from the age of seven to the age of twelve, unless
they prove that they are giving them sufficient instruction at home
or in private school. Those who do not observe this duty, if there
is a school in the village at such distance that the children can
attend it comfortably, will be warned and compelled to do so by the
authority with a fine of from one-half to two reals. [36]
The parents or guardians of the children may also send them to school
from the age of six years and from that of twelve to fourteen.
Art. 3. The teachers shall have special care that the scholars have
practical exercise in speaking the Castilian language. In proportion
as they become conversant with it, explanations shall be made to
them in that language, and they shall be forbidden to communicate
with one another during class in their own language.
Art. 4. Primary instruction shall be free for children whose parents
are not known to be wealthy. That shall be proved by certification
of the gobernadorcillo of the village, visoed by the parish priest.
Paper, copybooks, ink, and pens, will be free to all the children.
The parents, and for lack of these, the children who shall be well
known to be wealthy, in the judgment of the gobernadorcillo of the
village, with the confirmation of the parish priest, shall pay
a moderate sum monthly, which shall be assigned by the governor
of each province after conferring with the parish priest and the
gobernadorcillo.
Art. 5. The parish priest shall direct the teaching of Christian
doctrine and morality, and they shall be charged to give at least
once a week the fitting explanations in the locality of the school,
in the church, or any place which shall be assigned.
Art. 6. Schools shall have two months of vacation per year, during the
time designated by the superior civil government, at the proposal of
the chief of the province. The vacations may be continuous or divided
into two or three periods.
Of textbooks
Art. 7. The Christian doctrine shall be taught by the catechism which
is in use, and approved by ecclesiastical authorities. For reading,
the syllabary prescribed by the superior civil governor, the Catechism
of Astete, and the Catechism of Fleuri, shall be used. For writing,
the Muestras de carácter español [i.e., Samples of Spanish characters]
by Iturzaeta shall be used. [37]
As a text for the other matters included in the teaching, according
to article 1, a book shall be compiled which shall contain them
all as clearly and concisely as possible, and in addition, ideas on
geometry and common knowledge of physical and natural sciences. Such
book shall also serve for the last exercises in reading. [38]
Until the book mentioned in the preceding paragraph is compiled,
teaching in matters not enumerated in the first paragraph of the
present article shall be in the form prescribed by the superior
civil governor.
Of the schools
Art. 8. In every village, if its population shall permit, there shall
be a school for boys and another for girls. [39] Those villages
which have a population of 5,000, shall have two schools for boys
and two others for girls. Those which have a population of 10,000,
shall have three schools, and so on, increasing at the rate of one
school for each sex for every 5,000 inhabitants, whenever an average
of more than 150 children shall have attended all the existing schools
during the last three months. [40]
In the visitas, very distant from the villages, whose population
reaches 500 inhabitants, there shall also be a school for each sex,
and if there is more than one visita, and together they have that
number of souls, the schools shall be established in the most central.
If the number of children of one school exceeds eighty there shall
be one assistant, and if it exceeds one hundred and fifty, two.
Art. 9. Schools shall be located in the most central part of the
villages or barrios, and must be built well lighted and ventilated,
with dwelling rooms for the teacher and his family; but such dwelling
shall be independent [of the school] and have a special entrance. [41]
Art. 10. The schools shall conform to the classes fixed by article
5 of the royal decree of this date.
Of the teachers
Art. 11. The rank of teacher in the public schools of primary
instruction belongs to the pupils of the normal school who are
qualified with the suitable certificate, who shall be fully twenty
years old, and possess the other requirements expressed in article 20.
Art. 12. Teachers shall enter the schools of entrada or ascenso,
in accordance with the right which their respective certificates
give them, according to the terms of article 7, of the regulations
of the normal school for male teachers, approved by her Majesty
on this date. After three years of teaching, the teachers may be
promoted to the next class, whether of ascenso or término of the
second class. When two or more teachers aspire to schools of higher
rank, if their respective certificates are equal, he who has taught
longer shall be preferred. If the certificates are not equal, he who
possesses a certificate for a school of ascenso shall be preferred
to him who has one for a school of entrada.
Art. 13. In case of the absolute lack of candidates with the
necessary certificate, those who hold lower certificates may be
appointed teachers for a school of the upper class, but it shall be
ad interim, and they shall receive the pay belonging to the class of
their certificate, until they complete the time of exercise with good
mark, in which case they shall be appointed regularly.
Art. 14. For the lack of teachers with a certificate, those who are
twenty years of age and have the other requirements prescribed in
article 12, and have a certificate as assistant, may govern schools,
and shall receive the pay of teachers of the third class.
Art. 15. For the lack of candidates possessing certificate as
assistant, those who prove in the examination held before the
provincial commission of primary instruction sufficient capacity
and are of the abovesaid age, may govern ad interim the schools with
the title of substitute, and shall receive the pay mentioned in the
preceding article.
Art. 16. The position of teachers of the término schools of the first
grade, namely, those of Manila and its district, shall be supplied in
the manner determined by article 5 of the royal decree of this date,
to wit, by competition among the teachers with certificate from the
normal school, and practice in teaching. The time of such practice
shall be at least one year. The competition shall be held with
preceding edict for the term of three months, before a commission
composed of the director, or, in his absence, of one of the teachers
of the normal school, one of the individuals of the Superior Board
of Primary Instruction, another of the provincial board, the senior
parish priest as local supervisor, and one member of the ayuntamiento.
Art. 17. A graded list shall be formed of the assistants, in which,
without prejudice to the right which is conferred on them by article
14, they shall be promoted according to seniority, commencing with
the class of entrada, and continuing to those of ascenso, término of
the second grade, and término of the first grade.
Art. 18. The appointment of teachers and assistants shall belong to
the superior civil governor.
Art. 19. The issuing of certificates of regular teachers and assistants
shall be attended to by the superior civil governor, in the manner
prescribed by article 27 of the regulations of the normal school of
this date.
The certificates of substitute teachers shall be issued by the same
authority, at the proposal of the respective provincial commission,
the examination papers of the party interested and the record of his
examination first having been sent.
Art. 20. In order to be a teacher, assistant, or substitute, one
must, in addition to the qualifications respectively expressed in
the preceding articles:
1. Be a native of the Spanish domains.
2. Prove his good religious and moral deportment.
3. Be of suitable age.
The assistants may begin teaching in the capacity of such in the
schools at the age of seventeen.
Art. 21. Positions as teachers or assistants cannot be exercised:
1. By those who suffer from any disease, or have any defects which
incapacitate them for teaching.
2. By those who shall have been condemned to corporal punishments, [42]
or are incapacitated for exercising public duties.
Art. 22. Teachers of entrada shall receive from eight to twelve pesos
per month; those of ascenso, from twelve to fifteen; those of término
of the second grade, from fifteen to twenty.
The superior civil governor shall fix, by recommendation of the
provincial commission and report of the superior, the sum to be
received by the teacher between the greatest and least amount assigned,
keeping in mind as an average the material cost of living and the
number of pay children who attend the school.
Teachers of término of the first grade, or those of the schools of
Manila, shall receive the pay prescribed in the municipal budget of
that city. That pay must be at least equal to that which is assigned
as a maximum to teachers of término of the second class. [43]
Art. 23. Teachers shall enjoy in addition the following advantages:
1. A dwelling apartment for themselves and family in the schoolhouse,
or reimbursement if they rent one.
2. The fees paid by well-to-do children.
3. The privileges and exemptions mentioned in articles 12 and 14 of
the royal decree of this date. [44]
Art. 24. Teachers shall have, in accordance with article 13 of the same
royal decree, the right of pension and half pay after twenty years
of service, and four-fifths' pay after thirty-five years of service,
whenever in one or the other case they shall have reached the age of
sixty years, or be incapacitated for the performance of the duties
required by their profession.
Art. 25. Assistants, when they perform the duties of such, shall
receive pay of four, six, or eight pesos per month, according as
the school is entrada, ascenso, or término of the second grade, or
the amount assigned in the municipal budget of Manila if the school
is término of the first rank. They shall receive, in addition, the
fourth part of the fees of well-to-do children; and shall enjoy the
exemptions expressed by articles 12 and 14 of the royal decree of
this date. They shall also have the right of pension in the same
proportion and in the same manner as that prescribed for teachers. [45]
Of women teachers
Art. 26. Women teachers for girls shall be twenty-five years old at
least, and shall possess the other qualifications that are demanded
from the male teachers.
Art. 27. For the provision of schools, women teachers with certificates
shall be preferred. That certificate, until the normal school for
women teachers is established, shall be issued by the superior civil
governor, on the recommendation of the commission established by
article 16, associated with a woman teacher with certificate and
examination in the matters which constitute the teaching of girls.
For the lack of women teachers with certificate, those who show
sufficient ability before the respective provincial commission of
primary instruction, shall be appointed as substitutes.
Art. 28. Women teachers shall receive monthly pay of eight pesos if
they have a certificate, and six if the contrary be true, and all
the fees of wealthy girls. They shall also have the right to live in
the school, and in case they do not live there, to a reimbursement
to pay their rent.
Of Sunday schools
Art. 29. Teachers shall be obliged to take care of the Sunday class
which shall be established in each village for the teaching of
adults. Said class will be free with the sole exception of the wealthy.
A special order of the superior civil governor, after a previous
conference with the Superior Board of Primary Instruction, shall
prescribe the duration and method of the above-mentioned classes. [46]
Of the supervision of the primary instruction among the natives
Art. 30. Superior supervision will be in charge of the superior civil
government, with the aid of a commission composed of the diocesan
prelate and six and seven members of recognized qualifications,
appointed by the former. The director of the normal school shall be
a member ex-officio. [47]
Art. 31. The chiefs of the provinces shall be provincial supervisors,
and shall exercise their office with the aid of a commission presided
over by the same and composed in addition of the diocesan prelate,
or, in his absence, of the parish priest of the chief city, and of the
alcalde-mayor, or administrator of finances. The respective reverend
and learned parish priests shall be the local supervisors of primary
instruction. [48]
Art. 32. The duties of the local supervisors shall be:
1. To visit the schools as frequently as possible, and see that the
regulations are observed.
2. To admonish those teachers who commit any fault, and suspend them
in case they commit any excess which, in their judgment, does not
permit them to continue in charge of the school, and to give
information thereof to the provincial supervisor.
3. To promote the attendance of the children at the schools.
4. To give in writing orders of admission into the schools, with
expression as to whether the teaching shall be free or paid.
5. To propose, through the medium of the provincial supervisor,
whatever they believe advisable for the progress or improvement
of primary instruction.
6. To exercise, in regard to the teaching of Christian doctrine and
morals, the direction expressed in article 4.
Art. 33. The provincial supervisors shall exercise, with the aid of
the respective commission, their oversight over the schools of the
province, and shall have authority, the said commission having been
conferred with, to approve or disapprove the suspensions of teachers
imposed by the local supervisors, giving account in both cases to
the government, with remission of the record in the case.
Supervisors shall send to the above-mentioned authority monthly
reports concerning the number of pupils of both sexes in each school
on the last day of the month, with mention of those who pay, with the
number of those who have entered and left, and the average attendance
at the school during the month, with what remarks are deemed advisable.
Art. 34. The Superior Board of Primary Instruction shall consult the
superior government of the islands:
1. In regard to the approval of textbooks.
2. On measures in regard to the dismissal of teachers, declarations
of the grades of schools, and assignment of pay to the instructors.
3. In everything else concerning the execution of this plan, and
especially concerning the doubts arising from the same.
Final resolution
Art. 35. Instructions shall be compiled comprising the principal
ideas of pedagogy, and explaining minutely the duties of teachers,
and the details of school organization and the progress of
instruction. A printed copy of these instructions shall be given to
every schoolteacher of the natives, of both sexes, and they shall be
charged to learn them and observe them.
Another copy shall also be sent to every provincial chief and parish
priest.
Madrid. December 20, 1863. Approved by her Majesty,
Concha
INTERIOR REGULATIONS OF THE SCHOOLS OF PRIMARY INSTRUCTION FOR THE
NATIVES OF THE PHILIPPINE ARCHIPELAGO
Of the interior arrangement of the schools
Article 1. The edifice destined for a school must consist at least of
a room proportioned in size to the number of children, an antehall,
and a dwelling for the teacher and his family.
The furniture shall be composed of the following chattels: One table
with drawers, one chair, one inkwell, and one bell for the teacher;
desks with one lid, and benches for the children, one inkwell for each
two children, one blackboard with an easel, one clock, and four chairs.
In the front of the hall, a crucifix shall be placed under a canopy,
and under that the picture of the chief of the state.
The schools for girls shall have the same fixtures, and in addition,
scissors, needles, thimbles, and sewing thread.
Of the teachers
Art. 2. Teachers and assistants must be in the school half an hour
before classes begin, in order to prepare everything necessary for
the teaching.
The teacher will daily look after the cleaning of the schoolrooms,
and all the furniture in them.
He shall keep books entitled Libro de Matricula [i.e., Matriculation
book] and Registro diario de asistencia [i.e., Daily register
of attendance]. In the first he shall note: 1--the number of
matriculations; 2--the names and surnames of the children; 3--their
age; 4--the names and surnames of their parents; 5--the profession of
the latter; 6--whether they pay and what sum; 7--the date of their
entrance into the school; 8--the progress of their instruction;
9--the date when they leave school; 10--remarks on their character
and deportment.
In the register of attendance he shall note daily the number of
children absent and present, all in accordance with models which
shall be drawn up.
He shall also keep a book with the list of those present, in order
to note those children who are late at school morning and afternoon,
in accordance with the corresponding model.
Art. 3. Before the fifth day of every month, the teacher shall send to
the provincial chief a list of those children present in the school on
the last day of the preceding month, in which shall be set down the
names of those who pay for their education, as well as of those who
have entered and left during the month, according to the respective
model, and a copy of the Registro diario de asistencia for the same
time. These documents must be visoed by the reverend or secular parish
priest, for which purpose the teacher shall present to him the books
referred to above.
Of the pupils
Art. 4. Children of both sexes will be admitted to the schools from
the age of six to that of fourteen, but when they reach the latter
age they shall cease to attend them.
Children shall attend school with clean faces, hands, and clothing,
and shall not be received without fulfilling that requirement.
Art. 5. Children who suffer from any contagious disease shall not be
admitted. As soon as the teacher shall observe any disease in anyone
he shall advise his parents or guardians so that they may cease to
send him to school until he is completely cured.
Art. 6. Every child who arrives at the school after the beginning
of the class, without satisfactorily explaining the reason for his
tardiness, shall be punished in proportion to the lateness of his
arrival.
When any child is frequently absent from school, without his guardians
giving the reason therefor, the teacher shall call it to the attention
of such guardians, and if such child continues to be absent in the
same manner, the teacher shall inform the religious or parish priest
thereof.
Art. 7. Pay children shall meet their fees for the entire month,
whatever be the day of their entrance and departure from the school.
Of school days and hours
Art. 8. School days shall be all those of the year except the
following: 1--Sundays, and feast days marked in the calendar with
two or three crosses; 2--All-Souls' day; 3--from Christmas until the
day after Epiphany; 4--Ash Wednesday; 5--the six days of Holy Week;
6--the day of St. Joseph of Calasanz; [49] 7--the saint's day and
the birthday anniversaries of their Majesties, the king and queen,
and of his royal Highness, the prince of Asturias; 8--the feast day
of the village; 9--the saint's day of the superior civil governor
and of the bishop of the diocese.
Art. 9. Classes shall begin every season at seven in the morning,
and shall conclude at ten; and in the afternoon they shall begin at
half-past two, and end at five.
During the months of April, May, and June, there shall be no school
in the afternoon, but the morning classes will last one hour longer,
ending at eleven instead of ten.
Of the progress of education
Art. 10. In the morning at the hour assigned by the parish priest
supervisor, the teachers, both for boys and girls, shall assemble
with their pupils in the church and shall hear mass, during which
they shall recite a part of the rosary. After the conclusion of mass,
boys and girls shall go out separately, formed in two rows headed by
their teachers and with the cross in front shall walk through various
streets, whenever they may do so, to their respective schools. At
seven, the children shall enter their class, salute the teacher,
form into two ranks, and the teacher shall inspect the cleanliness of
their bodies and clothing. Then they shall kneel down with their faces
toward the front of the hall, and shall make the sign of the cross
while repeating the prayers which the master shall say slowly. These
prayers, as well as those which shall be said at the end of class,
shall be those prescribed by the bishop of the diocese. The roll shall
be called; the class in writing shall last until eight o'clock; the
class in reading until nine; the grammar class until ten; prayers,
as at entrance, and salutation; departure from the school whence they
shall go to the church to leave the cross in the same manner as they
took it. In the afternoon, the children shall also assemble at the
church, and shall do the same as in the morning until reaching the
school. At half-past two they shall enter, salute, have inspection of
cleanliness, prayers, and roll call as in the morning; arithmetic class
until half-past three, lessons in doctrine, ethics, and sacred history
until half-past four; and what time is left they shall alternate day
by day with rules of deportment, principles of geography and history,
and principles of agriculture, until five. At the latter hour they
shall leave the school, taking the cross back to the church, whence
the children shall retire to their homes.
Sunday afternoon shall be exclusively employed in a general review of
doctrine, ethics, and sacred history, lessons in vocal music, and in
reciting a portion of the rosary, until the hour when the salve and
the litanies are sung in the church, at which they shall be present
accompanied by their teachers.
On Sundays and feast days marked with two or three crosses the children
shall go to hear mass headed by their teacher, and then shall go to
visit the regular or secular parish priest. Conferences in regard to
Christian doctrine and ethics shall be at the hour that the latter
prescribes. [50]
Every three months, on the day prescribed by the parish priest, the
teacher shall take the children, who are ready for it, to confess
and receive communion.
Of rewards and punishments
Art. 11. Ordinary rewards shall consist of vales [i.e., merits],
namely, a card or a bit of paper with the abovesaid word, and shall
serve to liberate the scholars from the punishment which they deserve
for slight faults. Extraordinary rewards shall consist of letters
of advice to the parents of those who excel in application and good
deportment; and a letter of recommendation of those who are excellent
to the regular or secular parish priest.
Art. 12. Punishments will be in proportion to the degree of fault,
and shall consist: 1--to remain standing or kneeling for the maximum
time of one hour; 2--to do additional reading or writing; 3--to
remain in the school writing or studying one hour after the end of
the class; 4--in any other moderate and proportionate correction,
at the judgment of the parish-priest supervisor, in accordance with
the degree of the fault.
In no case shall any punishment not comprehended in the preceding
article be imposed. The teacher who infringes this rule shall be
admonished twice by the parish-priest supervisor, and if he does not
correct himself shall be suspended from his employment.
Of examinations
Art. 13. Every year, at the time of election of justices for the
villages, examinations shall be held in the schools. They shall
be presided over in the chief provincial cities by the provincial
commissions of primary instruction, and in the villages by the parish
priest together with the gobernadorcillo and two persons appointed
by the first.
A reward according to rank, which shall consist of books, samples,
thimbles, scissors, or any other object analogous to the subject,
shall be given at the judgment of the examiners to the child who excels
in the exercises of the doctrine, reading, writing, arithmetic, and
grammar. For this object each school shall contribute twenty reals
per year.
Art. 14. The orders of these regulations may be modified by the
superior civil governor, after the previous report of the superior
commissions of primary instruction. The regular and secular parish
priests shall inform that authority of their results and of the reforms
which are necessary, especially in what refers to the duration of
class hours and their distribution.
Madrid, December 20, 1863. Approved by her Majesty,
Concha
DECREE OF THE SUPERIOR CIVIL GOVERNMENT APPROVING THE REGULATIONS OF
THE MUNICIPAL GIRLS' SCHOOL OF MANILA
Manila, February 15, 1864. Having examined the regulations made for the
municipal girls' school created in this capital and in conformity with
the modifications advised by the Government Section of the Council of
Administration, said regulations are approved. Let it be communicated
and proclaimed.
Echagüe
REGULATIONS FOR THE MUNICIPAL GIRLS' SCHOOL PROPOSED BY THE EXALTED
AYUNTAMIENTO OF MANILA
CHAPTER I
Object and character of the municipal school [51]
1. The object of this school in charge of the sisters of charity is
to give the girls of this capital the inestimable benefit of a fine
education and the elementary instruction, with all the solidity and
amplitude advisable.
2. In their education is included the theoretical and practical
teaching of Christian religion and ethics, which our own self respect,
and our respect due to our fellows impose on us.
3. Therefore, so far as possible, the scholars shall hear mass
and recite the rosary daily. They shall be obliged to confess and
receive communion as soon as their age permits it, monthly, or at
least every two months. They shall celebrate the act of communion
on the day, and at the hour and place which shall be designated by
the directress, after conferring with the superior. The feast of the
Immaculate Conception and that of the Presentation of the most holy
Virgin shall be celebrated in the school with all possible solemnity.
4. Instruction shall embrace two kinds of subjects: the first the
necessary, to which all the girls must attend in their respective
classes; the others optional, to which they shall apply themselves
according to the wishes of their parents.
5. The [required] subjects are: Christian doctrine, politeness,
reading, writing, Castilian grammar, arithmetic, the decimal metric
system, and the needle-work suitable for their sex, such as sewing,
darning, and cutting. On the other hand, the optional subjects are:
geography; general history; special history of España; elements of
natural history; embroidery in white, with silks, corded silk, beads,
and gold, and other like needle-work.
6. To these subjects can be added any other subjects which experience
shall advise in the future, and which is not outside the sphere of
elementary knowledge.
CHAPTER II
Pupils of the municipal school
7. All the children who so solicit, within the number permitted by the
size of the building, and according to the order of their presentation,
whenever their moral condition does not make them unworthy the company
and intercourse of those who are well brought up, shall be admitted
without distinction, from the age of five years.
8. Permission to admit girls shall be in charge of a member of the
exalted ayuntamiento, who, after having informed the corporation
thereof, shall send for that purpose to the directress of the
school a signed paper, in which will be noted the name and personal
qualifications of the girl.
9. Teaching will be free for all pupils in all necessary and optional
subjects named in these regulations, without prejudice of which, in
case of enlarging the scope of teaching to other optional subjects,
which occasion expense, the quota which must be paid by the girls
who receive lessons in the said subjects shall be assigned.
10. The directress of the school, conferring with the superior and
commission of supervision, created by article 26, is authorized
to dismiss any girl who deserves it, informing the member of the
ayuntamiento who is charged with the admission. Cases for expulsion
shall consist of: a contagious disease, special laziness, and lack
of application, stubbornness, and serious lack of respect toward the
teachers, bad deportment, and morals harmful to the other scholars.
11. In case of a contagious disease, a medical examination at the wish
and expense of the parents shall precede the resolution to dismiss
the girl. For the cause of lack of application or stubbornness,
the scholar who incurs these faults shall not be dismissed except
after the attempt by reasonable means to correct her, and warnings,
once, twice, and thrice, to the parents of the party interested. But
when the deportment and irregular morals of any pupil concern the
innocence of the other girls, she shall be dismissed without delay,
with the advisable reservation. Nevertheless, both in such case and
in the preceding, all due consideration shall be observed toward the
girl and her parents.
12. Girls who, without any legitimate cause approved by the directress
of the school, shall be absent from class thirty consecutive or
interspersed times, in the same year, shall not receive a reward in
their examinations. Sickness, necessary absence from this capital,
and the bad weather which makes the streets impassable shall be a
sufficient excuse.
13. For the admission of boarders and half-boarders, the resolutions
drawn up in special regulations shall be observed. Until such
regulations are published the directress of the school may admit
half-boarders exactly in the manner in which pupils are received,
namely, as arranged by articles 7 and 8 of this same chapter.
CHAPTER III
Classes and studies
14. Teaching in all the necessary subjects embraced in the municipal
school is divided into three classes: lowest, intermediate, and upper.
15. In the lowest class shall be taught Christian doctrine and the
beginnings of reading and sewing.
16. In the intermediate class shall be taught Christian doctrine,
principles of sacred history, and the general history of España,
reading, writing, principles of Castilian grammar, with practice in
orthography, principles of arithmetic, and of the decimal metric
system, overcasting, drawing threads, backstitching, gathering,
and plaiting, darning, and sample work.
17. The upper class shall be taught writing, Castilian grammar,
orthography, arithmetic, history of España, the decimal metric system,
plaiting, making button-holes, crocheting, and cutting.
CHAPTER IV
Distribution of time for classes and studies
18. All classes shall begin in the morning at eight o'clock, and in
the afternoon at two, and shall close at eleven in the morning and
at five in the afternoon.
19. Girls of the lowest class shall employ the first hour of the
morning in sewing, the second in praying and Christian doctrine,
the third in reading; and the same in the afternoon.
20. Children of the intermediate and upper class shall employ the
first hour of the morning in writing; the second, in praying, reading,
Christian doctrine, and arithmetic; the third, in needle-work. In
the afternoon of Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, the first hour
shall be employed in grammar, general history, special history
of España, and exercises in orthography; the second, in reciting
the most holy rosary, and in hearing the explanation of Christian
doctrine and sacred history; the third, in needle-work. Tuesdays,
Thursdays, and Saturdays, in the morning, the same as on Mondays,
etc.; but in the afternoon of Tuesdays and Saturdays, the first hour,
in lessons in politeness, orthography, and the decimal metric system;
the second, in reciting the holy rosary, and in hearing on Tuesdays
the explanation of natural history, and on Saturdays that of the holy
gospel; the third in needle-work.
CHAPTER V
Holidays and vacations
21. There shall be a holiday for all the classes on the afternoon of
Thursdays in that week that shall have no feast day; and in the morning
and afternoon, the feast day in commemoration of the deceased faithful,
the saints' days, or anniversary of the birthdays of our sovereigns
(whom may God preserve), and the feast of St. Vincent of Paul.
22. There shall be thirty days of general vacation after the
examinations which shall take place at the end of May, but the last
fortnight shall have only holidays in the afternoon.
CHAPTER VI
Rewards and punishments
23. There shall be a private examination in the classes at the end
of each month, and some reward shall be given.
24. At the end of the course, after the public examinations, the
solemn distribution of prizes shall take place. These prizes shall
consist of silver, and gilded medals, and of rewards of merit and
religious subjects, and other like objects.
25. The punishments which shall be imposed on the pupils shall consist
of detention and remaining on the knees for a moderate time, loss of
place of honor in the class, occupation of a seat separated from the
other girls, and tagged with a card declaring the fault.
CHAPTER VII
Supervision and oversight
26. A commission composed of three women appointed by his Excellency,
the superior civil governor, on recommendation of the ayuntamiento,
one of whom shall be relieved annually, shall be created for the
supervision of the school. The functions of this commission shall be
those only of supervision and oversight. In consequence of that they
must inform the superior authority of any fault which is noted with
the fitting remarks for its correction.
Approved by his Excellency, the superior civil governor, Manila,
February 15, 1864.
CIRCULAR OF THE SUPERIOR CIVIL GOVERNMENT GIVING RULES FOR THE GOOD
DISCHARGE OF SCHOOL SUPERVISION
The duties imposed by articles 30-33 of the regulations approved by her
Majesty, December 20, 1863, for the schools and teachers of primary
instruction in this archipelago, both on this superior government
and on the chiefs of the provinces and the reverend and learned
parish priests, charging them in their respective spheres with the
supervision of so important a service, cannot be easily fulfilled
without a preceding conference between this directive center and
its delegates in regard to the transcendental points of doctrine,
and of detail which the supervisions are called upon to resolve.
The briefest enunciation of the supervisory functions is sufficient
to make its seriousness understood. The local functions especially,
which are exercised in their villages by the reverend and learned
parish priests, enclose the future of education. These are:
1. To visit the schools as often as possible, and see that the
regulations are observed.
2. To admonish the teachers who commit any fault, and suspend them in
case they incur any excess, which in their judgment does not allow
such teachers to longer continue in charge of the schools, advising
the provincial supervisor thereof.
3. To promote attendance at the schools by the children.
4. To give the orders of admission into the schools in writing with
expression as to whether the education is to be free or paid.
5. To propose, through the medium of the provincial supervisor,
whatever is thought to be advisable for the encouragement or
improvement of primary instruction.
6. To exercise the direction which is expressed in article 4, in
regard to the teaching of the Christian doctrine and ethics.
On the fulfilment of these sovereign requirements depends the
development and conservation of the improvements which are being
introduced into the department. Without a supervision, exercised
with assiduity and intelligence, one cannot imagine, and never will
there exist without doubt, good schools or intelligent teachers. The
happy fact of her Majesty entrusting that supervision to the reverend
and learned parish priests, assures its good outcome and shows well
the foresight and practical spirit which shine forth throughout
the regulations.
So deep is this conviction in me, that I do not hesitate to direct
myself under this date to their Excellencies, the most illustrious
prelates and the reverend father provincials of the religious orders,
petitioning them in harmony with the request; and charge that her
Majesty directs to them in article 19 of the organic royal decree
of December 20, 1863, that they incite the zeal of the parish
priests for the exact observance of their duties in what relates
to the supervision of instruction. Besides this you, as chief and
supervisor of that province, will please charge upon them the study of
chapter ii, título vi, of the regulations dictated for the Peninsula,
July 20, 1859, as a text or legal precedent; and as doctrine the wise
observations which the author of the Diccionario de educación y métodos
de enseñanza [i.e., Dictionary of education, and methods of teaching]
a very respectable authority in pedagogy, to whom the Peninsula owes in
great measure the progress of its primary instruction. "Supervision,"
it says, "is one of the most efficacious means for the improvement of
schools, and the acceleration of its onward progress toward perfection,
but only when it is done with intelligence, faith, and perseverance,
and at the same time, benevolent severity. The more serious are its
consequences, the more difficult is the mission of the supervisor,
and the more rare the qualities with which he ought to be adorned.
"It is necessary for him who shall exercise this duty to know how
to examine things in their most minute details. He must see them
at the same time in their make-up in order to judge of the harmony
or unity existing between the means and the ends to which they are
directed. Obliged to see and observe by himself whatever passes in
the schools, he must for that reason descend to the level of the
least intelligent teachers, and of the most dull and stupid scholars.
"The self-love of some, the ignorance of others, and the indifference
and coldness of the majority of persons with whom he will have to do,
are obstacles which can only be destroyed by a zeal, a strength of
indefatigable will, and a constancy which, instead of becoming weak,
increases its power in proportion to the resistance which is offered
to it.
"The supervisor must have studied the schools and the legislation of
this department very carefully, and further he must have a certain tact
and delicacy in his intercourse with men, which can only be acquired
by experience, and for lack of experience, by serious and profound
thought. Without that, it will be difficult, if not impossible,
to accomplish all the good that the supervision may produce, and
attract all the party of the commissions and of the intelligent and
influential persons, whom it is of great importance to interest in
favor of and for the profit of education." [52]
So notable a synthesis of the honorable task charged upon the
supervisors, and of the rules of deportment which must be presented,
indicates at once the evolution which the requirements contained
in article 32 of the regulations of December 20, 1863, will have
to receive in practice. Nevertheless, this superior government will
explain them to you, point by point, so that you may all be able to
penetrate more and more into the delicate functions which you are
going to perform.
I
Inspection of schools
The ocular supervision, to which the first part of these rules refer,
is chiefly an act of policy and good internal system. The supervisor
shall observe whether the school is clean and well taken care of,
in order to inspire the children with ideas of order and personal
neatness, which may have so great an influence on their future
life; whether the interior regulations approved by her Majesty on
the same date, and cited so often, are scrupulously observed; and
whether the progress of the teaching is that prescribed by article
10. Such supervision must be frequent, at the least semi-annual,
when, in accordance with article 5 of the school regulations, they
give lessons in Christian doctrine and ethics to the children.
On one of these inspections, combined with the communications
existing between the village and the chief city of the province or
district, the supervisor shall devote himself to the examinations of
the matriculation and record books referred to in article 2 of the
interior regulations, in order to viso in fitting time the monthly
report of entrances and departure, or the movement of the school,
which, in accordance with article 3, the teacher must send before the
fifth of each month to the provincial supervisor. This report is very
important, as it must serve as data for the compiling of the general
information of the province which must be published in the Gaceta de
Manila [i.e., Manila Gazette], [53] in accordance with the circulars
of this superior government on the twelfth of the current month.
Lastly, if the supervisor is zealous, as is to be hoped, on the
occasion of all inspections, in investigating thoroughly the progress
of the children and the instruction of the teacher, he shall endeavor
not to exact from either scholars or teacher things beyond their
strength, and shall adjust his actions and words to the measure
of good sense. He shall bear in mind that the result of his visit
depends in that act on the impression which the supervisor produces
on the teacher and on the children. In no case ought he to appear
as a melancholy censor, or a too indulgent friend. His corrections
must be mild when they are directed to the chief of the institution,
in order that he may not become contemptuous in the eyes of his
scholarship. If he merits an energetic correction, it shall be given
with great reserve, bearing in mind that the second requirement of
the above-mentioned article 32, places in his hand energetic means
of action. In exchange, praises must be public, but not exaggerated,
or told in such a manner that the teacher or the scholars shall grow
arrogant. In a word, simplicity, prudence, and affability must rule
these actions, the most transcendental of the supervisors' function,
for they can render sterile in a moment the cares of the government,
the sacrifices of the villages, and the lofty interests of the present
and future, which the education of children represents for the country
and for the families.
II
Correction and suspension of teachers
This is the most delicate power which the regulations give to
the supervisors. From the last paragraph preceding is inferred the
frugality with which it ought to be used. Faults of religion, public
or private morals, or of zeal in the fulfilment of one's duties,
will be the only things which authorize supervisors to initiate the
governmental measure demanded by article 9 of the regulations for
the discharge of teachers and assistants who have graduated from the
normal school.
The abandonment of the Castilian language in the explanations or in
the material ceremonies of the school, will also be considered as one
of the most serious faults of the teacher, according to circumstances,
in the tenor of law v, book i, título xiii, of Recopilación indiana,
animated and reformed by the imposition of heavy penalties in the
concluding requirements of chapters 25 and 26 of the Ordinances of
good government of February 26, 1768, articles 5 of the regulations
for normal school, and 3 for those of schools for primary instruction.
As it would scarcely be right that the authority of correcting and
punishing be not accompanied by that of compensating, especially
since the reverend and learned parish priests are authorized by the
fifth clause of the above-cited article 32, to promote the progress
or improvement of education, they will also be empowered to propose
annually after the examinations justifiable recommendations for the
granting of a prudent number of medals of civil merit to the teachers
or assistants, who have most distinguished themselves. The supervisor,
consulting with the commission of the department, shall remit the
document with his report to this government, which, consulting in
due time the superior commission, will grant or refuse the recompense
within the maximum limit of two medals per province.
When extraordinary and excellent services are proved, the more
honorable distinction may be obtained from the government of her
Majesty. This shall all be without prejudice to the promotions and
rewards of organic character, that is to say, those which are granted
to teachers by articles 11 and 12 of their own regulations.
III
School attendance
Education is compulsory. This concluding requirement of the
regulations exists in the laws of public instruction of almost
all nations. Nevertheless, in its application, the governments pay
attention to the social circumstances of the country. In our country
parents incur a fine who do not send their children to school, the
fine being from one-half to two reals, according to circumstances
(art. 2, of school regulations).
Before having recourse to this coercive means, a zealous supervisor
has other means of greater efficacy. The parish priest, venerated
by his parishioners, ought to excite the consciences of the heads of
the family, and make them comprehend their responsibility before God
and men in depriving their children of education. If an instinctive
duty counsels them to give their children bread, the duty to give
them an education (the bread of the soul) is a sacred one, without
which Christian man cannot live. The mothers of the family ought to
be for the supervisor, under this point of view, the preferred object
of their supplication, warnings, and tender and salutary counsels.
The goad of their own interests so powerful in the human heart ought
also to be excited for this noble end. The law has considered them
very carefully and it is fitting for the supervisor to unfold before
the eyes of the parents so that their simple intelligence may well
understand that not only ought they, but that it is profitable for
them to send their children to school, for after the schools have
been established for fifteen years in the village of their habitation
those who cannot speak, read, or write Castilian:
Cannot be gobernadorcillos.
Nor lieutenants of justice.
Nor form part of the principalía; unless they enjoy that privilege
because of heredity--a right which will continue to rapidly disappear,
in proportion as the instruction develops, and as only those who
possess an education become principales.
Lastly, after a school has been established in the village for thirty
years, those who unite [in themselves] said circumstance can enjoy
the enviable exemption of personal services.
Another more pressing thing must also be recalled to the attention
of the parents daily and hourly if possible. Five years after the
publication of the regulations, no one who cannot prove that he can
talk, read, and write Castilian, can be appointed to any remunerative
post in this archipelago.
So important requirements of articles 16 and 17 of the organic
royal decree of December 20, 1863, recommended by article 18 to this
superior government and the authorities of its dependency shall be
fulfilled with all exactness. From December 20 of the last year,
1868, no one who cannot prove in the terms expressed in article 17
that he can talk, read, and write Castilian, shall be appointed in
the archipelago, not even for the most insignificant and material
posts of the offices of state or of the villages (such as agents,
fagot-gatherers, tax assessors, collectors, etc., etc.).
If these inducements, or those which their religious and social zeal
inspire in the parish priests, do not produce the desired result,
then is the time when the supervisors must have recourse to the
gobernadorcillos for the imposition of the fines authorized by article
2 of school regulations.
IV
Admission into the schools
Both clear and simple are the prescribed regulations in regard to
this point. The supervisors perfectly understand the duties which
are delegated to them and the best method of fulfilling them.
Without ever losing sight of the fact that education is free for
poor children, they shall also bear in mind that this same principle
of charity, which the state proclaims and which is imposed as an
obligation, counsels them not to allow the admission of children under
the term "poor" whose parents can and ought to bear some sacrifice. It
is important for the gobernadorcillos to understand that if at any
time they unduly issue certificates of poverty according to the tenor
of article 4 of the regulations, the parish priests shall refuse to
approve them, and the consequent permission for the child to enter
the school. And in case this abuse is again committed they will inform
the provincial supervisor.
V
Propositions for improvements
The just initiative conceded in this matter to supervisors by the
regulations, must not be used without moderation, since innovations
in public instruction are of great consequence. One single error
is enough to lose a generation. Fortunately, as has already been
said, the fact that the functions of supervisors are entrusted to
the reverend and learned parish priests is a guarantee for the state
and the heads of families, that, in religion and ethics, the cardinal
basis of all solid instruction, reforms of principle or method shall
not be introduced arbitrarily. In regard to the equipment, of which
the experience and development of the respective institutions continue
to advise the supervisors, it is to be hoped that they will harmonize
with the general profit, which does not always build upon the best,
but on what is good and possible.
A fertile field is offered by the lamentable condition of primary
letters; by the scarcity of buildings for schools and teachers; by
the grievous disproportion among the children who can and who cannot
read; and between those who go and those who do not go to school,
etc. Some data collected by this superior government, in consequence
of the circular of March 1, 1866, show the following picture which is
recommended by its very nature to the study of supervisors, although
its accuracy must be a matter of doubt on all points.
Report of primary education of these islands with relation to the
data of approximate accuracy which were sent to this superior civil
government by the chiefs of the provinces and districts herein
expressed, in observance of the circular of March 1, 1866.
Provinces or Number of Number School Number of Buildings for
districts villages of souls attendance schools
possible
Boys Girls Boys Girls Schools Teachers
Abra 8 23,140 876 569 10 10
Albay 30 210,954 4,385 3,079 22
Antique 19 88,243 1,930 1,663 21 21 16
Bataán 12 45,177 1,005 704 16 16 10
Batanes (Isla) 7 8,639 632 336 6 6 2
Batangas 20 279,930 3,340 80 85 33 1
Benguet 27 11,587 29 1 1
Bontoc 7,000
Bohol 31 192,734 15,736 17,948 31 31 31
Bulacan 23 241,698 6,485 2,162 47 55 17
Burias 2 1,800 78 102 2 2 2 2
Cagayan 19 63,059 4,093 5,451 22 22 14
Camarines Sur 33 95,630 1,176 6 36
Camarines Norte 9 26,499 480 9 9 8
Capiz 31 191,818 5,072 4,436 35 28
Cavite 6 65,225 2,045 713 16 16 16 1
Cebú 45 314,517 6,734 4,414 45
Calamianes 5 13,851 718 298 6 6 6
Cottabato 7 3,913 128 70 3 3
Corregidor (Isla) 1 550 39 43
Davao 2 937 107 81 1
Ilocos Sur 23 163,758 4,603 1,993 20 22 23
Ilocos Norte 15 135,868 2,440 1,056 30 30 20
Iloilo 39 375,500 7,960 6,193 67 64 39
Infanta 3 7,250 558 3 2
Isla de Negros 41 144,594 1,829 1,776 30 24 29
Isabela de Basilan 1 439 1 1
Isabela de Luzón 10 29,674 3,199 2,820 16 16 9
Laguna 28 129,064 4,689 1,438
Lepanto 48 8,851 4 4
Leite 40 154,530 5,107 3,156 89 40
Manila 29 275,218 1,940 903 25 13
Marianas (Islas) 8 6,308 511 440 10 6 6
Masbate y Ticao 9 11,716 425 425 56 56 9
Mindoro 17 45,630 2,426 6
Misamis 22 67,285 5,684 5,684 20 20 19
Marong 12 49,859 934 558 12 12 9
Nueva Ecija 18 80,463 2,561 1,408 36 34 16 8
Nueva Vizcaya 6 12,091 1,481 1,764 6 6 6
Pampanga 28 188,694 1,580 517 52 52 21
Pangasinan 29 171,503 13,228 11,685 40 40 23
Porac 1 6,950 60 35 2 2 1
Principe 3 2,080 239 174 6 6
Romblón 5 21,992 2,594 2,319 6 5
Samar 35 138,799 2,585 36 36 35
Surigao 30 29,158 2,522 1,686 30 30 30
Tayabas 17 94,509 3,211 624 14
Unión 12 91,089 6,333 5,525 26 26 12
Zambales 21 72,506 1,080 832 21 21 20
Zamboanga 3 8,982 231 100 2 1
--- ------- ------- ------ --- --- --- --
Total 900 430,316 136,108 91,608 840 783 650 61
To study and remove the causes of that lamentable statistics; to
cause all the children who ought to attend the schools; to promote
the development of neglected institutions and the rebuilding of
those destroyed; to establish schools in villages which have none;
to persuade the justices to protect them, and the heads of families
to visit them: beautiful and never-failing task for a supervisor of
primary instruction! A thousand times more beautiful and more fertile,
if a father of souls exercises it with his ardent charitable spirit,
with his wide experience in the moral needs of the villages!
The fathers are also petitioned and requested to earnestly study and
prepare for the installation of the Sunday schools, or the schools
for adults established by article 29 of the regulations. In regard to
that article, by the tenor of the same, this government shall confer
with the superior commission of primary instruction, when the local
supervisors, having been established and working in the proper manner,
the danger of such innovation complicating their labors, disappears.
VI
In respect to the direction of moral and Christian teaching which that
requirement fittingly gives to the reverend and learned parish priests
subordinate to their respective prelates, this superior government
limits itself to assuring them of its most decided support, and the
support of the provincial supervisors of primary instruction. Thus
educated there is no doubt that the new generations will respond
to what is demanded of them by so wise a law, which is destined to
unite purity of religious sentiments which form the heart of youth
with the duties of patriotism, dignity, and intelligence, which form
the civilized man.
I ought, lastly, to say a word on the transcendental act of the
examinations, only in order to have the parish priests note that
article 13 of the interior regulations did not take account of the
royal order of August 28, 1862, which made biennial the period of
the session of the ayuntamientos. They must then pay strict heed to
the article in regard to holding examinations annually. It will be
advisable for them to submit a short review to the children when they
go to them every three months for confession and communion.
The provincial supervision entrusted to the alcaldes by article 15
of the organic royal decree, shall be exercised with the aid of a
commission composed of the diocesan prelate, or in his absence, by the
parish priest of the chief city, and the administrator of the public
finances. Where the chief of the province is not the alcalde-mayor,
he shall also form a part of the commission, but in the generality of
cases, as is well known, he presides over it. Although the above-cited
article 15 refers to regulations for schools and teachers for the
organization of the provincial center, article 31 of this last
order has been limited to a repetition of that precept, almost in
the same terms, leaving the dictation of measures which regulate
their supervisory action to the judgment of this government. This
would be a most important task if the organization of the provincial
governments in the archipelago corresponded to the necessities of
public administration in all its branches. It would be, I repeat,
a most important task, if this superior government could lay aside
the difficulties which it would create for itself for the future, by
dictating principles of which it is the first to doubt the application,
and even recognizing, as it does, the most exquisite care in all the
chiefs of the province. To this consideration of a practical nature
answers perhaps the indicated vacuity of the regulations for schools.
On the other side, the organization initiated December 20, 1863, by
its character of ad interim in so far as it refers to the directive
centers of the provinces, seems now to feel the need of reform which
afflicts those centers, when among other things it names repeatedly
the provincial chiefs.
This superior government ought, then, to limit itself for the present
to inciting their zeal, so that they may energetically aid it in
the noble work undertaken by it, namely, to establish the primary
instruction in these islands upon a solid foundation, without demanding
from them an initiative incompatible with their occupations. It is
enough that they do not render sterile the occupation of the parish
priests. Enough on their part is the pure and simple observance of
the royal decrees of December 20, 1863. The immediate installation
of the provincial commissions, which has not been attended to at
this date, will also permit the chiefs to delegate to the reverend
parish priest of the chief city the functions which they cannot
accomplish by their own efforts. Only they shall be very careful to
send monthly statements to this superior government, in accordance
with the circular of the twelfth of the current month, explained by
the communication to the alcalde of Tayabas on the twenty-second
of the same month; for this data will serve me in the exercise of
the superior supervision with which the regulations have entrusted
me. Nevertheless, it is to be hoped that the provincial chiefs will
make compatible with their many attentions those things which are
so grateful to an intelligent man that they engrave their indelible
memory on the heart of new generations.
Although I am also told that the condition of the country and the
humble organization which primary instruction has at present, advise
us not to expect from the supervision all the fruit which it is called
upon to produce, when, placed under the immediate direction of an
initiative and responsive center, it may exercise in regard to the
matters of the department the oversight which belongs to it by right,
this consideration, although a powerful one, does not prevent me; and
it is impossible, in a mediocre organization of public instruction,
to renounce the establishment of general supervisors, considered
in all countries as the key of the pedagogical edifice. The royal
order of June 6, 1866, supplementary to the regulations of the civil
professions of the colonies, opens the door or combinations which
permit, without great sacrifices to the state, or to the villages, the
appointment annually or for the period which her Majesty designs, of a
public functionary of recognized ability to visit the provinces in the
character of supervisor general and to promote, hasten, and give unity
and scientific direction to the development which the institutions of
primary instruction are acquiring. In this sense a respectful report
will be sent to the government of her Majesty in a short time.
May God preserve your Excellency many years. Manila, August 30, 1867.
Gándara [54]
DECREE OF THE GENERAL GOVERNMENT APPROVING, WITH THE CHARACTER OF ad
interim, THE REGULATIONS FOR THE NORMAL SCHOOL FOR WOMEN TEACHERS OF
PRIMARY EDUCATION IN THE DIOCESE OF NUEVA-CACERES
Manila, June 19, 1875. In consequence of the provision of article
20 of the decree of this general government dated the ninth of the
current month and at the recommendation of the General Division of
Civil Administration, I have ordered the approval ad interim of the
subjoined regulations for the normal school for women teachers in
the diocese of Nueva-Cáceres.
Let it be communicated, published, and brought to the notice of the
government of his Majesty for his approval.
Malcampo
REGULATIONS ad interim FOR THE NORMAL SCHOOL FOR WOMEN TEACHERS OF
PRIMARY EDUCATION IN THE DIOCESE OF NUEVA-CACERES
CHAPTER I
Object of the school
Article 1. The normal school for women teachers in the diocese of
Nueva-Cáceres has as its object: [55]
1. To turn out religious, moral, and intelligent women teachers
for the schools of primary education in all the grades which are
established in the villages comprised in the provinces and districts
of the diocese of Nueva-Cáceres.
2. To offer, in the school of Santa Isabel, already destined as
a girls' practice school of the normal school for women teachers,
a model for all other public and private schools.
3. To serve those scholars who aspire to teaching, so that they
may see and carry out for themselves in the said practice school,
the application of the systems, methods, and processes of teaching.
Art. 2. The normal school for women teachers of the diocese of
Nueva-Cáceres shall also serve to give to those young women, who do
not wish to be teachers, the knowledge comprised in the program of
the same.
Art. 3. The practice school shall form an integral part of the normal
school for women teachers, and shall, at the same time, serve as
a municipal public school for poor children of the capital of the
province and the surrounding villages.
CHAPTER II
Subjects taught and duration of studies
Art. 4. The teaching of the normal school for women teachers in
Nueva-Cáceres shall be divided:
1. In teaching for candidates to the teaching profession.
2. In teaching for the scholars who are not candidates for teachers.
3. In teaching for girls.
Art. 5. The teaching for those included in paragraph 1 of the preceding
article shall include:
1. Religion, ethics, and sacred history.
2. Theory and practice in reading.
3. Theory and practice in writing.
4. Knowledge of the Castilian language, with exercises in analysis,
composition, and orthography.
5. Arithmetic, with the metric system of weights and measures and
their local equivalents.
6. Principles of geography, and history of España and Filipinas.
7. Principles of hygiene and domestic economy.
8. General principles of education and methods of teaching, and
their practical application in the girls' model school.
9. Work of all kinds suitable for women, especially those of the
most general utility and application to domestic life, such as
sewing, weaving, embroidery, the cutting of garments, and ironing.
10. Useful knowledge.
Art. 6. Teaching for girls shall include the same courses with the
exception of the general principles of education, and methods and
processes of teaching, such processes extending to the elementary
and superior grades.
Art. 7. In the lessons, exercises, and teaching practice, as well as
during the hours of recreation, and in the common intercourse among the
scholars within the school, only the Castilian language shall be used.
Art. 8. The studies mentioned in article 5 shall be pursued for three
years, in accordance with the schedule which shall be made out by
the instructresses of the school. That schedule, after having been
reported to the board of supervision and oversight, shall be sent
annually for the approval of the general government.
The course shall begin July 1, and end May fifteenth.
Art. 9. Every lesson given to the pupils of the normal school
shall necessarily consist of an explanation by the teacher, and of
intelligent recitation and practical application by the scholars.
Art. 10. The schedule of the school, and the distribution of time and
work during the same, shall determine the necessary practice of those
aspiring to become teachers in the girls' school, both as supervisors
of order and class, and as assistants or teachers, but always under
the direction of the head teacher.
The said schedule of the normal school shall determine the time which
the pupils are to devote to the practice school, but such time shall
never be less than four months for each term.
Art. 11. The scholars who are candidates for teachers may not pass
from one grade to another without having proved their sufficiency
in the general examination which shall be held at the end of every
scholastic year.
Art. 12. When studies have been finished in the manner dictated by
the schedule of the school, the scholars shall stand an examination in
order to obtain the corresponding certificate, and for those exercises
the fitting regulations shall be made.
Art. 13. If any one of the scholars who are candidates for teachers
wishes to continue one year longer in the school in order to perfect
and increase the knowledge which she has acquired, she may do so,
but under condition of paying the annual board from her possessions,
if she should be a boarder, and if it is not unadvisable in the
opinion of the directress that she remain in the institution.
Art. 14. The scholars of the normal school who shall have completed
the courses of their studies, and who shall have obtained for their
good deportment, application, and knowledge, the mark of excellent
in the final examinations of the three consecutive years, shall
receive teachers' certificates, with expression in the certificate
of their honorable mark. Such persons shall be empowered to take
charge of ascenso schools. Those who shall not have obtained the
mark of excellent, but that of good or fair in the above-mentioned
examinations, shall also receive teachers' certificates, with the
corresponding mark mentioned therein; and such persons may take charge
of entrada schools. If those who shall not have passed in the said
examinations, after the exercise has been repeated, shall deserve a
passing mark, they shall receive assistant teachers' certificates.
CHAPTER III
Of the staff of the school
Art. 15. The normal school for women teachers in Nueva-Cáceres shall
be organized under the direction of the sisters of charity, and shall
make use of the elements of the staff and equipment of the school of
Santa Isabel.
Art. 16. The staff of the normal school shall consist of the following:
1. A directress, who shall have charge of the teachers, scholars,
and inferior employes of the institution. In her charge shall be
the economic part, the direction, order, and discipline of the same,
and the allowances which correspond to it, according to the schedule
and regulations of the school.
The directress shall preside over the literary ceremonies of the school
whenever the provincial chief, the reverend bishop of Nueva-Cáceres, or
the board of supervision and oversight, does not attend them. She shall
visit the classes and the practice school, in order to investigate the
explanations of the teachers and the progress of the scholars. She
shall correct those faults which she observes, and recommend to the
board of supervision and oversight the expulsion of those pupils
in the cases and conditions which are expressed in the interior
regulations of the school, informing the above-mentioned board of
the extraordinary measures which she believes it necessary to take.
2. A head teacher in the practice school, in charge of the
communication of the teaching to the girls, responsible for their
instruction, and for order and discipline in her department.
She must employ herself in the direction and management of the teaching
of systems, methods, and processes determined upon in the board of
instructresses, always with the approval and under the presidency
and immediate authority of the directress.
The head teacher shall also have the duty of carrying out the orders
of the schedule in reference to the practice of those scholars who
are candidates for teachers, and shall explain the studies determined
by paragraphs 2 and 3 of article 5.
3. Three teachers for the theoretical and practical teaching of
the studies included in the school schedule, except those which the
directress, the regent of the practice school, and the professor of
religion and ethics have under their charge.
4. Two assistant teachers for the practice school, one for the upper
section, and the other for the elementary section.
5. One virtuous and learned secular who shall be charged by the
reverend diocesan bishop with the teaching of religion, ethics,
and sacred history.
6. A sister to act as portress and the women servants or subordinates
who are considered indispensable.
Art. 17. The interior regulations shall assign to each one of the
teachers the duties which they shall have in charge for the moral
and religious education of the scholars, whom they shall accompany,
and watch during study hours, recreation hours, and during the other
occupations prescribed by the same interior regulations.
CHAPTER IV
Of scholars and their admission
Art. 18. Scholars in the normal school shall be resident and day
pupils, and shall be divided into the following classes:
1. Scholars who are candidates for teachers, and who are supported
from the local funds.
2. Scholars who are candidates for teachers, and who are supported
by their parents or benefactors.
3. Scholars who are not candidates for teachers, and who are supported
by their parents or benefactors for the purpose of acquiring the
education and teaching of the normal school, in order to apply them
to the family and to the uses of domestic life.
4. Girls who attend the practice school.
Art. 19. The scholars included in paragraph 1 shall always be boarders.
Those included in paragraphs 2 and 3 may be boarders or day pupils,
whenever they possess the qualifications which are prescribed in
these regulations.
Art. 20. In order that any resident scholar sustained by the public
funds may be admitted, the following requirements are necessary:
1. She must be a native of the diocese of Nueva-Cáceres.
2. She must be fully seventeen years old, [56] and not past
twenty-three. Those requirements shall be proved by her baptismal
register, or by any other equivalent public document
3. She shall not have any contagious disease, or any chronic disease
or any physical defect which makes her ridiculous whether because of
lack of respect or because it incapacitates her for teaching.
4. She shall prove good moral deportment by means of a certification,
issued by the gobernadorcillo, principalía, and parish priest, of the
native village or habitation of the party interested, and investigated
by the provincial chief.
5. She shall talk Castilian, know the Christian doctrine, how to read
and write, the four rules of arithmetic for integers, and have some
slight smattering of Castilian grammar, in order that she may pursue
to good effect the lessons of the school schedule.
6. She shall be chosen by the provincial chief at the recommendation
of the gobernadorcillo, of the parish priest, and of the principalía
of the village in whose charge shall be the expense of her support
in the school.
7. She shall be tested by an examination of the matters comprised
in paragraph 5 of this article before the school tribunal formed by
the instructresses of the same and necessarily presided over for this
purpose by the reverend diocesan. The result of that examination shall
be given to the president of the board of supervision and oversight,
so that he may inform the provincial chief who has control of the
village, for economic reasons.
Art. 21. The same requirements shall be exacted from resident scholars
whose support is not taken care of from the local funds, except those
included in paragraph 6 of the preceding article. These resident
scholars shall pay to the institution a monthly board of six pesos,
and shall receive the same teaching and the same treatment as those
supported by the local funds.
Art. 22. Only those young women shall be admitted as day pupils who,
besides possessing the qualifications demanded of the resident pupils,
shall live in Nueva-Cáceres or in its environs, under the authority
of their parents, or under the care of a person of the family,
in such circumstances that it may be assumed that she will find at
the domestic hearth the necessary examples of virtue and morality,
so that her deportment may not be harmful to the other scholars.
Art. 23. If the villages let three months pass without proposing to
the chief of the province the young woman who ought to enter the
normal school as a resident pupil supported from the local funds,
it will be understood that they renounce this right, and the vacancy,
after such announcement, shall be filled by the board of supervision
and oversight. It must be kept in mind that the young woman chosen
must possess all the qualifications prescribed in article 20, and,
all things being equal, she who is a native of the province, to which
the village belongs, will be preferred.
Art. 24. The women teachers already established, who desire to
improve their education, or who shall be obliged to do so, after a
preceding investigation and by accord of the suitable authority, may
be admitted as resident pupils in the normal school, under condition
of paying the board of six pesos per month. In order to be admitted as
resident pupils they must possess the qualification of being single
and of not exceeding the age of twenty-three. In any other case, or
the size of the institution not permitting, they shall be received
as day pupils, shall receive their instruction free and must submit
to the requirements of article 22.
Art. 25. As soon as all the villages of the diocese of Nueva-Cáceres
have a public school for girls directed by a woman teacher from the
normal school, the number of resident pupils supported from local
funds shall be reduced to twenty-five. With this number the vacancies,
occurring through the death of the teachers in charge, or for other
causes, shall be filled.
Art. 26. The resident pupils sustained from the local funds shall
be obliged to fulfil their duties for ten years in the girls' public
school of their own village, or of any other school which the general
government assigns to them in the diocese of Nueva-Cáceres. They can
only become exempt from this obligation by returning to the local
funds, after the fitting measure has been taken, the sums spent
on their support, education, and instruction. The same thing will
be true when they leave the normal school before finishing their
studies, without legitimate cause, and by their own wish or that of
their parents, or are expelled from it for lack of application, or
bad deportment. The standard for calculating expenses caused during
the given period shall be the board which the village has satisfied
for this purpose, plus 6 per cent annually, as interest on the sums
advanced.
CHAPTER V
Of the directress of the school and the teachers of the same
Art. 27. The directress shall have charge of the interior government
and administration of the institution. She shall have special care and
shall be responsible for the instructresses, scholars, and subordinates
performing with exactness their respective obligations. She shall
watch over the conduct of the scholars, both resident and day. She
shall cause the fulfilment of the study schedule, shall impose the
punishments which are authorized by the regulations, shall have charge
of the effects of the house, shall keep the books, shall render the
accounts, shall form the monthly and annual budgets, and shall carry
on the correspondence with the board of supervision and oversight
and with the parents or guardians of the scholars.
Art. 28. One of the teachers shall act as substitute during the
sickness and absence of the directress, being approved beforehand
by the general government. Another teacher shall exercise the duties
of secretary.
Art. 29. The school teachers shall observe the class hours, the
practical exercises, the conference, and the duties imposed on them
by the regulations.
CHAPTER VI
Of examinations
Art. 30. At the end of each month, in each one of the classes of
the normal school, there shall be a private examination in all the
matters studied during that period. A like exercise shall be held at
the end of the first semester, in regard to the matters studied during
it. General examinations shall be held at the end of the course. This
exercise shall always be public and presided over by the board of
supervision and oversight. Persons of distinction and the parents
and guardians of the scholars shall be invited to it. At the end of
the general examination the distribution of rewards shall take place.
Art. 31. The examinations of all classes prescribed in these
regulations, as well as of those which shall be prescribed in the
future, and in which the board of supervision and oversight intervenes,
shall always be held in the building of the normal school.
CHAPTER VII
Of holidays and vacations
Art. 32. Holidays in the normal school shall be Sundays, feast days,
Ash Wednesday, day for the commemoration of the faithful dead, and
also the saints' days, and birthday anniversaries of their Majesties
and the princess of Asturias, the saint's day of the governor general
and that of the diocesan bishop.
The short vacations shall extend from Christmas eve to Twelfth-night,
the three carnival days, and from Holy Wednesday until Easter. During
the said vacations the resident scholars shall remain in the
institution.
The long vacations shall last one and one-half months, and shall be
during the time of the greatest heat. The resident scholars may pass
the long vacations in the bosom of their families.
CHAPTER VIII
Of rewards and punishments
Art. 33. The directress shall keep a register with as many columns as
there are subjects taught, as contained in the school schedule. In
it, she shall note the degree of progress of the pupils, and shall
make the necessary remarks regarding their character, ability,
application, and deportment. This register shall be presented to the
board of supervision and oversight at the end of each month. That
board shall examine it, and in view of that examination, shall take
the advisable measures.
Art. 34. The deportment, application, and progress of the scholars,
shall be rewarded with marks of honor, which shall be placed on their
certificate of studies and in the school book; and further, with the
annual prizes, whose solemn distribution shall take place after the
termination of the examinations at the end of the course.
Art. 35. The punishments which shall be imposed on the scholars
shall be:
1. Secret admonition.
2. Loss of recreation and the walk.
3. Censure in the presence of the scholars.
4. Seclusion and separation from the other scholars.
5. Strict suspension from course.
6. Loss of course.
7. Expulsion from the institution.
The punishments included under nos. 1, 2, 3, and 4, shall be imposed
by the directress.
Those included under nos. 5 and 6 [shall be imposed] by the board of
teachers presided over by the board of supervision and oversight.
That included under no. 7 shall be imposed by the general government
on recommendation of the board of teachers, and after a report of the
reverend diocesan bishop and of the board of supervision and oversight.
Art. 36. The rewards obtained and the punishments suffered by the
scholars shall be noted in the school registers, and mention will be
made of them in the certificates which are issued.
CHAPTER IX
Of textbooks
Art. 37. The board of supervision and oversight shall recommend, with
the approval of the general government, a list of the books which may
be used as textbooks by the scholars, and to which the teachers shall
subordinate their explanations. This list shall be revised according
as conditions warrant it.
CHAPTER X
Of the issuing of certificates
Art. 38. The General Division of Civil Administration has the power
of issuing, in the name of the governor general and in the tenor of
the order of article 8, of the decree of September 9, 1874, teachers'
certificates at the recommendation of the board of supervision and
oversight. [57]
Art. 39. The teachers' certificates shall contain the marks which
they shall have obtained and the class of the school for which the
certificates entitles them.
CHAPTER XI
Of the interior regulations of the school
Art. 40. In the daily distribution of time on the part of the scholars,
the order of the studies, the division of the classes, the religious
and literary exercises, the intercourse [trato], food, and clothing,
as well as the duties of the scholars toward their teachers, and the
duties of the parents and guardians in regard to the institution,
the teachers and scholars shall obey the interior regulations of the
school of Santa Isabel, which were enacted by the diocesan prelate
and approved by the superior government in the year 1868, until the
interior regulations of the normal school for women teachers shall
be drawn up by the board of inspection and oversight, and approved
by the general government.
CHAPTER XII
Of the supervision and oversight of the school
Art. 41. Besides the superior supervision which belongs to the
general government, and to the superior board of public instruction
in regard to the normal school for women teachers in Nueva-Cáceres,
the reverend diocesan prelate shall exercise the moral and religious
supervision which belong to him in accordance with the laws, and
the literary supervision, and that of the internal organization,
to which the fervent and evangelical zeal with which he has promoted
the creation of the institution gives him a right. In this regard,
he shall recommend whatever occurs to him for the prosperity and
improvement of the same.
Art. 42. For the constant and active oversight and supervision of the
school, there shall also be a board composed of the alcalde-mayor of
the province of Camarines Sur, [58] as president, of the reverend
diocesan bishop, or in his absence of the ecclesiastical governor,
and of the administrator of public finances.
Art. 43. For the relations of the board of supervision and oversight
with the reverend diocesan bishop, article 1 of the circular of the
superior government, dated May 17, 1864, shall be observed. [59]
Art. 44. The board shall observe and cause to be observed with all
exactness whatever is prescribed in these regulations, as well as in
the regulations which are to be drawn up for the interior management
of the school, in the matter of examinations for obtaining a teacher's
certificate, and in the schedules of teaching.
Art. 45. The board shall visit the normal school for women teachers in
a body at least once each three months; shall examine the affairs of
the same; shall ask or cause the instructors to ask questions of the
scholars in regard to the teachings of the schedule, shall note and
make the remarks which it judges advisable for taking or recommending,
according to circumstances, the measures which it judges fitting for
the prosperity and better organization of the institution.
Art. 46. The board shall designate its member who shall be charged,
in his turn, with the exercise of immediate and efficient oversight
of the school for each month.
Art. 47. The board, or the member of it who shall be so chosen, shall
execute, and cause to be executed, the measures of the same; shall
oversee the observance of the regulations; shall visit the school
frequently; shall assist in the professorships and at the practice
school; and in examinations shall have the authority determined by
the regulations.
Art. 48. The board shall inform the general government concerning the
condition of the school every three months, and at the end of each
course shall make a detailed report in regard to the results obtained
and the methods which it is advisable to adopt, so that they may be
more satisfactory.
CHAPTER XIII
Of the bookkeeping of the school
Art. 49. The staff and equipment expenses of the normal school shall
be met:
1. By the sums assigned at present in the provincial budgets for the
staff expenses of the sisters of charity charged with the teaching
in the school of Santa Isabel, and with those which are included for
the increase of two teachers.
2. With the sums which shall be assigned in the municipal budgets
for the support of the scholars and the equipment of the institution.
3. With the sums which are at present included in the municipal
budgets of Nueva-Cáceres for the practice school since it is a girls'
public school.
Art. 50. The board of supervision and oversight shall report annually
the budgets of receipts and expenses of the school. That report shall
be made by the directress, and shall be sent to the General Division
of Civil Administration without prejudice to the obligation of the
chiefs of the province to include in the municipal and provincial
receipts and expenses the sums which belong to this object.
Art. 51. For the collection and distribution of funds as well as for
the rendering and approval of accounts, the order prescribed by the
laws in force and the special orders dictated by the General Division
of Civil Administration shall be followed.
Transitory regulations
Art. 52. The board of supervision and oversight shall draw up a
project of regulations for the examinations to which those who are
candidates for teachers' certificates must submit themselves, as well
as for the placing and promotion of the same.
Art. 53. Until the staff of the school is complete, the directress
shall confer with the reverend diocesan prelate for the application
in so far as may be possible, of article 16 of these regulations.
Manila, June 19, 1875. Approved.
Malcampo
ROYAL DECREE CREATING IN MANILA A NORMAL SCHOOL FOR WOMEN TEACHERS
IN CHARGE OF THE AUGUSTINIAN NUNS OF THE ASSUMPTION ESTABLISHED IN
THE ROYAL SCHOOL OF SANTA ISABEL OF MADRID
EXPOSITION
Madam:
Primary instruction in the Philippine Archipelago demands reforms
for its invigoration, and to assure, at the same time, the teaching
of the Castilian language and the greatest facility possible for the
religious education--the elements of culture which are the necessary
basis for superior studies which are indispensable for the youth of
that beautiful archipelago, without distinction of origin or of class.
Until prudent and meditated reforms, harmonized with the respect, which
deep-rooted and traditional customs merit, succeed in establishing
a complete organism in the management of public instruction, the
undersigned minister esteems the creation of a superior normal school
for women teachers in the city of Manila as an imperative necessity,
since experience proves, by that formerly created in Nueva-Cáceres,
the undeniable advantages of a like nature in that country.
Since the two principal objects of primary education in Filipinas is
to inculcate in the heart of studious youth love for religion and the
Castilian language, it is certainly beyond discussion that whatever
attempts in this sense to improve the qualities of intelligence and
of the religious character which distinguish the Filipino woman,
[60] must redound, in consequence, to the greater degree of culture
and of the well-being of that society, so intimately bound up with
the destinies of the most glorious Spanish traditions.
For the attainment of this proposition, the undersigned believes that
the most efficient form for the ends of an education, suitable for
the habits and traditions, perfectly compatible with the greatest
progress of modern culture, is to confide the direction of the
superior normal school for women teachers in Manila to instructors
of well-known intelligence and excellent moral endowments, who give,
together with testimonies of knowledge, examples of virtue and zeal in
which that youth may be inspired. Therefore, there is nothing more in
harmony with this aspiration than to give the direction of the Manila
school to the congregation of the Augustinian nuns of the Assumption,
who are established in this capital. Their efficiency is proved by
the long and brilliant period of teaching to which they have devoted
themselves in the school of Santa Isabel in Madrid.
Consequently, then, with personal fitness, adorned with the
certificates which are requisite for teaching and of true ability
for the same, the superior normal school for women teachers in Manila
can be founded upon secure foundations of the most brilliant future,
which assure and prove the noble aspirations of a culture which so
much distinguishes that country, for whose destiny and prosperity the
government of your Majesty is trying to the best of its ability to
continue to establish as many beneficial institutions as necessity
inspires.
The undersigned minister, relying on the preceding considerations,
has the honor to submit the subjoined project of a decree for your
Majesty's approval.
Madrid, March 11, 1892. Madam, at the royal feet of your Majesty,
Francisco Romero Robledo
ROYAL DECREE
At the recommendation of the minister of the colony, in the name of my
august son, King Don Alfonso XIII, and as queen regent of the kingdom,
I decree the following:
Article 1. In order to attend to the necessities of primary education
in the Philippine Archipelago, and with the object of turning out
fitting women teachers, to whom to entrust the development, progress,
and successful direction of the same, a superior normal school for
women teachers is created which shall be established in Manila.
Art. 2. The direction and personal oversight of said centre of
education shall be in charge of the congregation of the Augustinian
nuns of the Assumption, established in the royal school of Santa
Isabel of this capital.
Art. 3. The sums for the staff and equipment of the above-named school
shall be assigned in the general budgets of expenses and receipts
of Filipinas for the present year, and shall be distributed in the
following manner: 7,900 pesos for the teaching force and management,
and 4,500 pesos for equipment.
Art. 4. For the management of teaching in this school, there shall be
five regular instructresses, two assistants--one of the department of
letters, the other of sciences--one music and singing instructress,
and another for hall gymnastics, and one professor of religion and
ethics who shall also be the chaplain of the institution.
Art. 5. To obtain the post of regular instructress in the school
created by this decree, the holding of a teacher's certificate of
superior primary instruction shall be an indispensable condition. Such
academical studies shall have been carried on in the national normal
schools.
Art. 6. The directress and regular instructresses shall be appointed
by royal order by the minister of the colonies, from the aspirants
who solicit said posts from the above-mentioned congregation of the
Augustinian nuns of the Assumption.
Art. 7. The teachers' certificate which shall be given in this school
shall comprise two grades--elementary and superior.
The teaching corresponding to the first shall be in three courses. The
second shall include one course more [than the first].
Art. 8. In the three years included in the elementary grade, studies
shall consist of the Castilian language, expressive reading and
caligraphy, religion and ethics, arithmetic and geometry, history,
geography in general, and, in especial, that of España and Filipinas;
principles of physics, chemistry, physiology, and natural history,
principles of law in application to the common exercises of life,
pedagogy, scholastic organization and legislation, special pedagogy
applied to deaf mutes and the blind, principles of literature and the
fine arts, general hygiene and domestic economy, French, English,
drawing, and singing, gymnastics, needle-work, and practice in
teaching. For the upper grade, the same studies shall be pursued,
enlarged as may be advisable.
Art. 9. The division and extent to which the previous branches shall
be studied, as well as the number of elections of each one, shall be
prescribed in the regulations.
Art. 10. The conditions which shall be demanded from the scholars
for entrance into this school, shall also be prescribed in the said
regulations.
Art. 11. The courses shall commence on the first day of June of each
year and close March 31 following.
Art. 12. To the normal school shall be annexed the corresponding school
for girls supported by the municipality where candidates for teachers'
certificates may acquire the practical knowledge indispensable to
those who devote themselves to this profession.
Art. 13. All the orders which prevent the fulfilment of the contents
of this decree shall be null and void; and the minister of the
colonies shall be authorized to settle any doubts which may arise
in the application of the same, as well as to dictate the measures
which their observance demands.
Given in the palace, March eleventh, one thousand eight hundred
and ninety-two.
Maria Cristina
The minister of the colonies:
Francisco Romero y Robledo
ROYAL ORDER 241 OF THE MINISTRY OF THE COLONIES APPROVING THE
REGULATIONS FOR THE SUPERIOR NORMAL SCHOOL FOR WOMEN TEACHERS IN MANILA
Your Excellency:
In accordance with the order of article 13 of the royal decree, of the
eleventh of the present month, by virtue of which a superior normal
school for women teachers is created in Manila, and for the purpose
of facilitating the institution of said school, and of regulating
the exercise of its functions from the beginning:
His Majesty, the king (whom may God preserve) and in his name, the
Queen Regent of the kingdom, has considered it advisable to approve
the subjoined regulations by which the abovesaid teaching centre is
to be ruled.
I inform your Excellency of this by royal order for your information,
and for the following ends, it being at the same time the will of
his Majesty that this resolution, as well as the regulations to which
the same alludes, be published entire in the Gaceta of Madrid, and in
that of Manila, in accordance with the rulings of the royal decree of
October 5, 1888. May God preserve your Excellency many years. Madrid,
March 31, 1892.
Romero
[Addressed: "Governor general of the Filipinas Islands."]
Cagayán de Misamis, May 19, 1892. Let it be fulfilled, published,
and sent to the General Division of Civil Administration, for the
purposes abovesaid.
Despujol
REGULATIONS OF THE SUPERIOR NORMAL SCHOOL FOR WOMEN TEACHERS IN MANILA
TÍTULO FIRST
OF THE OBJECT OF THE NORMAL SCHOOL
CHAPTER I
Article 1. The normal school created by royal decree of the eleventh
of the present month has as its object:
1. The turning out of suitable women teachers, who shall have
charge afterward of the schools of primary instruction for girls,
so that these will well and faithfully meet the necessities of the
present time.
2. To serve as a model so that the scholars who attend it may acquire
an exact knowledge of the methods, which must be employed with
good results in directing and developing the intellectual, moral,
and physical qualities of the girls who will later be entrusted to
their direction and care; and in so far as possible also consider its
establishment for good results in teaching according to the systems
by which they may rule those girls who shall be entrusted to them at
the end of their course.
Of the subjects to be taught
Art. 2. The subjects which must be the object of study for the
pupils who attend this school shall be those described in article
8 of the above-cited royal decree, comprising the three courses for
the elementary grade, and one additional course for the superior.
The subjects which shall be taught in the normal school of Manila
are as follows:
1. Religion and ethics (this course will include the explanation of
the catechism and sacred history).
2. Castilian grammar.
3. Expressive reading.
4. Arithmetic.
5. Caligraphy.
6. General geography and the geography of España and Filipinas.
7. History of España and Filipinas.
8. Hygiene and domestic economy.
9. Needle-work.
10. Geometry.
11. Room gymnastics.
12. Pedagogy.
13. Natural sciences.
14. Music and singing.
15. Practice in teaching.
16. Principles of literature.
17. Designing, with application to needle-work.
18. Principles of law and its application to the common exercise of
life.
19. French.
20. English.
21. Pedagogy for deaf mutes and the blind.
22. Fine arts.
Elementary grade
The first and second year shall include studies from 1 to 11 inclusive,
and the same instructress may unite the pupils of both years in
one class.
The third year shall be an enlargement of the same studies, adding
the studies from no. 12 to no. 15 inclusive.
Superior grade
For the superior grade of the fourth year, all the subjects of the
preceding years shall be studied in an enlarged form, adding the
studies of nos. 16 and 17, and substituting geometry for drawing.
From no. 18 to no. 22 the studies shall be optional, the study of all
or any of them being at the desire of the pupil, after the conclusion
of the studies of the fourth year.
Art. 3. Lessons shall be alternate, weekly or bi-weekly, according
to the importance of the subjects with relation to the course.
Each election shall last in general one hour, more time being given
to the lessons in needle-work, which shall be daily, and in the other
lessons to that which is believed to be for the advantage of the pupil.
Of school equipment
Art. 4. Since the effort must be made to try to give to the teaching in
this institution the greatest possible practical character, it shall
be furnished with sufficient scientific equipment. Accordingly then,
it must have:
1. The equipment for teaching suitable for each subject whose budget
formed beforehand by the directress, shall be submitted to the
approval of the governor general, in order that the sum assigned for
this purpose may be annually expended on it.
2. Since the economic condition of some of the pupils of this center
will not permit them to acquire a certain class of books, which
it would be necessary for them to know, the governor general shall
assign the said center a copy of the books, which have application to
the school of which these regulations treat, and the ministry of the
colonies shall send them for the encouragement of the public libraries.
The books shall be submitted to the approval of the directress, and
her permission shall be necessary so that the pupils can make use
of them. She shall also make the necessary rules in order for their
consultation, whenever she considers it advisable.
CHAPTER II
Of the teaching force
Art. 5. The school shall have the teaching force prescribed in article
4 of the royal decree of the eleventh of the present month.
Art. 6. One of the regular instructresses shall exercise the duties
of directress. Her appointment shall belong to the minister of the
colony on recommendation of the reverend mother superior general of
the congregation of the Augustinian nuns of the Assumption.
Art. 7. The duties of secretary and librarian shall be filled by the
instructresses appointed by the directress.
Art. 8. The appointment of assistant instructresses shall be made by
the directress.
Art. 9. The appointment of an assistant professor of religion and
ethics, who shall also be chaplain of the institution, shall be made
by the directress, with the consent of the diocesan.
Art. 10. The teaching force of the school will receive remuneration
in the following manner:
Pesos
Instructor-directress, with an annual salary of 1,000
Five regular instructresses [profesoras numerarias],
with a salary of 700 pesos each 3,500
One instructress of music and singing with an annual
salary of 475
One instructress of room gymnastics 400
Two assistant instructresses, one for the section of
sciences, and the other for the section of letters,
with an annual salary of 475 pesos each 950
One assistant instructor of religion and ethics,
who shall also be the chaplain of the institution,
with an annual salary of 475
-----
Total 6,800
Administrative force
One secretary 250
One assistant clerk for secretary 200
One portress 200
Three serving women at 150 pesos each 450
-----
Total 1,100
CHAPTER III
Of the directress
Art. 11. The duties of the directress of the school are as follows:
1. To observe and cause the laws, decrees, regulations, and other
superior orders to be observed.
2. To adopt the measures advisable for the conservation of scholastic
order and discipline.
3. To see that the instruction is given in the proper manner, for
which purpose she shall frequently visit the different rooms and take
care that the material aids which each subject demands are not lacking.
4. To call and preside over the board of instructresses and the
disciplinary council, and to execute their decisions or send those
decisions for superior approval if they require it.
5. To appoint the instructresses and the subordinates whose pay does
not exceed five hundred pesos, after informing the governor general
of said appointments.
6. To send the requests of the instructresses, employes, pupils,
and dependants, to the governor general with her report; with the
understanding that the course of instruction will not be granted to
those who do not submit their conduct [to her], in order that there
may be no complaint against her.
7. To represent the school in judicial matters in which the school
may be a party, or to delegate someone else to represent it.
8. To recommend the measures which she believes conducive to the growth
and improvement of the school, and which are not among her duties.
9. To see to it, with the greatest of zeal, that the instructresses
observe all the duties which are prescribed for them in the regulations
which are to be drawn up by the cloister for the interior management
of the school.
10. To preside over all the meetings held by the cloister and to
direct their discussions.
11. To direct the teaching, in accordance with the schedules presented
by the instructresses and approved by the governor general.
12. The administration of the economic part of the institution,
receiving the sums which are assigned for its support, and distributing
them in accordance with the approved budget, whose preliminary project
must be drawn up in due time.
13. The formation of the schedule of teaching hours, and the
designation of the place where it is to be carried on, after
conferring with the instructresses, so that the result may be more
satisfactory. She shall send to the general government a copy of the
schedule made out for each course.
14. To inform the governor general opportunely of the pupils who have
entered for each course, and to draw up the Memoria anuario [i.e.,
Annual report]. She shall send copies of these reports to the governor
general and the minister of the colonies.
15. To form tribunals for the term examinations [61] and revalida. [62]
16. She shall confer directly with the governor general and must act
through the medium of the latter when she shall have communication
with the supreme government.
17. When vacancies occur in the teaching force of the school, the
directress shall take the necessary measures so that the teaching may
not suffer the least loss, and shall immediately inform the ministry
of the colonies, so that they may be advised as soon as possible.
18. The directress of the school shall take the necessary measures so
that the pupils may not be deprived of the frequency of the sacraments,
of the holy sacrifice of the mass, and of other religious acts.
Of the instructresses
Art. 12. The instructresses shall be under the immediate orders of
the directress in whatever concerns school matters.
Art. 13. They shall lend their aid to whatever the directress of the
institution demands, endeavoring constantly to attain the greatest
aggrandizement and splendor of the same.
Art. 14. In the absence or sickness of the directress, the senior
instructress shall fulfil her duties, and if there should be two
or more instructresses appointed at the same time, she who shall be
designated by the governor general.
Art. 15. That instructress who shall fulfil the duties of directress
for any of the above-mentioned causes, shall not receive any
remuneration therefor, and only in case of vacancy shall she receive
the difference in pay.
Art. 16. Each one of the instructresses shall give a list to the
secretary of the pupils who in her judgment may be admitted to the
ordinary examinations, according to the number of failures, in the
first fortnight of the month of March.
Art. 17. Regular instructresses may use as a distinctive mark in
all the acts which concern the institution the professional medal
suspended from the neck by a cord made of the colors scarlet, sky-blue,
and turquoise blue.
Art. 18. The medals mentioned in the preceding article shall be--that
of the directress, of gilded silver, and those of the instructresses,
white of that metal.
CHAPTER IV
Of the secretary
Art. 19. The obligations of the secretary shall be:
1. To inform the directress of matters which occur in the government
and administration of the school.
2. To draw up papers, and record the reports and communications which
are offered, according to the instructions of the directress.
3. To make the entries of entrance examinations, and term examinations
of the pupils.
4. To petition and despatch the necessary resolutions for the
attestation of the documents presented by the pupils.
5. To superintend matters of receipts and disbursements.
6. To fulfil the duties of pay-mistress of the institution; to collect
and distribute fees for inscription [63] and academical fees.
7. To take charge of the archives, and of the classification of the
documents under her charge.
8. To issue with the proper authorization and in accordance with the
documents which are in her care, the certificates demanded by those
interested or by those who legally represent them.
9. To record the minutes of the board of instructresses, and of the
disciplinary council.
10. To keep all books and registers necessary for the successful
progress of the institution.
11. To open a register in which shall be recorded both the
merits acquired by each one of the scholars and the faults of any
consideration which the same ones may commit during the course of
their studies, and according to those data their study certificates
shall be made out.
12. To record and sign all the certificates ordered by the directress
and on which the latter shall place her O.K.
Art. 20. The secretary shall receive as a remuneration for her services
one per cent of the receipts of the institution, and for certificates,
the fees assigned in these regulations, in addition to the one per
cent of the academical fees as a compensation for the loss of money
and of the responsibility which she has in the collection thereof.
Art. 21. The secretary shall always be responsible for the correct
drawing up of papers, and for the accuracy of the documents which
she issues.
Art. 22. The regular instructress appointed by the directress shall
act as substitute for the secretary during the absence and sickness
of the latter and during vacancies.
CHAPTER V
Of the librarian
Art. 23. The duties of the librarian shall be:
1. To make an inventory of the works existing in the library, to
classify the volumes, and stamp them with the seal of the institution.
2. To name, after conferring with the directress the hours during
which this subordinate department will be open, and to watch after
the good preservation of the books which are committed to her care.
CHAPTER VI
Of the assistants
Art. 24. The assistant instructresses shall have the following duties
in the institution:
1. To act as substitutes for the regular instructresses in their
absence and sickness in their respective section.
2. To take care of the classes and whatever belongs to the duties of
any regular instructress, in case of a vacancy, until that vacancy
is filled in accordance with the royal decree of the eleventh of the
present month.
3. To aid the secretary in the extraordinary labors, and those suitable
for that office when she asks it. In this task the two assistants in
the sciences and letters shall alternate in each course.
CHAPTER VII
Of the subordinates
Art. 25. The portress shall have charge of the principal door of
the building, and both she and the servants shall execute whatever
the directress orders them in regard to the order, arrangement,
and cleanliness of the institution, and its furnishings.
Art. 26. The help cannot leave the edifice so long at it is open to
the public without express orders from the directress.
Art. 27. The help of the school are prohibited under penalty of
discharge to receive any tip from the pupils for the services which
they give in fulfilment of their obligations.
CHAPTER VIII
Of the board of instructresses
Art. 28. The board of instructresses shall be composed of the regular
teachers of the institution.
Art. 29. The directress shall consult the board of instructresses:
1. In the compiling of the annual and monthly budgets of the school.
2. In the making of the list of studies mentioned in these regulations.
3. In any other matters, both concerning the teaching force and the
government and management of the school, in which she believes it
advisable to hear their opinion.
Art. 30. She shall also convoke them:
1. For the annual opening of the studies.
2. When any matter is held in the school which in the opinion of the
directress merits the presence of all the instructresses.
3. At least twice during each term [curso], so that the instructresses
may propose whatever their experience declares to them as conducive
to the perfection of teaching.
Art. 31. Affairs shall be settled by a plurality of votes and in case
of tie the president shall decide.
Art. 32. The secretary shall record the minutes, which, after
approval by the corporation, shall be copied in a book, the president
authorizing the copy with her rubric, and the secretary with her
surname.
In the margin of each minute, the names of those members who were
present at the session shall be noted.
Art. 33. It is the secretary's duty to record the reports
and communications in fulfilment of the decisions of the
board. Nevertheless, the corporation may, when it deems it advisable,
charge any other of its members with the recording of any document
of this class.
CHAPTER IX
Of disciplinary Councils
Art. 34. The Council shall be composed of at least five members.
Art. 35. The school secretary shall be secretary of the disciplinary
Council.
Art. 36. The directress shall convoke the disciplinary Council whenever
anything occurs which the Council ought to know.
Art. 37. The decision of the disciplinary Council shall be verbal
and summary, and they shall always endeavor to decide definitively
on the same day on which the matter is submitted to their hearing.
The order of procedure shall be: Hearing of the deed; deciding
whether it is suitable for them to try; the examining of antecedents
and witnesses in order to bring out the truth clearly; to hear the
accused who shall be cited in the proper manner; and the rendering
of the verdict.
If the accused fails to appear of her own wish, the Council shall
settle the matter, judging the fault as an aggravating circumstance.
After the minutes have been recorded and signed by the secretary all
the members shall affix their rubrics to them.
Art. 38. The Council shall not impose other penalties than those
enumerated in these regulations, but they may punish the same pupil
with several of them.
Art. 39. The verdict shall be published when and as the Council
determines; but immediate advice of the penalties imposed shall be
given to each pupil, to her father, guardian, or care-taker.
TÍTULO II
OF THE ECONOMIC MANAGEMENT
CHAPTER I
Of the annual budgets
Art. 40. The directress of the school, in conference with the board of
instructresses, shall annually compile the annual budgets of receipts
and expenditures, both ordinary and extraordinary.
Art. 41. In the ordinary budget of receipts shall be included the
amount of the fees for matriculation, degrees, and certificates.
The extraordinary budget shall be composed of the funds which it is
calculated will be received in the school in any other way.
Art. 42. In the ordinary budget of expenses, the following shall be
included under its proper heading:
1. The salaries which shall be received by the directress,
instructresses, employes, and help of the institution.
2. The amounts which are calculated to be necessary for the rent,
preservation of the edifice, and its equipment.
3. Expenses of the secretary.
4. Expenses demanded by the teaching and conservation of scientific
equipment.
5. One item for unforeseen expenses, which shall not exceed four per
cent of the amount of the ordinary expenses of the institution.
Art. 43. In the extraordinary budget shall be figured the expenses
which are believed to be necessary for the improvement of the edifice,
for the purchase of school equipment or furniture, or for any other
object not included in the preceding article.
Art. 44. The directress shall send the budgets to the general governor
with a memorandum, if she believes it necessary.
CHAPTER II
Collection, distribution, and payment of accounts
Art. 45. The school shall be guided in matters of collection,
distribution of funds, and payment of accounts, by the general rule
of accounts.
TÍTULO III
OF TEACHING
CHAPTER I
Of the opening and duration of the term [curso]
Art. 46. The ordinary examinations of studies shall be held in the
school from the first to the thirtieth of April, and the extraordinary
examinations from the first to the thirtieth of June. The first day
of July of each year shall be celebrated in the school by the opening
of classes. All the instructresses and assistant teachers shall be
present at the ceremony, and the authorities and corporations of the
village and those persons who are deemed advisable, in order to give
it more solemnity and pomp, shall be invited to it.
Art. 47. The opening ceremonies shall be presided over by the
directress, whenever the governor general does not attend.
Art. 48. The ceremony having begun, the secretary of the school shall
read a short and simple résumé of the condition of the institution
during the preceding year, expressing therein the changes which have
occurred in the staff of instructresses, the number of scholars
matriculated and examined, the progress made by the teaching,
improvements made in the building, increase in scientific equipment,
the economic situation, and all the other bits of information which can
contribute to give a complete idea of the progress of the institution.
This document shall be printed and afterward inserted in the official
newspaper of Manila, publishing therein as an appendix the tables
which will serve to prove what was explained in the memorial.
This memorial, together with the inaugural address, which shall be
read by the directress, or one of the instructresses, shall be made
into a single volume, and copies of it shall be sent to the ministry
of the colony, the general government, and scientific and literary
corporations.
Art. 49. After the conclusion of the reading, prizes shall be
distributed, and the ceremony shall close by the president saying:
"His Majesty, the king (whom may God preserve), and, in his name,
the queen regent of the kingdom, declares the academic term of such
and such a year open in the superior normal school for women teachers
in Manila."
Art. 50. Lessons shall begin on the day following the opening of
studies, and shall terminate on March 31.
Art. 51. Lessons shall not be suspended during the course, except on
Sundays, whole feast days, saints' days, and birthday anniversaries
of the king, queen, and prince of Asturia, on the day for the
commemoration of the dead, from December 23 until January 2, the
three days of the carnival, Ash Wednesday, holy Wednesday, Thursday,
Friday, and Saturday, and Easter and Pentecost.
CHAPTER II
Of the order of classes and methods of teaching
Art. 52. Five days before beginning lessons, a representative
table shall be affixed in that place in the edifice assigned for
announcements expressive of the studies which are taught in the school,
the instructresses in charge of them, the textbooks for their study,
and the rooms, days, and hours in which the lessons are to be given.
Art. 53. Explanations in all classes shall be in Castilian.
Art. 54. Instructresses shall follow in their teaching the schedules
approved by the superior government, in accordance with section 11,
of article 11, and shall try to excite emulation among the scholars
by contests which shall prove their progress.
Art. 55. The scholars seriously lacking in class in the respect due
the instructress shall be expelled from the class by that act and
judged by the disciplinary Council.
Art. 56. The instructress shall note daily for the abovesaid purposes,
failures of attendance in the scholars, and shall hand in a list of
names whenever she thinks it advisable.
She shall also note the manner in which they have answered in the
lessons, and to the questions which she has asked them; as well as
the acts of restlessness, and the pranks which they have committed.
Art. 57. At the end of each month the instructresses shall hand
to the secretary a list of the pupils in their classes, with a note
regarding the failure of attendance, lesson, and deportment, which they
have incurred, and the qualifications of their memory, intelligence,
application, and conduct, so that the persons in charge of them may
understand their behavior.
Art. 58. At the end of each month, the instructresses shall also hand
in a list of those pupils who have most distinguished themselves in
their progress and conduct.
Art. 59. The instructresses shall endeavor to conclude the course of
any studies at least twenty days before the conclusion of the term,
in order to devote the remaining lessons to a general review which
may prepare the scholars for the examination.
CHAPTER III
Of material equipments for instruction
Art. 60. There shall be a sufficient number of rooms in the school,
light, well arranged and ventilated, and large enough so that the
pupils whom it is calculated will attend may be accommodated.
The seats shall be arranged conveniently and the chair of the
instructress shall be elevated so that she may see all her pupils
and be distinctly heard.
There shall be a blackboard or oilskin [64] near the chair of the
instructress for writing and drawing the figures demanded in the
teaching.
Rooms for drawing shall be arranged in the manner suitable for these
studies.
Art. 61. In addition there shall be:
1. An image of our Lord Jesus Christ, and a picture of his Majesty,
the king, in all the classes.
2. The globes, maps, and other objects which are required for the
knowledge of geography.
3. The synoptical pictures which are required to facilitate the study
of history.
4. A cabinet for physics with the apparatus and instruments
indispensable for teaching this study profitably.
5. A classified mineralogical collection.
6. Another zoological collection, in which shall be found the principal
species, and if not, then plates which represent them.
7. A botanical garden and its herbarium systematically arranged.
8. A collection of all the solids and instruments deemed necessary
for the teaching.
Art. 62. The directress shall see that collections in the cabinets of
natural history are formed as completely as possible from the natural
products of the archipelago.
Art. 63. Each instructress shall have under her charge the conservation
of the material equipment owned by the school for the teaching of
her course of study.
TÍTULO IV
OF THE SCHOLARS
CHAPTER I
Of the qualifications which the scholars must possess in order to be
admitted to matriculation
Art. 64. In order that the studies of the normal school may produce
academical effects, they must be carried on with strict submission
to what is prescribed in these regulations.
Art. 65. In order to enter the superior normal school for women
teachers, one must pass an examination of the branches of Christian
doctrine and sacred history, Castilian grammar, arithmetic, geometry,
geography, history of España and Filipinas, hygiene, and needle-work.
Art. 66. The exercises of which the examination for entrance shall
consist shall be three in number, in the following form:
Written exercises
1. The writing of a letter or dissertation upon a theme of Christian
doctrine, and sacred history, hygiene, or the history of España or
of Filipinas.
2. Solution of an arithmetical problem.
3. Execution of a simple geometrical drawing.
Oral exercise
1. Explanatory reading of a complete sentence.
2. Grammatical analysis of a sentence.
3. Answer of a question in geography, and another in each one of the
subjects of Christian doctrine, sacred history, hygiene, and history
of España or of Filipinas. If any one shall have submitted a theme
on any one of these four matters for the dissertation of the written
exercise, that subject shall be excluded from the oral exercise.
Practical exercise
Execution of needle-work, under the supervision of the tribunal.
Art. 67. Judges of the entrance examination shall be three
instructresses regularly appointed by the directress.
The proofs of this examination shall be the same marks as those for
obtaining a course [ganar curso].
The pupils shall pay two and one-half pesos for academical fees,
which shall be distributed at the close of examination among the
instructresses who are judges of the tribunals.
Art. 68. In order to be admitted to matriculation, one must have
passed the age of fourteen; petition therefor must be made to the
directress of the school; and the petition must be accompanied by
the baptismal certificate of the petitioner, by the certificate of
good conduct issued by the parish priest of her district, a medical
certificate stating that she has proved that she does not suffer
from any contagious disease or physical defect which incapacitates
her for the duties of teaching, the authorization of her father,
tutor, guardian, or husband (if the candidate should be married),
and the corresponding personal cedula.
CHAPTER II
Concerning matriculation
Art. 69. On the sixteenth of May annually, the matriculation of the
school shall be announced in the official gazette of Manila.
Art. 70. The announcement shall state:
1. The time when the school shall be open for those who have
matriculated.
2. The necessary qualifications for admission to the school, and the
manner in which these qualifications shall be proved.
3. The fees which must be paid by the pupils.
Art. 71. The matriculation which shall be open from June 1, shall be
divided into ordinary or extraordinary, according as it is effected
in the months of June or July. In the last five days of this term,
the secretary's office shall be open from eight in the morning until
four in the afternoon, and on the day which closes the matriculation
period, until eight o'clock at night.
Art. 72. Matriculation, whether ordinary or extraordinary, shall be
made by means of cedulas of inscription [65] made in accordance with
the model approved by the general government.
The price of each cedula shall be 1.25 pesos, which shall be paid
without distinction by the pupils in the secretary's office of the
institution.
Art. 73. Those who desire to enter the school, or come from another
institution, shall have a written petition in the form prescribed in
the preceding article.
The passing of the entrance examinations and the date thereof in the
school shall be entered in the registration of the first study in
which the pupil is matriculated.
Art. 74. The pupils, who shall not have matriculated for any reason
in the month of June, may do it in the month of July, by paying
double fees.
The extension of this last period of time is absolutely prohibited,
and the tribunals of examination shall not allow that scholar to be
examined whose matriculation is not in accord with this provision.
Art. 75. On July 1 of each year, all the fees paid by those who have
matriculated in the term which closes on the day before shall expire,
and in virtue of that those pupils who shall not have been examined
at that date, as well as those who shall have been suspended, shall
require a new matriculation for the following term.
Art. 76. The fees for matriculation shall be paid in two instalments
in papeles de pagos al estado, [66] half at the time of matriculation,
and the other half in the month of February. Those halves of paper
shall be united with the personal document of the pupil.
Art. 77. All the registers of matriculation of each term shall be
closed on July 31, and, on the following day, the directress shall
inform the general government of the result of the inscriptions in
all the branches of study.
Art. 78. Any scholar who shall have matriculated in the school may
go to any other official school for the purpose of continuing her
studies. Those who so desire shall send a petition to the director,
and she shall grant it whenever it is not for the purpose of escaping
some punishment.
The transfer of those who have matriculated from one institution
to another shall only be conceded from the beginning of the term
until January 31. If the necessity for such transfer is not proved,
the superior government shall be consulted. It shall be accomplished
by means of a special inscription for such cases, made out according
to a model which shall be sent ex-officio and registered, together
with the extract and the study sheet [67] of the one interested,
to the institution to which the transfer shall have been asked. Said
cedula shall be free, and shall confer right to continue the course
and be admitted to examination.
Art. 79. Those who are transferred to other institutions shall
pay beforehand the academical fees, in accordance with the special
inscriptions made for that purpose.
The upper part of the right hand section of these inscriptions
shall remain in the documents of the student as a proof of her
transference. The lower part [of the right hand section] shall be
delivered to her, while the other sections which shall constitute
the new matriculation of the pupil, shall be sent ex-officio in a
registered package to the directress of the other institution. In
the primitive inscription, said transference shall be noted by the
secretary rendering useless at the same time and diagonally the
examination coupons with a stamp [cajetín], reading "transferred."
Art. 80. The pupils transferred shall present themselves in the new
institution within a fitting period.
The inscriptions sent by post shall be united with the others of the
same study with the number of order corresponding to them.
Art. 81. The fees for matriculation in the school shall be paid in
two instalments: the first when the inscription of the respective
studies is proved; and the second in the month of February.
These fees shall amount to 7.50 pesos for all the studies corresponding
to each term.
Art. 82. In order to prove the inscription of matriculation the
secretary of the school shall follow the following rules:
1. The inscriptions shall be divided into as many groups as there are
studies corresponding to each term, enumerating them in correlative
order in those groups [i.e., from 1, up].
She shall authorize them with her signature and the seal of the
institution, and shall note in addition the name of the study, the
number of order in the upper part, leaving for the month of September
its repetition in the other sections.
2. A printed paper in accordance with a model shall be supplied to the
pupils in the lodge of the portress of the school, with the object of
setting forth the group of studies in which they are to matriculate,
taking care that after their names they write very distinctly their
two surnames, both paternal and maternal.
3. Such paper shall be handed to the secretary of the school, and
at the same time the papel de pagos al estado. The one interested
shall receive the coupon attached to the same, and the matriculation
shall thus be legal, even if the respective inscription shall not be
received until the following day.
4. According as the matriculation of each group is made, the list of
the pupils shall be made in accordance with the correlative order of
its numeration, so that on the second of July, at the commencement of
all the classes, the instructors may have said list at their disposal.
This list shall be completed with another list of those pupils who have
matriculated in the month of July, and further with those transferred
from other institutions, so that the list of the instructor may always
be in accord with the book of matriculations in which shall be noted
if possible the following:
First, those who are to receive honor; second, those of ordinary
matriculation; then, those of extraordinary matriculation; and lastly,
those transferred from other centers of teaching; all with one single
correlative numeration, so that the last number may always correspond
to the total number of inscriptions.
5. After the matriculation has closed, charge shall be taken of the
corresponding books, and it shall be ordered that the secretary devote
herself during the months of July and August to finishing the details
of each inscription, repeating the name of the pupil and that of the
group as often as it is noted in the printed form, and noting on the
other side the extracts of his study sheet, all with great neatness
and distinctness.
The directress shall communicate to the general government the result
of the inscriptions on the first of August in the form prescribed.
CHAPTER III
Obligations of the pupils
Art. 83. From the day in which the pupil is entered in the register
she shall be subject to the scholastic authority within and without
the institution.
Art. 84. Pupils shall be obliged to be punctual in attendance at
the class during the whole term. If they shall cease to be punctual
for some time without there being any cause therefor which appears
legitimate to the instructress, the latter may exclude them from
the ordinary examinations, and when they present themselves for the
extraordinary examinations in June they cannot aspire to more than
a passing mark.
Art. 85. All the pupils shall be obliged to obey and respect the
directress and instructresses, both within and without the institution,
and to heed the admonitions of the help, charged with the conservation
of scholastic order and discipline.
Art. 86. In the register of matriculation of each pupil shall be noted
the rewards which she obtains and the punishments which she suffers,
by virtue of the decision of the disciplinary Council as well as
those imposed by the directress and instructresses, if it be they
who resolve to punish her. In both cases the fault, for which the
penalty shall have been imposed, shall be mentioned.
Art. 87. The pupils shall be prohibited from addressing their superiors
orally or in writing in a body. Those who infringe this rule shall
be judged guilty of insubordination.
Art. 88. Pupils shall attend school decently dressed. The directress
is authorized to forbid any jewel which takes away from the decorum
which ought to rule in an institution of teaching.
CHAPTER IV
Of the examinations
Art. 89. The ordinary examinations of the studies shall be held in
the school and at set periods, and the pupils shall pay for this
purpose the academical fee of 2.50 pesos for each group.
These fees shall be paid in hard cash in the secretary's office of
the school during the month of March, and the pupils shall receive
a receipt which shall authorize them without the need of any other
academic document, to take the examinations, both ordinary and
extraordinary, in the respective group.
Half of the amount of these academic fees shall be assigned to the
scientific equipment, and as pecuniary aids to superior and poor
pupils; and the other half shall be used for the formation of a common
fund, which shall be distributed in equal parts among all the regular
instructresses of the school.
Art. 90. The instructresses shall hand to the secretary ten days
beforehand a list of the pupils who may be admitted to the ordinary
examinations, and another list of those who shall remain for the
extraordinary examinations.
Art. 91. On the first of April, the register books shall be distributed
among the respective tribunals, the secretaries of the same taking
charge of them. After examining them, the examinations shall be begun,
commencing with the pupils with registers containing honorary marks,
and by those who obtained the mark of excellent for the last term,
without any suspension if they shall so petition in a request sent
to the directress of the school.
The others shall follow the strict correlative order of the
inscriptions, the secretary of the tribunal seeing to it that the
pupils sign in the place indicated for that purpose, and after the
presentation of their personal cedula, [68] and the other requisitions
which the tribunal may consider necessary, if there shall be any
doubt concerning their personality.
Art. 92. Examinations shall be announced sufficiently beforehand, as
well as the locality, day, and hour, in which they shall be held. On
each day, moreover, shall be announced the correlative numeration of
those persons who shall be examined on the following day.
Those who shall not be present at the ordinary examinations shall
remain for the extraordinary examinations.
Art. 93. Each study shall be the object of a special examination and
tribunals for term examinations, and competitions for ordinary rewards
shall be formed by the instructress of that course and two other
instructresses, also officials of the analogous branches designated
by the directress, whenever they are not related within the third
degree to the pupil.
One of the judges may be replaced by the assistant instructresses.
The term examinations shall consist of questions which shall be asked
for at least ten minutes by the judges on three lessons of the schedule
of the studies chosen at random.
Art. 94. The ceremonies shall be held in the following manner:
1. As many numbers as the lessons contained in the schedule of the
study shall be placed in an urn by the judges.
2. The secretary of the tribunal shall draw three numbers in the
presence of the pupil, and the three lessons bearing that number shall
be the object of that exercise. The numbers which are drawn from the
urn shall be returned to it at the end of the exercise.
3. In the studies of translation and analysis, two lessons shall
be chosen by lot, and at the end of the examination on them, the
secretary of the tribunal shall open the book which shall have served
as textbook for these exercises and shall assign to the pupil the
passage which she is to translate and analyze.
4. There shall be a blackboard or a square of oilskin in all the
places where examinations are held, so that the pupils may write
or make the figures which the judges order them, or which they may
believe to be necessary in order to answer fully the questions asked
them. Moreover they shall have the apparatus and objects which may
be deemed necessary by the tribunal.
Art. 95. At the close of the examinations of each day, the judges,
in secret session, and in view of the marks which they ought to have
taken during the exercises, shall rank the pupils examined.
These marks shall be: excellent, notable, good, passed, and suspended.
The secretary shall place a list in the lodge of the portress of the
school during the days of the examination on which shall appear the
marks which the pupils shall have obtained in the examinations.
Art. 96. The marks obtained in the examinations shall be immediately
entered in the general register in alphabetical order which shall
be started with all those who have matriculated in the school,
on the first of September, according to the form approved by the
General Division of Public Instruction. In this way, before May 5,
they can send to the general government the lists of matriculation
as well as of ordinary examination, with their grades, in order that
the general summary may be published in the Gaceta on the fifteenth
day of the same month.
Art. 97. Pupils suspended and those who do not present themselves at
the ordinary examinations shall be admitted into the extraordinary
examination without other official document than the said voucher
stating that they have paid the academical fees in March.
If the first of July arrives without that having been attended to
they lose all their fees, and shall have to matriculate again for
the following course in accordance with the regulations.
Art. 98. Having noted in the general register the grades of the
ordinary examination, they shall proceed, under the supervision
of the secretary of the school, to cut the second section of the
inscription of the pupils who have passed, in order to join it on
their respective documents. The same operation shall be repeated at
the end of the examinations in June, except in regard to the pupils
who have not passed, to whom the inscriptions refer.
Art. 99. The marks given by the judges shall be decisive and no appeal
of any kind shall be received in regard to them.
Art. 100. Those admitted to the extraordinary examinations shall be:
1. The pupils included in the lists of the instructresses as admissible
to them.
2. Those admissible to the ordinary examinations who did not appear.
3. Those suspended.
4. Those who desire to obtain a better mark than they obtained in
the ordinary examinations.
Art. 101. All the rules relating to the ordinary examinations are
applicable to the examinations held in June.
CHAPTER V
Of rewards
Art. 102. Every year rewards, which shall be ordinary and
extraordinary, shall be granted in the school.
Ordinary rewards shall be of two kinds: those of the first kind shall
consist of matriculation of honor; [69] and those of the second in
the payment of matriculation and academical fees, books, medals, etc.
Art. 103. Two ordinary rewards shall be granted, one in each course,
if the pupils do not exceed fifty in number. If they exceed that
number by another fifty or the fraction of fifty pupils, an equal
number of honorable mentions may be conceded to them.
Art. 104. The pupils who obtain rewards of the first class shall be
entitled to ask the directress for matriculation of honor completely
free in the following term and in the same school, whenever such
persons do not have unfavorable marks or antecedents in their
academical deportment.
Art. 105. The pupils who shall have obtained the mark of excellent
in all the examinations of the same term, may become candidates for
admission to the competitive exercises for rewards of the first class.
In order to be admitted to the exercises for rewards of the second
class, it shall be required that the candidates prove a lack of
resources and shall have obtained three marks of excellent in the
same term.
Art. 106. Competitive exercises for ordinary rewards shall be held
three days after the termination of those for term examinations of
the studies, the judges for such exercises being the instructresses
who shall have formed the tribunal, during the examination of the
branch which was the object of the competition.
Art. 107. In the extraordinary examinations a certificate of honor
and grace as teacher of primary elementary teaching, and another as
superior shall be conceded.
Art. 108. The competitive exercises for these rewards shall be begun
on the twentieth day of June, at twelve o'clock in the morning, before
a tribunal composed of five instructresses, under the presidency of
the directress.
Art. 109. Those scholars who shall have obtained the mark of excellent
in all the exercises may become candidates for the degree of elementary
and superior revalida for extraordinary reward.
Art. 110. The cloister of instructresses shall prescribe the
subjects in which the exercises for the rewards, both ordinary and
extraordinary, shall be the object.
Art. 111. The tribunal shall adjudge the reward to the pupil who
shall have handed in the best exercises; and the fact that she who
does not receive a favorable mark has competed for a reward shall be
noted as a special merit in her study certificate.
Art. 112. The judges shall not speak a word to the one taking the
exercise.
Art. 113. The expenses occasioned by the judging of awards shall be
paid from the amount arising from the inscriptions and academical
fees, three-fifths being assigned for the pay of matriculation and
the other two-fifths for the purchase of books and supplies.
CHAPTER VI
Certificates and decisions
Art. 114. The certificates of the academical studies of the pupils may
refer to the branches of one single term, or those of two or more,
and also to those of the whole course [carrera] with or without the
corresponding title. The certificates solicited by the pupils, in
accordance with the form printed for that purpose, shall be issued by
the secretary, on the payment in hard cash of one peso and twenty-five
centavos, if the certificate shall embrace the studies of one group;
and two and one-half pesos, if it shall embrace more or those of all
the course [carrera], the state seal which the regulations in force
prescribe being on account of the secretary.
Art. 115. Certificates made out with the object of a continuance
of the studies or the receiving of an academical degree in another
institution shall be sent ex-officio and registered, the suitable
coupon only being delivered to such person.
Art. 116. Certificates stating that the exercises for revalida, or
rather that the respective titles have been issued, shall also be given
upon the petition of those interested, for the payment of 1.25 pesos.
Art. 117. Those pupils who shall have obtained three or four honorable
mentions, and no conditions [nota de suspensa], shall be given all
the certificates that they need, without other fees than the amount
for the state seal.
Art. 118. Half of the amount of the fees of the documents which are
issued by the secretary of the school shall be assigned for printing,
state seals, registration of mail, and other like expenses, and the
other half shall be divided among the secretary and the employes of
the secretary's office, whenever these amounts do not exceed a fourth
part of their respective pay.
If they exceed such sum, the remainder shall be employed in improving
the archives and other dependencies attached to the secretary's office.
CHAPTER VII
Of faults against academic discipline and means of checking them
Art. 119. Slight faults are:
1. Inattention in regard to the [admonitions of the] help of the
institution.
2. Injuries and offenses of slight moment to other pupils.
3. Faults of deportment in the schoolroom.
4. Indecorous words and unquiet acts and pranks.
Grave faults against academic discipline are:
1. Blasphemy, irreligious actions, and immodest actions and words.
2. Passive resistance to superior orders.
3. Insubordination against the directress and instructresses of
the school.
4. Grave offenses or insults which wound the other pupils.
5. Any other action which causes grave disturbance in the academical
order and discipline.
6. The second occurrence of slight faults, and resistance in suffering
the punishment which shall have been imposed for them.
Art. 120. The checking of slight faults belongs to the directress
and instructresses, but the hearing of grave faults belongs to the
disciplinary Council.
Art. 121. Punishments prescribed for slight faults are:
1. Private censure by the directress of the school.
2. Idem, public before her companions.
3. Seclusion in the institution for the space of several days, which
may not exceed one week, but attendance at class and permission for
the pupil to go home for the night.
4. Increase of failure of attendance up to the number of five.
Art. 122. Grave faults shall be punished by the following penalties:
1. Public admonition, ex-cathedra, by the directress or instructress,
according as may be prescribed by the disciplinary Council.
2. Loss of the [studies of the] term.
3. Expulsion from the institution.
4. Disqualification to continue her course.
Art. 123. Punishments 2, 3, and 4, shall be imposed by personal
action, which shall be declared by the cloister in full session, the
one interested being heard for that purpose; but the confirmation of
the governor general shall be indispensable.
Art. 124. The pupil who shall not present herself to undergo the
penalties expressed in number 1 of the preceding article shall lose
the term.
The penalty of expulsion shall carry with it the loss of the term. The
pupil expelled shall not be allowed to enter the school without the
express permission of the directress.
Art. 125. If a punishable act shall be committed in the school by those
who are subject by the laws to the judicial action, the directress,
collecting the data and advisable information, shall inform the court
so that it may proceed in accordance with law.
Art. 126. If the pupils, anticipating, or prolonging, their vacation,
or for the reason of scholastic disturbances, cease to attend their
classes, they shall not be admitted to the term examinations until
the extraordinary examinations of June. That fact shall be noted by
the instructresses and handed to the directress of the school.
TÍTULO V
REVALIDA EXAMINATIONS [i.e., examinations for a degree]
Art. 127. Pupils may receive the degree of a teacher's certificate
of primary, elementary, or superior teaching, to which they may be
admissible, according to the studies which they have pursued during
any time of the year, if it is not in the month of May, the time when
the instructresses in all branches shall have their vacations.
Art. 128. Those who are candidates for a degree shall present a
petition to the directress accompanied by documents sufficient to prove
that they have taken the course and passed in the necessary studies
in due time and form. The petition shall be handed to the secretary
so that she may give information of what appears in the books, and
ask the decision if the pupil comes from another institution.
Art. 129. The paper having been drawn up, the directress shall grant
admission to the exercises or shall refuse the petition. In case of
doubt she shall consult with the cloister of the school.
Art. 130. The paper having been approved, the pupil shall pay six
pesos for the fees of inscription, and having done that, the secretary
shall appoint the day and hour for the first exercise.
Art. 131. Exercises for academical degrees shall be made by means of
inscriptions similar to those of matriculation, regulated according
to the form approved by the government. In them shall be comprised
the extract of the studies and the antecedents of the course of the
one interested.
These inscriptions shall give a right to the repetition of each one
of the exercises of the degree in the case of suspension, but having
been repeated in one such exercise, the inscription remains null and
void, and another one is needed for a new examination.
Art. 132. The exercises mentioned in the preceding article shall
not be held in distinct institutions, but each pupil shall begin and
end them in one and the same institution. Among the candidates for
the degree at any time, those who shall have the best marks in their
study certificate shall be preferred, for the order of the exercises.
Art. 133. The exercises for degrees shall be four in number--one
written, one oral, and two practical--and shall last for the time
deemed advisable by the tribunal.
Art. 134. The tribunal for each exercise shall be comprised of three
instructresses, those of the branches examined, taking turns in
composing it.
Art. 135. The written part for the candidates for the certificate
of teachers of elementary primary instruction shall consist in the
writing of a capital alphabet and another small alphabet on the ruled
paper which is supplied to them; in the writing by dictation of one or
more sentences, which shall occupy at least a fourth of the paper of
the size of the stamped paper; in the solution of three arithmetical
problems chosen by lot from among twenty prepared beforehand; and
in the development of one pedagogical theme from three chosen by lot
from an urn containing thirty, for this last part taking as a minimum
half a sheet of paper the size of the stamped paper.
Four hours shall be allowed for these exercises.
Art. 136. The written part of the exercise of confirmation for the
candidates to the teacher's certificate of primary superior education
shall consist in the solution of three arithmetical problems chosen
by lot from among twenty previously prepared, and the development of
a pedagogical theme from three drawn by lot from an urn containing
twenty, of the matter suitable for this grade, taking as a minimum
one sheet of paper of the size of the stamped paper.
Five hours shall be prescribed for these exercises.
Art. 137. When there are several candidates they shall take the
written exercises at the same time, but shall be conveniently located
and watched so that they may not aid one another.
Art. 138. Paper with the seal of the institution and rubricated by
the president of the tribunal, shall be furnished to those examined
for all the written exercises.
Art. 139. The oral exercises for those pupils who are candidates for
the elementary teacher's certificate shall consist in answering nine
questions on the three branches which shall be chosen by lot from
among all the others constituting the general group of the studies
of the elementary teacher; and for the candidates to the superior
teacher's certificate, in the same exercise, and in like manner for
all the branches studied in the four terms.
Art. 140. After the termination of the written and oral exercises the
practical exercise in needle-work will begin. This last having ended,
the tribunal in the practice school shall be constituted, in the
elementary or superior section, according to the class of the pupil
in point. Each one of them shall draw a paper from an urn in which
there shall be as many as there are branches of study included in the
corresponding grade; that is to say, those studies of the elementary
for the pupils of that class, and all the studies for the superior,
except that of music and singing, which shall not form a part of
this exercise.
The subject having been chosen by lot, the one examined shall draw a
new ticket from another urn from thirty prepared for that purpose. The
number of that ticket shall indicate the point which she is to explain
on the development of girls, the elementary spending ten minutes on
the explanation and the superior fifteen.
Art. 141. Immediately after the termination of an exercise, the
exercise shall be passed upon by secret vote, for which purpose the
president shall distribute to each one of the judges three tickets,
one of which shall contain an S (sobresaliente [i.e., excellent]),
the second one A (aprobada [i.e., passed]), and another one shall be
blank (suspensa [i.e., conditioned]).
Art. 142. If each one of the judges deposits a distinct letter in the
urn the president shall declare the graduate to have passed; in other
cases she shall be qualified according to the vote of the majority.
Art. 143. In order to be admitted to the second exercise, one must
have passed in the first; in order to be admitted to the third she
must necessarily have passed in the second; and in order to be admitted
to the fourth one must have passed the three preceding.
Art. 144. Pupils conditioned in the exercises for confirmation shall
not present themselves for new exercises until two months from the
date of their condition.
Art. 145. The exercises to which the preceding article refers can be
repeated indefinitely, whenever the above-mentioned time intervenes
between each two times.
Art. 146. When a pupil repeats the exercises in which she shall
have been conditioned, at least one of the judges who shall have
participated in the condition shall form part of the tribunal.
Art. 147. For fees of teacher's certificate of superior primary
instruction, candidates shall pay in papeles de pagos al estado the
sum of forty pesos, besides presenting the fitting stamp which must
be affixed to each certificate, and paying in cash two pesos for
expenses of issuing the document.
The above-mentioned sum of forty pesos shall be reduced to thirty-five
when it is a question of a teacher's certificate of elementary
primary instruction, and to seventeen and one-half for the change
from elementary teacher's certificate to that of superior.
Half of the amount collected for the purpose of issuing the circulars
shall be assigned for printing and other like purposes, and the other
half shall be distributed among the secretary and the employes of
that office.
Art. 148. The governor general, finding the documents regular,
shall issue the certificates with the mark of passed or excellent,
which shall bear in plain sight the coupon part of the respective
inscriptions which the directress of the school sends him for that
purpose, on which he shall note the approval of the exercises and
the payment of the fees which the regulations in course prescribe,
accompanying it also with a registered copy of the baptismal
certificate of the graduate.
Of the practice school
Art. 149. A school of primary teaching, supported by the municipality,
shall be joined to the normal school, and, if possible, shall occupy
the same building with it, in which the pupils who are candidates
for teachers can learn what a school for girls is and practice in it,
following the most adequate method and procedure for the teaching of
each subject, so that during their course they may obtain the good
results which must be promised.
Art. 150. The practice school shall be divided into two sections,
which shall be called the elementary and the superior grades. There
shall be one teacher in charge of it with a superior certificate,
and she shall be called "regent."
Art. 151. The regent shall have one assistant, for whom it shall be
sufficient to possess a teacher's certificate of elementary primary
instruction, since she shall be in charge of the section peculiar to
the certificate which is demanded of her.
Art. 152. The practice school shall not lose its character as a public
school for the girls of the village, and shall be supplied in the
manner prescribed for others of its class.
Art. 153. The superior normal school for women teachers in Manila shall
have at present only day pupils, until the necessities of instruction
in the archipelago counsel the admission of resident pupils exactly
or in similar form as the normal school for men teachers.
Art. 154. The Augustinian nuns of the Assumption may establish at
their account, if they deem it advisable, the admission of resident
pupils in the same institution of the school, whenever that is not
to the prejudice of the day pupils, or indeed in any other edifice
contiguous to or distinct from the school.
Art. 155. All the orders which prevent the fulfilment of the contents
of these regulations are abrogated, and the minister of the colonies
is authorized to decide the doubts which may arise from the application
of the same.
Additional article
The directress and instructresses of the congregation of Augustinian
nuns of the Assumption shall have complete liberty for the observance
of the statutes of their order.
Madrid, March 31, 1892. Approved by his Majesty.
Romero
DECREE OF THE GENERAL GOVERNMENT ELEVATING TO THE GRADE OF SUPERIOR THE
NORMAL SCHOOL FOR MEN TEACHERS IN MANILA, AND APPROVING PROVISIONALLY
THE NEW REGULATIONS OF THIS SCHOOL
Normal school of teachers: Your Excellency:
The normal school for men teachers in Manila, established by virtue
of the royal organic decree of December 20, 1863, for the purpose
of being used as a seminary for men teachers fit to take charge
of schools of primary instruction for the natives throughout the
Philippine Archipelago, has been fulfilling, since its foundation,
the difficult task committed to it by the government of his Majesty,
filling the great space which was experienced in these remote provinces
from the primitive times of the conquest. With the adoption of a
system combining pedagogical instruction and education, at the same
time that it has diffused, so far as has been possible, the use of the
Castilian language, knowledge of evangelical truths, and the practice
of Christian morals, it has propagated the germ of true civilization in
all the islands, consolidating, with the most elementary principles of
education, the civil life of the villages in their diverse relations
in regard to the social organization, and especially with the diverse
institutions which unite this archipelago with the mother country.
The immediate truths of that foundation are the greater facility
of communication between the natives and the civil, military,
ecclesiastical, governmental, judicial, and administrative authorities,
and the greater development in the arts and industry, in agriculture
and commerce, and in the participation of the natives in the profession
of letters and of sciences, and in the exercise of authority and
other subordinate charges in the different state offices. Such results
have been preceded by an initial period of most laborious formation,
for, although the normal school had to be ruled from the beginning
by organic regulations adapted to the needs of the region and to the
special circumstances of the time and of the individuals for whom it
was founded, it had to limit its sphere of action to the most reduced
horizons, in accordance with the remarkable state of imperfection
and backwardness of the scholars entrusted to it, and of the little
time allowable for their fitting instruction and education in the
profession of teacher. The perfection of the normal teaching and
of its regulation was left, therefore, for the provision of later
supplementary orders. For, having seen the moral impossibility of its
complete application, according to the ideal demanded of a perfect
plan of pedagogical teaching, it had to be molded according to the
pressing needs of the villages and to the lack of a staff fit to take
charge from the beginning of all the schools of primary instruction
in the archipelago.
The absolute lack of suitable men teachers, with actual experience
in teaching, was the reason for the studies in the normal school
being reduced in the earlier years to supplying hastily the first
intellectual and moral needs of the villages. Those having been
satisfied, the studies required in article 4 of the regulations for the
acquisition of a teacher's certificate of elementary instruction were
completed in three years. But although the resident and day pupils had
to be fully sixteen years old for admission into the normal school,
it resulted that, since the majority of them came from provinces
where they generally cease to attend school after the age of twelve,
the few ideas which they had learned in those schools were already
obliterated from their minds, especially the use and knowledge of
Castilian. Consequently, in order that the pupils might study the
branches suitable for the teaching profession with understanding of
the authors of the textbook, and the explanations of the instructors,
it was indispensable to cause said studies to be preceded by a
preparatory year, in order that the legal qualifications of ability
to pursue their career might be obtained.
At the beginning, the textbooks had to be chosen from among the
shortest and most abridged, in consideration of the lack of development
of the intellectual faculties of the pupils. That produced in due
time the advantage that the new teachers, explaining to the children
of their schools the same authors by whom they had been formed,
afterwards came themselves better prepared to frequent the classes of
the normal school. Furthermore, having left aside the qualification
of the young candidates being sixteen years old, in order to enter the
preparatory class, the halls of this normal school were from that time
filled by the most advanced pupils of the elementary primary schools
of the villages, without any notable interruption in the progress of
their studies from childhood until the completion of their course.
To this spontaneous and natural modification of the regulations,
was due the calling to the teaching profession of the most suitable
and advanced pupils whom the normal school now possesses; and if to
them be added the best students of the practice school who increased
annually the number of the preparatory class, the result is that said
selection must greatly redound to the very great advantage of the
teaching force. It proceeded then to mitigate the harmful exclusiveness
of article 11 of the regulations for the schools and teachers of
primary instruction for the natives of this archipelago, permitting
the exercise as teachers to the scholars graduating from this normal
school of Manila, who had acquired the teacher's certificate before
reaching the age of twenty.
Indeed, that the most opportune time for exercising the duties of
teacher with advantage and without loss of intellect is immediately
after receiving the certificate, is evidenced by the fact that the
matters recently learned remain yet fresh in the memory and in the
mind of the young teachers; the will is then more active and ready to
communicate those matters to the children, and enthusiasm consolidates
in this case the vocation of the young teacher and moderates his mind
with the habit of work, so that he will persevere in his profession
for the rest of his life.
Granting the fondness of the native for instruction, and having seen
the increase in this last third of the century of public instruction
in Filipinas, thanks to the multitude and variety of official and
private teaching centers, it is more and more indispensable every day
that the primary teaching of the archipelago be propagated, perfected,
and consolidated, giving the greater extension and the preferred place
to the pedagogical studies of the normal school for men teachers, by
adding to the course of teachers of elementary primary instruction
that of superior primary instruction. The intellectual progress of
Filipinas, and its hopes for the future, demand a greater development
in the instruction and education of the children; and consequently,
that the young men, who nobly aspire to become teachers, may obtain
the certificate and prerogative of teacher of superior primary
instruction. That such are the desires of the government of his
Majesty, are evident by the recent creation of a superior normal
school for women teachers in Manila, and the constant desire of
enlarging the literary studies throughout the Spanish domains.
The necessity of also extending the teaching of this normal school for
men teachers in Manila has been so widely recognized, that for some
years past the supplementary courses for obtaining the certificate of
superior teacher of primary instruction have in fact been studies in
said center. It is so much more easy to introduce said improvement,
since it can be realized with the same teaching staff, without any
greater expense than the actual budget, and even an increase in the
years of study can be realized. For, during the first three years,
the pupils would study the branches corresponding to the teachers'
course of elementary primary instruction, in order to obtain, after
passing the examinations of the third year, the certificate by virtue
of the examination for degrees only those who shall have obtained in
said examination the grades of excellent and passed, besides the fourth
year being entitled to obtain the certificate of superior teacher, the
studies of the normal school of Manila comparing throughout with those
which are pursued in the superior normal schools of the Peninsula.
To the professional exercise of the duties of teacher of superior
primary instruction, belong privileges, prerogatives, and emoluments,
distinct from those which are enjoyed by teachers of a lower rank. In
such case the término competitions of the first and second class
would have to belong exclusively to the teachers of superior primary
instruction, and in the contests for the ascenso schools they must
be preferred to the elementary.
Said competition must take place before a competent tribunal, and
must be subjected to the official schedule of the various branches,
whose study prepares one for the certificate of superior teacher
indispensable for such competitions.
The case foreseen by article 12 of the regulations, namely, of the
existence among the supernumerary pupils of a sufficient number
of teachers to supply the schools of the archipelago, having been
realized, the suppression of the regular [de numero] resident pupils
is now proceeding in this normal school.
In accordance, then, with the previous exposition, he who affixes
his signature has the honor to recommend to the lofty consideration
and approval of your Excellency, so that you may deign to bring, if
you judge it suitable, to the notice of his Excellency the minister
of the colonies, the subjoined modification of the regulations of
the normal school for male teachers of primary instruction for the
natives of the Filipinas Islands approved by her Majesty, December 20,
1863. May God preserve your Excellency many years. Manila, November 1,
1893. Your Excellency,
Hermenegildo Jacas
General Division of Civil Administration: Your Excellency:
So powerful and conclusive are the arguments which the right
reverend father director of the normal school for men teachers
in Manila adduces, in order to petition your Excellency that said
institution enlarge the scope of the studies of its teaching, and
have, therefore, in the future, the character of superior, which
the director who affixes his signature, honoring himself in making
them his own, recommends to your Excellency that taking them under
consideration, and in harmony with them, you deign to authorize the
subjoined project for a decree. Will your Excellency decide. Manila,
November 10, 1893. Your Excellency,
A. Avilés
Decree
General government of Filipinas: Civil Administration.
Manila, November 10, 1893.
This general government in the exercise of its powers and in conformity
with the recommendation of the General Division of Civil Administration
on this date, declares the following:
Article 1. In order to heed the necessities felt more sensibly
each day for broadening and perfecting the pedagogical studies for
the purpose of forming suitable teachers to whom to entrust the
development and progress of primary instruction in the archipelago,
the normal school for men teachers of this capital is declared a
"superior normal school."
Art. 2. Teachers' certificates which shall be conferred in the future
by this institution shall include two grades--elementary and superior.
Art. 3. The studies corresponding to the first grade shall be divided
into three courses, and in the form established by the regulations,
by which said institution must be ruled, in its article 4.
Art. 4. For the superior degree the same subjects shall be studied
with the extension of those which are prescribed in the last section
of article 4 of the abovesaid regulations.
Art. 5. The teachers' certificates, obtained in the superior normal
school, shall bear equal rights and privileges with those obtained
in like institutions in the Peninsula.
Art. 6. The same instructors as those at present in the normal school
shall be those charged to teach the subjects belonging to the fourth
year.
Art. 7. The regulations drawn up by the director of the superior normal
school for men teachers who shall begin to rule with such character, at
the beginning of the next term of 1893-94 are provisionally approved.
Let it be communicated, proclaimed, and information thereof given to
the ministry of the colonies for its approval.
Blanco
REGULATIONS OF THE SUPERIOR NORMAL SCHOOL FOR MEN TEACHERS
Of the object of the superior normal school
Article 1. The object of the superior normal school for men teachers
in Manila is to serve as a seminary for teachers who may take charge
of the schools of primary instruction in the archipelago.
Art. 2. The pupils shall be resident and subject to one and the same
rule and discipline. For the present the previous entrance examination
shall allow the entrance of day pupils provided that their number does
not exceed sixty the first year, and if their antecedents give hope
that they can pursue their studies to advantage and that their conduct
will be such that it corresponds to the good name of the institution.
Art. 3. [This article is equivalent to Art. 3 of the regulations of
December 20, 1863 for the normal school; see ante, p. 86.]
Of the studies and their duration
Art. 4. The teaching in the normal school shall include two
grades--elementary and superior. The adequate teaching for
the acquisition of certificate of teacher of elementary primary
instruction shall be distributed over three terms, and one term
more shall complete the teaching required for the superior teacher's
certificate. The scholars who are candidates for the certificate of
teachers of elementary primary teaching must have studied and passed
in the following branches:
Christian doctrine explained, in three courses.
Elements of sacred history, comprising two courses.
Castilian language, with exercises of composition and analysis,
according to the four parts of the grammar, three courses.
Theory and practice in reading, two courses.
Theory and practice in writing, two courses.
Arithmetic, two courses.
Principles of geometry and surveying, one course.
Principles of geography and history for España and Filipinas,
one course.
Principles of agriculture, one course.
Elements of pedagogy, one course.
Rules of etiquette, one course.
Elements of lineal and figure drawing, three courses.
Lessons in vocal and instrumental music, three courses.
Gymnastics, three courses.
The courses in catechism, sacred history, reading, writing, Castilian
language, arithmetic, and geometry shall have lessons daily; every
other day, geography, history, surveying, and pedagogy; bi-weekly
the course in etiquette.
There shall be daily lessons in the academies of music, gymnastics,
and drawing.
In order to obtain a teacher's certificate of elementary primary
instruction, besides having passed in the branches belonging to
the three above-mentioned courses, a revalida examination shall be
demanded after having passed the examinations of the last course.
In order to obtain a superior teacher's certificate, one is required:
1--to have obtained the mark of excellent in the revalida examinations
for the teacher's certificate of elementary primary instruction;
2--to have taken the increased course in pedagogy, and in addition the
legislation in force in regard to primary instruction in Filipinas;
3--principles of religion and ethics, universal history, algebra,
industry, commerce, and the ordinary phenomena of nature.
Art. 5. [Equivalent to Art. 5 of the regulations of 1863; see ante,
p. 87.]
Art. 6. During the last six months of the third course, the pupils
shall have practical experience in teaching, by teaching in the classes
of the practice school annexed to the normal school established by
article 3.
Pupils may not pass from one course to another without proving their
fitness in the general examination which shall be held at the end of
each year.
An extraordinary examination shall be given to the pupils of the
third course, who have not for any reason passed in the ordinary
examination at the end of the course.
Art. 7. The teachers of superior primary instruction may select by
competition the término schools of the first and second class; and in
the contests which are held they shall be preferred in the management,
as regular appointees, of the ascenso schools.
Art. 8. The pupils of the normal school, who shall have completed
their studies in the elementary course for teachers, having passed
their final examinations in proof of their courses, before receiving
the teachers' certificates of elementary primary instruction, shall
be obliged to stand another examination which shall be called the
revalida examination; and in their certificates shall be noted the
honorable marks which they shall have merited in said examination.
Teachers who shall have obtained the mark of excellent in the revalida
examination, shall be empowered to continue their studies, and to
become candidates for the superior teacher's certificate, and can
also take regular charge of ascenso schools.
Those who shall not have obtained the mark of excellent in the revalida
examination, but that of good or fair, shall also receive teachers'
certificates, with the corresponding note, and shall be empowered to
take charge of entrada schools. Those who shall have failed in said
examinations, if, after the exercise has been repeated, they merit
approval, shall receive certificates as teachers of entrada.
Of the pupils of the normal school
Art. 9. Both the resident pupils of the normal school, and the day
pupils shall have the following qualifications for admission: 1--they
must be natives of the Spanish domains; 2--be fully thirteen years old,
this requirement to be proved by baptismal certificate or any other
equivalent public document; 3--not suffer any contagious disease,
and enjoy sufficient health to discharge the duties peculiar to
the charge of teacher; 4--have observed good deportment and prove
same by certification of the parish priest of the village of their
birth and residence; 5--speak Castilian, know the Christian doctrine,
read and write well, know something of Castilian grammar, as far as
the regular verbs, inclusive, and the four fundamental operations of
arithmetic. All of this shall be exacted in a previous examination
held before a tribunal designated by the director.
Art. 10. Only those young men who have the qualifications demanded
of the resident pupils, namely, that they live in Manila, or its
environs, under the care of their parents, or the charge of a guardian,
shall be admitted as day pupils, and in such conditions that one can
assume that they have examples of virtue and morality at the domestic
hearth. School supplies shall be given to this class of pupils free
of charge, if they are poor.
Of the director, teachers, and dependents of the normal school
Art. 11. [The same as Art. 15, of the regulations of December 20,
1863. See ante, pp. 91, 92.]
Art. 12. Under the authority of the director there shall be at least
six teachers, besides one instructor in drawing, one for vocal music,
and one for gymnastics; three assistants, and the number of servants
and dependents necessary for the school. One of the teachers shall be
at the same time the spiritual instructor of the school, and shall have
charge of the direction of the pupils and of presiding over religious
ceremonies. Under his peculiar charge shall also be the lessons in
sacred history, ethics, and religion. Another of the teachers shall
discharge the special duties of prefect of morals, whose principal
occupation shall be to accompany the pupils and watch over them in
the interior matters of the life of the institution. The other four
teachers shall be occupied chiefly in the teaching of other matters.
The classes in vocal music, drawing, and gymnastics, shall be daily
and last one hour. A superior término teacher of the first grade
shall be appointed for the practice school which is joined to the
superior normal school, and he shall guide it under the supervision
of the director.
Art. 13. The salary to be received by the director, instructors,
assistants, and dependents, as well as the expenses for equipment and
the rent of a building, shall be assigned annually in the budgets of
the local funds of the islands, in the proper chapter and article.
Of examinations
Art. 14. There shall be a review of all matters studied during that
period at the end of each month in each of the classes of the normal
school. Every three months there shall be private examinations of
all the matters studied during that time, with qualifications and
promulgation of the marks obtained by each pupil. A general examination
shall be held at the end of the term. This exercise shall be public
and shall be held in the presence of the authorities and persons of
distinction of the capital, and shall close with the proclamation
and distribution of rewards.
Of holidays and vacations
Art. 15. The holidays for the normal school shall be Sundays,
Thursdays, feast days, Ash Wednesday, the day commemorated to the
faithful dead, and also the saints' days and anniversary birthdays
of their Majesties and the prince of Asturias, and the saint's day
of the governor general of the archipelago.
The short vacations shall extend from Christmas eve to January 2,
and the three carnival days. During said vacations the resident pupils
shall remain in the institution.
The long vacations shall last from the close of the examinations at
the end of the term in the second fortnight of the month of March
until the first day of June. Resident pupils shall pass the period
of the long vacations with their families.
Concerning rewards and punishments
Art. 16. The merit of pupils shall be recompensed with honorable
marks which shall be entered in the book of the institution, and
with annual prizes, whose solemn distribution shall take place at
the close of the public examinations.
Art. 17. Punishments shall consist of public censure, deprivation
of recess, and separation from the other pupils, and if this is not
sufficient, definitive expulsion from the school. Expulsion shall
take place irremissibly for the cause of contagious disease, for
remarkable laziness, lack of application, and for serious lack of
respect toward the teachers, and for bad deportment or depraved morals.
Art. 18. The public reading of the marks of good deportment,
application, and progress, shall also serve as reward; and as
punishment shall also serve the reading of the contrary marks. This
shall be done every three months, assembling for that purpose all
the pupils in one place, with their teachers, under the presidency
of the director.
Of the interior regulations of the school
Art. 19. [This article is the same as Art. 23 of the regulations of
1863; see ante, p. 94.]
Of textbooks
Art. 20. [This article, consisting of two paragraphs, is equivalent
to Art. 24 of the regulations of 1863, except that it reads "general
government" where the latter reads "superior civil government."]
Concerning special examinations for obtaining assistants' certificates
Art. 21. Examinations shall be held four times each year in the normal
school for the obtaining of assistants' certificates. Those who present
themselves for the said examinations shall have the qualifications
established in art. 9, for those who desire to enter the school. They
shall be conversant with some of the matters established in art. 4,
in regard to the subjects suitable for the acquisition of teachers'
certificates of elementary primary instruction, according to the
schedule approved by the superior government. Such examinations shall
be public, and shall be held before the directors and teachers of
the normal school.
Art. 22. [The same as Art. 26 of the regulations of 1863. See ante,
p. 95.]
Of the issuing of teachers' and assistants' certificates
Art. 23. The General Division of Civil Administration has the right
of issuing certificates as superior elementary and assistant teachers,
at the recommendation of the director of the normal school.
Art. 24. [The same as Art. 28 of the regulations of 1863. See ante,
p. 95.]
Of the competitive examinations to obtain a regular appointment in
the término schools of first and second grades.
Art. 25. The vacant término schools of the first and second grades
shall be supplied by competitive examinations. Such competitive
examinations shall be held whenever the General Division of Civil
Administration considers it necessary.
Competitive examinations shall be announced three months beforehand,
and all those who shall have obtained a teacher's certificate for
superior primary instruction shall be entitled to participate in them.
Art. 26. The examinations shall take place before a tribunal composed
of five judges, appointed by the director from among the instructors
of the normal school, and shall be ruled by an official schedule drawn
up by the same persons, and approved by the superior government. In
that schedule shall be contained the matters of the studies peculiar
to the teaching profession.
Art. 27. The examination exercises shall be oral and written.
The oral exercises shall consist:
1. In the reply to questions chosen by lot in regard to religion
and ethics, pedagogy, Castilian grammar, arithmetic, principles of
geography, history of España and the world, principles of algebra and
geometry, principles of physics and natural history, and principles of
agriculture. Questions in each one of these matters shall be prepared
for this purpose in distinct lists, and numbered tickets shall be
placed in an urn. The competitor shall draw three tickets, and after
reading the questions on religion and ethics for those same numbers,
shall reply to at least one of them. Then he shall draw three other
tickets for the examination in pedagogy; and so on, for the examination
in the other studies. In the drawing of the questions for each subject,
there shall always be twenty-five tickets. The questions which are
answered shall be replaced by others.
2. In the explanation concerning the capacity of children, in a point
relative to any of the subjects above named, the competitor shall
read in a textbook of the schools the bit that shall be indicated by
one of the examining judges, and shall proceed with the book closed
to the explanation of what he has read.
3. In reading from a printed book and a manuscript.
4. In writing on the oilskin the sentence dictated by one of the
judges, and then giving the grammatical and logical analysis of
the same.
Written exercises shall consist:
1. In writing a page of capital letters according to the system of
Iturzaeta on the ruled paper given for that purpose, for which each
competitor shall cut the pen which he shall use immediately before
the exercise.
2. In writing at the same dictation a composition in Castilian,
which shall not be less than one page long, on a subject assigned by
the tribunal.
3. In solving in writing the arithmetical problems which shall
previously have been agreed on by the judges.
Paper bearing the stamp of the normal school, and the rubric of the
president of the tribunal, and a writing desk, shall be furnished to
the competitors for all their exercises.
The first exercise shall last an hour and a half, from the time when
everything necessary for the same is ready. One hour shall be granted
for the second, and for the third the period deemed advisable by
the director.
In the marking of the first exercise, attention shall be paid only to
the caligraphy, and in the third to the solution of the problems. In
the second the writing, spelling, and especially the construction
shall be marked.
All the competitors shall perform at one and the same time each one of
the written exercises under the eyes of the members of the tribunal,
and placed so that they cannot aid one another. The competitors shall
not be allowed to consult any book or writing for the second and third
exercises. After the time assigned for each one of the exercises,
the competitor shall sign his paper and hand it to the president or
his substitute.
Art. 28. In case of tie in the exercises between two or more
competitors, consideration shall be given to the marks of the
certificate, to the years of experience, and to the greater merit
contracted in the practice of teaching.
Art. 29. The schools obtained by competition shall be governed
permanently by the teachers who obtained them, and such teachers shall
be entitled to the emoluments prescribed in the budgets corresponding
to their rank.
Art. 30. The competitors who shall not, however, have passed those
examinations, shall be preferred to those of their own class who,
although they have the same marks in their certificates, shall not
have obtained approbation in such exercises.
Manila, November 10, 1893. Approved.
Blanco
SCHOOL LEGISLATION, 1863-1894
Plan of primary instruction in Filipinas. See ante, pp. 76-86.
Normal Schools
December 20, 1863. Regulations for the normal school for men
teachers. See ante, pp. 86-95.
July 22, 1864. Royal order, declaring a ticket for the passage of
the Jesuit fathers assigned to the normal school of Manila.
November 24, 1864. Decree of the superior civil government, in which
are dictated some precautionary measures for the installation of the
normal school. The number of regular resident pupils is fixed with
expression of those who belong to each province of the archipelago
in proportion to the respective census of the village, and that of
supernumerary resident pupils. Admissions of petitions of candidates
for this class of appointments and matriculation for day pupils is
declared open.
November 29, 1864. Circular of the superior civil government, directed
to the chiefs of the provinces and of the districts, dictating rules
for the provision of the places of regular resident pupils in the
normal school for men teachers in Manila.
January 19, 1865. Royal order, approving the allowances for Jesuit
fathers and brothers of the normal school, and for equipment of
the same.
May 30, 1865. Royal order no. 175, of the ministry of the colonies,
approving all the measures adopted by the superior civil government for
the inauguration of the normal school for men teachers, and expressing
the pleasure with which her Majesty saw the zeal manifested in the
installation of said institution.
July 17, 1865. Decree of the superior civil government, ordering that
the corporals and sergeants of the army who so desire be admitted
into the normal school for men teachers.
March 13, 1866. Decree of the superior civil government, dictating
rules for the establishment of a school of primary instruction for
boys in the normal school for men teachers.
June 25, 1866. Royal order, no. 293, of the ministry of the colonies,
naming the sum of ten pesos per month as the board for resident pupils
of the normal school for men teachers, and reducing the regular places
to forty.
December 24, 1866. Decree of the superior civil government, ruling
that the vacancies of regular resident pupils of the normal school
for men teachers be filled by the pupils who attend the school of
primary instruction, established within the normal school, and by
others who may solicit them.
March 22, 1869. Decree of the superior civil government, arranging
that the term in the normal school for men teachers begin in June
and end in March, the examinations being held in the latter month.
December 2, 1870. Order of the supreme government, modifying article 4
of the regulations of the normal school for men teachers, of December
20, 1863; and arranging that the fees for matriculation in the normal
school be reduced to six escudos per study.
November 23, 1871. Project of regulations for a normal school for
women teachers in Filipinas.
January 11, 1872. Royal order, ruling that the girls' school of
Nueva-Cáceres be erected into a normal school and seminary for women
teachers.
June 14, 1872. Decree of the superior civil government, reducing
the places for regular resident pupils of the normal school for men
teachers in Manila to thirty.
May 26, 1873. Order of the executive authority, authorizing the one
hundred villages of the diocese of Nueva-Cáceres to each send a young
woman to the girls' school in said city, so that such young women
may afterward direct the schools in their respective villages.
May 4, 1874. Decree of the superior civil government, ordering that
no petition be sent to it for entrance into the normal school for
men teachers without the requisites prescribed in article 9 of the
organic regulations for said school, and that the petitions be sent
through the medium of the provincial chiefs.
May 21, 1874. Decree of the superior civil government, reducing the
number of places for regular resident pupils of the normal school
for men teachers in Manila to twenty.
July 28, 1874. Decree of the general government, reducing the number
of places for resident pupils of the normal school for men teachers
in Manila to fifteen.
August 17, 1874. Decree of the general government, ordering that
those pupils of the normal school for men teachers who have twenty
voluntary failures of attendance, or thirty involuntary, be stricken
from the list.
June 9, 1875. Decree of the general government, constituting in the
normal school for women teachers of primary education the school of
Santa Isabel of the city and diocese of Nueva-Cáceres.
June 19, 1875. Decree of the general government, approving,
with the character of ad interim, the regulations for the normal
school for women teachers of primary education in the diocese of
Nueva-Cáceres. See this decree, as well as the regulations for the
school, ante, pp. 142-160.
June 30, 1875. Circular of the government, directed to the governors
of the provinces of the diocese of Nueva-Cáceres because of the
inauguration of the normal school for women teachers in that city.
April 2, 1878. Decree of the general government, approving the
examinations held in September and December, 1877, in the normal
school for women teachers in Nueva-Cáceres, and ordering that a
teacher's certificate be sent to those pupils examined.
June 22, 1880. Royal order of the ministry of the colonies, creating
the chair of the elements employed in the normal school for men
teachers in Manila, and ordering that a permanent sum of money be
assigned in the budget for this consideration.
September 27, 1880. Royal order, no. 875, of the ministry of the
colonies, approving the definitive institution of the normal school
for women teachers in Nueva-Cáceres and the regulations of the same,
which were approved in the character of ad interim, by superior decree,
June 19, 1875.
September 27, 1880. Royal order, no. 880, of the ministry of the
colonies, ordering that twenty-five copies of the regulations approved
by royal order, number 875, of the same date for the normal school
for women teachers in Nueva-Cáceres, be sent to it.
March 11, 1892. Royal decree, creating in Manila a normal school for
women teachers in charge of the Augustinian nuns of the Assumption
established in the royal school of Santa Isabel in Madrid. See
this royal decree, as well as the royal order following, and the
regulations, ante, pp. 160-210.
May 15, 1893. Announcement of the superior normal school for women
teachers, published in the Gaceta, giving information of the opening
for matriculation in that institution, the requirements for obtaining
it, the fees to be paid for it, and the material for the entrance
examination.
November 3, 1893. Decree of the general government, creating the post
of professor of the practice school established in the normal school
for men teachers in Manila.
November 10, 1893. Decree of the general government, elevating to
the grade of superior the normal school for men teachers in Manila,
and approving provisionally the new regulations of that school. See
this decree, with following regulations, ante, pp. 210-228.
December 1, 1893. Decree of the general government, extending to the
superior normal school for women teachers the powers which the General
Division of Civil Administration has over that for men teachers.
December 15, 1893. Decree of the general government, dictating orders
supplementary to the superior decree of November 10, 1893, and to the
regulations of the superior normal school for men teachers approved
on the same date.
January 30, 1894. Royal order, no. 135, of the ministry of the
colonies, authorizing the continuance in the institution of the regular
resident pupils of the normal school for men teachers in Manila until
the completion of their course.
January 30, 1894. Royal order, no. 136, of the ministry of the
colonies, ordering that the rent of the house occupied by the normal
school for men teachers in Manila be paid from the budget of the
local funds.
February 23, 1894. Decree of the general government, creating a
pedagogical academy in the superior normal school for men teachers
in Manila.
April 18, 1894. Royal order, no. 280, of the ministry of the colonies,
approving the superior decree which elevated to the rank of superior
the normal school for men teachers in Manila; the new regulations for
the same; the supplementary orders dictated by the superior decree of
December 15, 1893; and the appointment of a professor of the practice
school established in it.
April 30, 1894. Announcement of the superior normal school for men
teachers published in the Gaceta, naming date and conditions for
the entrance examinations into that institution, as well as for the
examinations of assistants, and for the extraordinary examinations
for the term of 1893-94.
June 15, 1894. Decree of the general government, modifying article
4 of the superior decree of November 10, 1893, which declared the
normal school for men teachers in Manila to be a superior school;
and article 2 of the decree of December 15, of the same year.
July 20, 1894. Decree of the general government, approving the organic
regulations of the pedagogical academy of the superior formal school
for men teachers in Manila; with citation of regulations.
August 17, 1894. Decree of the general government, declaring
that the pupils of the normal school who have not passed in their
examinations for confirmation which they have to take in order to
obtain the teacher's certificate of elementary primary instruction,
have sufficient aptitude to receive an assistant teacher's certificate.
Schools of primary instruction
December 20, 1863. Regulations for the schools and teachers of primary
instruction for the natives of the Philippine Archipelago. See these
regulations, as well as the interior regulations of the same date,
and the decree of the superior civil government of February 15, 1864,
approving the regulations for the municipal girls' school of Manila,
with citation of regulations, ante, pp. 96-125.
March 15, 1864. Decree of the superior civil government, appointing
the members of the Superior Board of Primary Instruction.
May 17, 1864. Circular of the superior civil government, addressed
to the provincial and district chiefs, giving rules for the better
establishment of the plan for primary instruction established by royal
decree of December 20, 1863, and the regulations of the same date.
June 20, 1864. Royal order, prescribing the model for the staff and
equipment of the municipal school for girls in Manila.
October 19, 1864. Decree of the superior civil government, authorizing
the Conference of St. Stanislas Kostka [70] of the Society of
St. Vincent of Paul, to establish a school for primary instruction
for boys in the suburbs of San Sebastian of Manila.
December 2, 1864. Decree of the superior civil government, in regard
to the special organization and powers of the provincial commission
of primary instruction in Manila.
March 1, 1865. Circular of the superior civil government, ordering the
provincial and district chiefs to send two reports of the villages
of the territory under their charge, in which schools for boys and
girls could be established, determining their respective category in
accordance with the accompanying models.
January 6, 1866. Royal order, approving the expense of 250 escudos,
charged to the local funds for defraying the expenses of the prizes
of the girls of the municipal school who show most progress in their
examination.
March 1, 1866. Decision of the superior civil government, ordering the
director of the normal school for men teachers in Manila to assign
an examination for assistant teachers for the first days in June of
that year.
March 23, 1866. Decree of the superior civil government, fixing at
one escudo per month the quota which must be paid by the children
of wealthy families who attend the school of primary instruction
established in the normal school for men teachers in Manila.
January 20, 1867. Decree of the superior civil government, prescribing
the rank of boys' schools according to the number of inhabitants in
each village.
February 15, 1867. Circular of the superior civil government, to the
provincial and district chiefs, in regard to the dwelling house for
the men teachers, construction and repair of buildings for schools,
and purchase of furniture and equipment for the same.
February 16, 1867. Decree of the superior civil government, ordering
that the local funds pay the men teachers one peso per year for each
boy who attends the writing class, for school supplies and equipment.
June 22, 1867. Decree of the superior civil government, prescribing
when it shall proceed to establish in the villages schools for girls;
and in regard to the appointment of women teachers to take charge
of them.
August 12, 1867. Circular of the superior civil government, to the
provincial and district chiefs, determining that they shall send
monthly reports of the number of boys attending the schools.
August 30, 1867. Circular of the superior civil government, giving
rules for the good discharge of school supervision. See this circular,
ante, pp. 125-142.
October 30, 1867. Circular of the superior civil government, ordering
the provincial chiefs to have the gobernadorcillos proclaim and,
moreover, affix to the street corners and in the courts, an edict
whose purpose is to stimulate school attendance and the teaching of
Castilian; with citation of edict.
November 5, 1867. Royal order, creating a girls' school under the
advocacy of Santa Isabel in Nueva-Cáceres, in charge of the sisters of
charity, under the supervision of the reverend bishop of the diocese.
November 12, 1867. Decree of the superior civil government, ordering
that those who pass in the examinations for substitute women teachers
and do not obtain a place for lack of vacancies, be authorized to
occupy the first vacancy which occurs.
January 4, 1868. Circular of the superior civil government,
recommending the provincial chiefs to send monthly reports of school
attendance, and charging them to arouse the zeal of the provincial
and the local commissions of primary instruction, so that Castilian
may be taught in the schools.
March 14, 1868. Decree of the superior civil government, revising
article 26 of the school regulations, so that married women of any
age and single women after they have reached the age of twenty years
may be appointed teachers.
March 14, 1868. Decree of the superior civil government, ordering
that publication of works in the dialects of the country, with the
exception of prayer and devotional books and others similar to them,
be only permitted when they are printed in two texts, namely, in the
dialects and in Castilian, and that such books shall never be assigned
for use in the schools.
April 26, 1868. Circular decree of the superior civil government, in
regard to the examinations of substitute men teachers; and approval
of the regulations of the same, with citation of regulations.
July 18, 1868. Circular of the superior civil government, ordering
the publication in the Gaceta of a statistical report [ensayo] of the
schools; and charging the provincial chiefs to send monthly reports
showing the number of children present in the same, and stating that
Castilian is taught in the same.
August 4, 1868. Statutes for the college-school of Santa Isabel in
the city of Nueva-Cáceres.
Título I. Creation, object, and dependency of the college school.
Título II. Of the school of primary instruction for day-school girls;
their admission, studies, school hours, and holidays.
Título III. Of the college and of the resident scholars. Object of the
college, conditions for admission therein, clothing, board, and food.
Título IV. Interior life of the scholars.
Título V. Studies; distribution of time.
Título VI. Of the frequency of sacraments, attendance, spiritual
exercises, holidays, vacations, and absences.
September 2, 1868. Decree of the secretary of the superior civil
government, publishing by order of his Excellency in the Gaceta a
pastoral of his Excellency, the bishop of Nueva-Cáceres, in which
the latter urges the parish priests of his diocese to observe very
earnestly the duties imposed upon them by the legislation in force
for the education of children and the progress of schools.
September 4, 1868. Circular of the superior civil government, to the
provincial and district chiefs, charging them that the respective
documents accompany recommendations for the issuing of certificates
to teachers, and show the pay, between the fixed maximum and minimum
in each case, which ought to be granted them.
September 4, 1868. Decree of the superior government, ordering that
petitions for money in order to satisfy the rent of the house for
men teachers, school equipment, etc., be sent to the sub-intendancy
of ways and means.
September 22, 1868. Circular of the superior civil government, to
the provincial and district chiefs, recommending to them the exact
fulfilment of the circular and regulation for substitute men teachers
of April 26 of the same year; that they compel the children of wealthy
families to go to school and pay the teacher the prescribed fee;
that they contrive to have edifices built for the schools in the
villages where there are teachers; and that they inform the latter
of their obligation to supply necessary free equipment for writing
to the pupils, granting to the substitute as to the normal teachers,
one peso annually for said expenses, so that they may be able to
exact from them this obligation.
September 30, 1868. Decree of the superior civil government, ordering
that substitute teachers be furnished with their corresponding
certificates.
October 24, 1868. Decree of the superior civil government, ordering
that in case of insolvency, the same methods be employed for the
collection of the quotas to be paid by the wealthy pupils to the
teachers, that are used for the realization of the public imposts.
October 27, 1868. Decree of the superior civil government, ordering
that pupils may attend schools of primary instruction until the age
of eighteen, voluntary attendance being from the age of fourteen.
August 5, 1869. Decree of the superior civil government, conferring
a commission upon the member of the Superior Board of Primary
Instruction, Don José Patricio Clemente, so that he may enter upon
an extraordinary visit of supervision of all the public and private
institutions of primary education of the province of Manila.
July 16, 1870. Circular of the superior civil government, ordering that
when the teachers ask leave to attend to their own affairs or because
of a proved illness, they present paid substitutes for themselves.
July 20, 1870. Decree of the superior civil government, ordering
that for the lack of assistants with circular, substitute assistants
may be appointed for the schools that have more than eighty pupils,
by the provincial and district chiefs, at the recommendation of the
local supervisors, after conferring with the respective teachers. They
shall be given eight escudos per month without right to any other fee.
September 13, 1870. Decree of the superior civil government, ordering
that the women teachers shall be paid one peso per year from the
local funds for each girl that attends the class in writing, for
school equipment.
November 5, 1870. Circular of the superior civil government,
recommending the provincial chiefs to request the necessary money for
the payment of the teachers from the time that they begin their duties,
their salaries, rental for their dwelling house and other emoluments.
December 2, 1870. Order, no. 1179, of the ministry of the colonies,
approving the commission conferred by the superior civil government of
these islands on Don José Patricio Clemente, for a tour of inspection
of the schools of primary teaching in the province of Manila.
December 5, 1870. Order of the supreme government, decreeing the
appointment of a board ad interim of public instruction, and decree of
"cúmplase" [71] of the superior civil government, dated February 23,
1871, in which the above board is appointed.
December 7, 1870. Decree of the superior civil government, authorizing
the establishment of a free school of primary instruction for girls, in
charge of the sisters of charity in the school of Purísima Concepción
[i.e., the most pure conception] installed in the site called La
Concordia.
December 17, 1870. Decree of the superior civil government, prescribing
that men and women teachers are entitled to receive their salary from
the day on which they prove by means of the local supervisors that
they have presented themselves and taken charge of the school which
they have obtained.
February 23, 1871. Decree of the superior civil government, dissolving
the Superior Board of Primary Instruction and ordering that all the
antecedent decrees in its possession be surrendered to the ad interim
Board of Public Instruction.
March 2, 1871. Decree of the superior civil government, ordering
that the ad interim Board of Public Instruction of these islands,
apply so far as may be possible, the regulations approved January 26,
1867, for the island of Cuba; with citation of regulation.
March 4, 1871. Decree of the superior civil government, ordering
the publication of the plan of studies dictated for the island of
Cuba, July 15, 1863, with commands to observe it, so far as might be
possible and applicable. Title of the above-cited plan referring to
primary education.
April 27, 1871. Royal order of the ministry of the colonies,
prescribing the sums which must be paid for the installation of the
girls' school of Santa Isabel established in Nueva-Cáceres.
May 7, 1871. Decree of the superior civil government, in regard to
the creation of schools and procedures which must be followed by the
documents which are drawn up for this purpose; the formation of reports
of the existing schools; the establishment of classes for adults and
allowances for the teachers for this extraordinary work; the teaching
of the Castilian language; supervision of the schools; examinations
of the same and rewards for the teachers and pupils who distinguish
themselves in them; the pay of the teachers; construction of schools
and dwellings for them; material and equipment which the schools
must have; compulsory attendance at them; the teaching of Castilian;
charge that teaching be free to the poor; exact pay for the teachers.
June 12, 1871. Decree of the superior civil government, ordering that
the men and women teacher substitutes be given their corresponding
certificates.
July 1, 1871. Decree of the superior civil government, prescribing
the textbooks which are to be used in the public schools of primary
instruction.
July 19, 1871. Decree of the superior civil government, explaining
article 14, of the seventh of May, of this year, relative to the pay
of monthly quota by the presence at the school of the wealthy children.
August 26, 1871. Decree of the superior civil government, determining
that the rights prescribed in articles 13, 14, and 15, of the seventh
of May, of this year, alone be granted, and extended to the teachers
graduating from the normal school, and to the substitutes examined
with certificates.
September 26, 1871. Decree of the superior civil government,
recommending to the provincial commissions of primary instruction,
strictness in the examinations of substitute teachers, and that
the mark which each one shall merit be placed in the minutes of
examination.
October 9, 1871. Decree of the superior civil government, ordering
that no petition be admitted asking for permission to print and
annotate the text in these islands of works of different nature,
whether literary or devoted to public instruction, unless such is
directed by the proprietors or authors themselves or by those who
are fully authorized by such.
October 12, 1871. Royal order of the ministry of the colonies, asking
the superior civil government of these islands for the names of the
teachers who distinguished themselves by their zeal for the good of
teaching, their intelligence and power to work, in order to inform
the Ministry of Public Works [Fomento], so that, if it deems it
advisable, it may reward them as those of the Peninsula, by sending
them collections of books for the formation of popular libraries.
January 13, 1872. [72] Circular of the superior civil government,
arousing the zeal of provincial and local authorities, and the
parochial clergy so that they may urge forward the propagation
and progress of primary teaching and the construction of ways of
communication.
February 14, 1872. Decree of the superior civil government, ordering
that the president of the provincial commission of primary instruction
in Manila be present at all the meetings held by the commission,
with power to delegate for other urgent occupation his authority to
the most important member of the ayuntamiento; that two members of the
ayuntamiento be present as members [of the board]; that the secretary
of the civil government of the province be a member ex-officio of
said commission; that announcements be published for the convocation
to a meeting; and that such meeting may be held by the president,
three members, and the secretary.
September 30, 1872. Decree of the superior civil government, granting
to the provincial and district chiefs, right of participation in
the taking of possession and leaving by the teachers of primary
instruction.
February 21, 1873. Decree of the superior civil government, in regard
to the salaries of teachers, men and women, and their assistants.
March 12, 1873. Circular of the superior civil government, recommending
that the Castilian language be taught in the schools of primary
instruction.
May 27, 1873. Circular of the superior civil government, ordering
that the provincial commissions of primary instruction propose the
most advisable measures so that teaching may be obligatory for all
and gratuitous for the poor.
May 30, 1873. Circular of the superior civil government, ordering
the provincial chiefs to send a report made in accordance with the
subjoined model, in which shall be given the number of villages and
schools in each province, the men and women teachers who taught in
them, and the number of children who attended and those who studied
Castilian.
June 10, 1873. Circular of the superior civil government, charging the
provincial chiefs with the exact observance of the superior decree of
February 21 of the same year, in regard to the salaries of teachers
and assistants.
July 26, 1873. Decree of the superior civil government, ordering the
governors of the archipelago to send a detailed note of the names,
qualifications, and circumstances, of the regularly-appointed teachers,
who shall distinguish themselves most in each province, in order that
he may recommend them to the government of his Majesty, so that if he
considers it well he may reward them with popular libraries according
to the royal order of October 12, 1871.
October 10, 1873. Decree of the superior civil government, charging
the provincial supervisors of primary instruction to acquire a Quadro
sinóptico de las islas Filipinas [i.e., Synoptical chart of the
Filipinas Islands] by Don Leon Salcedo, for teaching in the schools.
September 9, 1874. Decree of the general government, prescribing
that appointments, issuing of certificates, licenses, promotions,
and other things belonging to those functionaries, as well as in
general all the affairs of government and progress, belong to the
General Division of Civil Administration.
September 24, 1874. Decree of the general government, ordering that
the vice-presidency of the ad interim Board of Public Instruction be
held by the director general of civil administration.
March 31, 1875. Decree of the general government, ordering the
provincial chiefs to construct schools and dwelling-houses for the
teachers.
October 29, 1875. Royal order, no. 648, of the ministry of the
colonies, copying the royal decree of the same date, in which among
other extremes, referring to secondary education and to superior
education, the powers entrusted to the ad interim Board of Public
Instruction be declared ended.
January 15, 1876. Decree of the general government, declaring at an
end the powers entrusted to the ad interim Board of Public Instruction.
January 15, 1876. Decree of the general government, ordering among
other extremes bearing on secondary and superior education, that
the matters referring to public and private instruction be managed
and despatched by the general government in its functions of civil
administration, and that the Superior Board of Primary Instruction
be called Superior Board of Public Instruction of Filipinas, with
the organization which is prescribed.
May 17, 1876. Royal order, no. 388, of the ministry of the colonies,
ordering that the zeal of persons conversant with the various dialects
of the archipelago be stimulated, so that a grammar may be compiled
in each dialect for the teaching of the Castilian language in the
schools of primary letters, for the purpose of obtaining the diffusion
of said language; and that, with like object, the reforms which it is
advisable to introduce in legislation in regard to primary instruction,
be proposed.
June 7, 1876. Royal order, no. 324, of the ministry of the colonies,
ordering among other extremes referring to secondary and superior
education, that the Superior Board of Primary Instruction be
reestablished in the manner prescribed in article 15 of the royal
decree of December 20, 1863.
July 22, 1876. Circular of the general government, giving rules for
the observance of royal order, no. 388, of May 17, of the same year.
August 16, 1876. Decree of the general government, reëstablishing the
Superior Board of Primary Instruction, and designating the persons
who were to compose it.
June 5, 1877. Royal order of the ministry of the colonies, approving
the preceding decree.
September 10, 1878. Circular of the General Division of Civil
Administration to the provincial chiefs, ordering them to furnish
localities for the schools, either by renting or constructing
buildings; that the teachers be paid their salaries and fees promptly;
that a proof report, in accordance with the subjoined form, be sent
of the situation of each province, to the department of primary
instruction; and that the petitions of the teachers, asking for some
favor or demanding their salary, be sent to said center with the
fitting information.
November 6, 1878. Royal order, decreeing that instructors of primary
education in the colonies be paid half their salary during the time
that they are on leave in the Peninsula for sickness, and the other
half to those who act as substitutes for them.
May 20, 1879. Royal order of the ministry of the colonies, in which is
shown the pleasure with which his Majesty heard that a boys' school
had been started in Nueva-Cáceres, at the expense of the reverend
bishop of the diocese.
July 14, 1880. Royal order, no. 625, of the ministry of the colonies,
in regard to places for the taking of possession by the teachers,
transfers, cessation of duties, and licenses that the same may enjoy.
July 14, 1880. Royal order, no. 668, of the ministry of the colonies,
ordering that the provincial chiefs proceed to the construction
of edifices for schools, with dwelling-houses for the teachers, by
making use of the personal services [of the natives]; charging the
gobernadorcillos of the villages with the keeping and conservation
of the equipment; paying the expenses with the amount of a fourth
part of the fee paid to the teachers by well-to-do children; ordering
that the teachers be paid monthly a sum equal to the fourth part of
their salary for school equipment; imposing on them the obligation
to keep an inventory book of the apparatus and equipment of their
respective schools, as well as other books of matriculation and daily
attendance; ordering that the General Division of Civil Administration
make annually at auction the purchase of the necessary school supplies;
and dictating other important measures for the purchase, distribution,
and conservation of school equipment and supplies.
September 1, 1880. Circular of the General Division of Civil
Administration, animating the provincial chiefs to contrive to have
Castilian taught in the schools by all the means in their power.
October 5, 1881. Circular of the secretary of the royal Audiencia of
Manila, communicating the decision of the entire tribunal of September
23, of the same year, by which it is ordered that the judges of
first instance may avail themselves for written recognizances of the
[services of] men teachers with certificates who have graduated from
the normal school.
December 27, 1881. Decree of the General Division of Civil
Administration, ordering that the boys' schools of Manila and its
suburbs have a competitive contest.
March 10, 1882. Circular of the secretary of the royal Audiencia,
transcribing a letter of the supreme tribunal, in which it was
communicated that the government assembly of the same had approved
the decision of the entire tribunal of the abovesaid Audiencia, of
September 23, 1881, in reference to the fact that written recognizances
be made by men teachers graduating from the normal school established
in the villages.
March 24, 1882. Circular of the General Division of Civil
Administration, prescribing the salaries to be received by substitute
teachers without certificates.
September 12, 1883. Decree of the general government, in regard
to compulsory teaching of the Castilian language in the schools;
punishments of the teachers who do not keep it; annual inspection of
the governors of the schools, giving account of the result in each one
of them; examinations in the same, and the rewards and recompenses
for the scholars and teachers who distinguish themselves in them;
provision of the ascenso schools and término schools of second
class for aid and correction to the parents of children from seven
to twelve years old who do not attend the schools. Declaration that
those employes who cannot talk, read, and write Castilian, cannot
receive their prescribed pay. The provincial chiefs are ordered to
send a proof report of the primary instruction in their respective
territories and a secret memorandum in regard to the same matter. An
assembly shall be called for a gathering, in which the authors of
the best grammars written in the dialects of the country for the
teaching of Castilian shall be rewarded; it is recommended to the
General Division of Civil Administration that it study and recommend
the increase which it is advisable to give to the pay of the teachers,
and the creation of a special body of paid provincial supervisors.
September 25, 1883. Circular of the General Division of Civil
Administration, sending to the provincial chiefs the form to which the
proof report of primary instruction in their respective territories,
which they were to make by virtue of the order in the first transitory
prescription of the preceding decree, must conform.
September 25, 1883. Decree of the General Division of Civil
Administration, convoking an assembly for rewarding the [authors of
the] best Castilian grammars written in the principal dialects of the
country for the schools, and fixing the conditions of said assembly.
October 6, 1885. Decree of the general government, granting to the
original Hispano-Tagálog grammar, of the right reverend father Fray
Toribio Minguella, [73] the privileges established in rule 6 of the
preceding decree; holding a new assembly for the reward of Castilian
grammars written in the Visayan, Cebuyan, Ilocan, Vicol, Pangasinan,
or Pampango; and marking the conditions of this new assembly.
February 17, 1886. Circular of the General Division of Civil
Administration, recommending to the provincial supervisors of primary
instruction to immediately copy for the local reverend or learned
supervisors the orders received from said center in regard to teachers.
June 30, 1887. Decree of the general government, encouraging the
provincial chiefs and the reverend parish priests, to contrive by all
means to have the Castilian language taught in the schools, imposing on
them the obligation of personally making the tour of annual inspection,
at least to the schools, and another tour by the secretaries of the
[local] governments, giving account afterwards of the progress in said
teaching and recommending at the same time recompenses or punishment
which the teachers deserve on account of their interest or neglect.
July 11, 1887. Circular of the General Division of Civil
Administration, charging the provincial chiefs with the exact
observance of the orders dictated in regard to primary instruction
for the purpose of having Castilian spoken in all the villages;
they shall employ rigor in the examinations of substitute teachers,
and be careful that the assistant substitutes who are appointed be
persons suitable for teaching.
January 13, 1888. Decree of the general government, declaring a
competition in the boys' término school of the first class among
teachers with certificates from the normal school, who shall have had
one year's practice in teaching and giving rules for the holding of
said competitions; with programs for the oral examination in said
competitions.
July 31, 1888. Circular of the general government, addressed to the
provincial chiefs ordering that they make an extraordinary inspection
of the school, after which they shall remit to the said general
government the various data which are expressed, so that an exact
idea of the condition of those schools may be formed.
January 16, 1889. Decree of the general government, ordering that the
allowances which they receive in hard cash for school equipment be
not paid to the men and women teachers; and creating a board for the
purchase of said equipment, and prescribing rules for the provision
of the above-mentioned supplies to the schools.
January 16, 1889. Decree of the general government, ordering that the
sums which are given in coin for the rewards of the pupils, cease to
be given to the teachers, and that the administrative board of school
supplies created by the preceding decree, purchase in the public
market for said object, primers of agriculture, and then grammars,
geographies and other useful books.
January 29, 1889. Royal order, no. 75, of the ministry of the colonies,
enjoining the most punctual observance of the orders dictated for
obtaining the diffusion of the Castilian language among the natives
of these islands, and ordering that the ministry be informed of the
results of the visits, which the provincial chiefs are obliged to
make to all the schools of the territory under their command, in
order to be able to judge rightly the progress which is obtained,
and to grant the due recompense to the teachers.
February 4, 1889. Decree of the general government, making regulations
for the schools of primary instruction in the archipelago. Division of
the various schools into sections and subjects which are to be taught
in each one of them; copy books; textbooks; compulsory attendance at
the schools; class hours; classes in religion; books of matriculation;
and daily register of attendance.
February 4, 1889. Decree of the general government, approving the
schedule to which the examination of regularly-appointed women teachers
must conform.
February 5, 1889. Decree of the general government, prescribing
rules for the construction and conservation of supplies for the
schools, making use for this of the services of the personal tax,
and the gratuitous cutting of timber in the public mountains, and
recommending the reverend parish priests to watch over the schools
and see that this decree is fulfilled.
February 9, 1889. Circular of the General Division of Civil
Administration, prescribing the stamp tax which must be paid for the
certificates of men and women teachers, and assistants, and for the
credentials of the same.
March 5, 1889. Decree of the general government, prohibiting boys
and girls in the schools from going out to receive the authorities;
ordering that whenever any authority who may inspect the schools comes
to the village, all the scholars of the same schools assemble therein
with their respective teachers; and that the provincial governors
impose a fine of ten pesos on the gobernadorcillos and teachers who
infringe this decree.
March 30, 1889. Decree of the General Division of Civil Administration,
communicating the decision of the superior government, in which it is
ordered that the teachers be paid their salaries, house-rent, etc.,
in the same villages of their residence, by the gobernadorcillos, with
the sums collected by imposts of the local treasury, and prescribing
rules for effecting said payment.
December 14, 1889. Circular of the general government, ordering
the observance of what is prescribed by articles 31 to 34 of the
regulations of schools in 1863; that the teachers keep a register of
matriculation and another of daily school attendance in accordance
with the subjoined forms, and an inventory book giving values of the
equipment and supplies in their schools; another of the books given
to the children as prizes, and a blank book, in which to copy the
orders dictated in regard to primary instruction; that the admission of
children to the schools be preceded by a written order of the religious
or learned parish priest; that the teaching be divided into the section
determined by the superior decree of February 4, of this year; that
the class hours be from seven to ten in the morning and from half
past two to five in the afternoon; that the provincial supervisors
send monthly proof reports of the schools; that the teachers may sell
the textbooks which are sent them at the price fixed by the board;
that they may make petitions for the supplies that they need every
three months; that instruction be compulsory for children from six
to twelve years old, while those from four to six and from twelve to
eighteen may attend voluntarily; and that private schools be subject
to the orders in force for titular schools.
June 30, 1890. Decree of the General Division of Civil Administration,
recommending the observance of the circular of the general government,
of December 14, 1889, and publishing it again in the Gaceta.
July 3, 1890. Circular of the General Division of Civil Administration,
ordering that the copies written by the children in the schools be
dated and signed by the same and conserved by the teachers.
January 16, 1891. Royal order, no. 58, of the ministry of the colonies,
relating to the provincial and municipal budgets of these islands for
said year, in which is ordered, among other extremes, the constitution
of an administrative board of school supplies.
May 1, 1891. Decree of the general government, designating the persons,
who being electors, were to form part of the administrative board of
school material.
March 2, 1892. Royal order, no. 116, of the ministry of the colonies,
approving the monthly allowance granted to the secretary and clerks
of the administrative board of school supplies.
July 29, 1892. Decree of the general government, increasing the
salaries of men and women teachers and assistants which were to be
assigned in the projects of the budgets of 1893; and ordering the
form of the provision of those places and the creation of territorial
examining commissions of teachers in Vigan, Nueva-Cáceres, Cebú,
and Jaro.
August 3, 1892. Decree of the general government, giving information
that the ministry of the colonies had authorized by telegraph the
increase of the salary of the teachers proposed by said government.
August 8, 1892. Decree of the general government, giving information
that the ministry of the colonies had given telegraphic authorization
to increase the sum for school supplies to 100,000 pesos.
August 11, 1892. Decree of the general government, granting annual
allowances to men and women teachers with good marks, and more than
fifteen years of service.
October 19, 1892. Decree of the general government, ordering the
constitution of territorial examining commissions of teachers in
Vigan, Nueva-Cáceres, Cebú, and Jaro, prescribing the persons who are
to form them; as well as the creation of examining commissions, also
of substitute and assistant teachers in the normal schools in Manila
and Nueva-Cáceres; said commissions giving rules for examinations of
substitute and assistant teachers; and ordering that the provincial
commissions of primary instruction cease their duties of examining
them.
December 8, 1892. Royal order of the ministry of the colonies,
approving the creation of a girls' school in Yap (Carolinas).
February 27, 1893. Decree of the general government, prescribing the
distribution and classification of the schools of primary instruction
of the archipelago, and giving rules for their provision; with a
table of distribution and classification of the schools.
February 27, 1893. Decree of the general government, approving the
schedules for the examinations of men and women teachers, substitutes,
and assistants of primary instruction; with schedules cited.
March 29, 1893. Decree of the general government, declaring the book
entitled El pez de madera [i.e., The Wooden Fish], [74] as a textbook
in reading for the public schools of the archipelago.
May 1, 1893. Decree of the General Division of Civil Administration,
granting free examinations for obtaining certificates as elementary
women teachers in the superior normal school for women teachers in
Manila, who shall be submitted to the schedules of that institution,
and only during the first two years following its installation,
namely, in the courses for the years 1893-94 and 1894-95.
July 28, 1893. Decree of the General Division of Civil Administration,
allowing competition between various boys' schools of the rank of
término of the first and second class and término schools, and contest
for boys' and girls' ascenso and entrada schools.
August 21, 1893. Decree of the General Division of Civil
Administration, allowing competition in the boys' school of Bacalor
(Pampanga).
August 23, 1893. Decree of the General Division of Civil
Administration, continuing for a fortnight the period for the admission
of petitions in the contest for teachers, decreed July 28 of the said
year for the provision of ascenso and entrada schools.
August 31, 1893. Decree of the General Division of Civil
Administration, continuing the time for the admission of petitions
of men and women teachers who wish to take part in the competitions
announced by the decree of July 28, and August 21, of the same year.
September 5, 1893. Schedules for the competitions at the girls'
término schools.
September 29, 1893. Decree of the general government, in regard to
the pay of salaries to teachers' assistants.
November 1, 1893. Decree of the general government, declaring a
pamphlet entitled Sistema métrico decimal de pesas y medidas [i.e.,
Decimal Metrical System of Weights and Measures] [75] a textbook for
the public schools of the archipelago.
November 24, 1893. Decree of the general government, allowing those
who are more than sixteen years of age and less than twenty and have a
teacher's certificate to manage schools in the character of ad interim.
May 14, 1894. Decree of the general government, declaring the book
entitled Cartilla higiénica [i.e., Hygienic Primer] [76] a textbook
of compulsory reading for the public schools of the archipelago.
July 20, 1894. Decree of the general government ordering two previous
payments to be made for traveling expenses to men and women teachers
and assistants who may be appointed to the charge of schools located in
provinces distant from those in which they reside, and who petition it.
[Grifol y Aliaga's book concludes with two appendices. The first
appendix contains several official documents concerning legislation
in education, the titles of which are as follows:]
May 17, 1864. Circular of the superior civil government, to
the provincial and district chiefs, giving rules for the better
establishment of the plan of primary instruction established by royal
decree of December 20, 1863, and regulations of the same date.
November 29, 1864. Circular of the superior civil government,
directed to the provincial and district chiefs, dictating rules for
the provision of the places of regular resident pupils of the normal
school for men teachers in Manila.
May 20, 1865. Royal order, number 175, of the ministry of the colonies,
approving all the measures adopted by the superior civil government
for the inauguration of the normal school for men teachers, and
expressing the pleasure with which her Majesty saw the zeal shown in
the installation of said institution.
[The second appendix consists of an enumeration of the textbooks
for the superior normal school for men teachers in Manila; for the
normal school for women teachers in Manila; and for the schools of
primary instruction.]
DOMINICAN EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS,
1896-1897
STATISTICS OF THE STUDENTS WHO STUDIED IN THE COLLEGES OF THE DOMINICAN
FATHERS IN THE YEAR 1896-1897
College and University of Santo Tomás
The college was founded by the corporation of the Dominicans in 1612,
and its foundation approved by King Felipe IV, in December, 1623,
[77] as appears from the Recopilación de las Indias (ley liii,
título xxii, libro i). It was declared a university by brief of his
Holiness, Innocent X, in 1645, and King Carlos II received it under
his protection and royal patronage in 1680. Finally, King Carlos III,
by a decree of March 7, 1785, conferred on it the title of Royal,
giving it the titles and honors of the universities of the Spanish
monarchy. The collegiates with beca (free) numbered thirty-six in 1896.
Pupils matriculated in 1896 in the different courses
Courses Degrees
conferred
Course in Theology 15 2
,, ,, Canons 7 3
,, ,, Jurisprudence 1,298 17
,, ,, the Profession of Notary 244 4
,, ,, Medicine 857 8
,, ,, Pharmacy 169 2
,, ,, Philosophy and Letters 160
,, ,, Sciences 54
Practitioners of Medicine 205
,, ,, Pharmacy 38
Midwives 12
----- ----
Total 3,059 [36]
College of San Juan de Letrán [78]
This college was founded under the title of San Pedro y San Pablo
in the year 1640, for the purpose of giving primary instruction to
the poor and orphaned children of Spanish parents. The most reverend
master-general, Fray Tomás Turco, confirmed its erection in 1644. The
provincial chapter of 1652 accepted it as a house of the province
at the request of the governor-general with the approbation of the
archbishop of Manila. In the year 1683, it was called the college of
San Juan de Letrán, and it has been so called to our day. [79]
Course for 1896-1897
Rector and father professors 13
Brother masters of primary instruction 4
Resident [internos] collegiates 220
Half Resident ,, 50
Filipino assistants (servants) 8
---
[Total] 295
Class of day pupils
Matriculated in general studies for the bachelor's degree 5,363
Matriculated for practical studies (specialists) 337
-----
Total 5,700
Titles conferred
Bachelor of Arts 149
Professors of secondary instruction 4
Skilled agriculturalists and appraisers of lands 2
,, merchants 17
,, mechanics 5
College of San Alberto Magno
This college was founded by the Dominican corporation in the year
1891, in the village of Dagupan, in the province of Pangasinan. The
building was from the first constructed for the purpose for which it
was destined.
Course of 1896-1897
Rector and teachers 8
Brother master of primary instruction 1
Resident pupils 96
Matriculated 842
---
Total 947
School of Santa Catalina de Sena [80]
This school is directed by the Dominican sisters and was founded in
1698. In the year 1896 it had:
Nuns who acted as teachers 16
Lay sisters 15
Girls in residence 140
Servants and florists 52
---
Total 223
School of Nuestra Señora del Rosario, of Lingayén
(Pangasinan)
(Founded by the corporation, in 1890)
Nuns who act as teachers 7
Resident pupils 53
Non-resident pupils 13
Servants 10
--
Total 83
School of Nuestra Señora del Rosario of Vigan
(Founded in 1893)
Nuns who act as teachers 7
Pupils in residence 65
Servants 7
--
[Total] 79
School of Santa Ymelda of Tuguegarao (Cagayán)
(Founded in 1892)
Nuns 8
Pupils in residence 77
Non-resident pupils 10
Half pensioners 4
Servants 11
---
[Total] 110
REPORT OF RELIGIOUS SCHOOLS, 1897
Relation of the houses and number of pupils [81] whom the sisters of
charity had in a school here in Filipinas in the year 1897.
1. Here in Manila, they had all the schools which they have at
present, namely, the school of La Concordia, that of Santa Ysabel,
that of Santa Rosa, and that of Looban.
2. In the school of La Concordia, there were 39 sisters and 300 pupils.
In that of Santa Ysabel 14 sisters and 150 pupils.
In Santa Rosa, 11 sisters and 200 pupils.
In the school of Looban, 11 sisters and 170 collegiates.
3. In addition, they had here in Manila the military hospital, the
hospital of St. John of God, the municipal school, and the hospice
of San José.
In St. John of God, there were 27 sisters and 400 patients.
In the military hospital, 24 sisters and 300 patients.
In the hospice of San José, 14 sisters and 250 destitute people,
counting poor, patients, and orphan children.
In the municipal school, there were 10 sisters and about 300 girls
attended it. At present they still have these charitable houses with
the exception of the military hospital and the municipal school.
4. Besides these houses here in Manila, they had in the provinces,
the schools which they still have.
In Jaro (Iloilo), the school of San José, in which were 12 sisters
and 150 scholars.
In Cebu in the same capital, the school of the Immaculate Conception,
with 28 sisters and 200 scholars. They have also the hospital and
the house of relief.
In Nueva Cáceres (Camarines), the school of Santa Ysabel, in which
were 13 sisters and 170 scholars.
In Cavite they also had the hospital of St. John of God, and that of
Cañacao. In the former were 16 sisters and 170 patients, and in the
latter 16 sisters and 200 patients.
Relation of the number of pupils in the seminary schools here in
Filipinas in the year 1897.
1. All the seminary schools were in charge of Paulist fathers, except
that of Vigan. In the seminary of this city of Manila there were
5 fathers and 3 brothers, while the pupils or seminarists numbered
about 40. In addition they had the house which they own at present,
in San Marcelino. There were 6 fathers and two brothers whose efforts
were devoted to propagating and extending worship, and directing as
well the sisters of charity.
2. In the seminary school of Jaro, there were, in the said year, 9
fathers and 2 brothers, and about 600 pupils of whom 200 were regular.
3. In the seminary school of Cebú, there were also 9 fathers and
2 brothers resident, and the number of pupils was about 800, those
resident numbering about 300.
4. In that of Nueva Cáceres there was the same number of fathers
and brothers as in the seminaries of Jaro and Cebú, while the pupils
numbered about 700.
[Endorsed in English: "Congregation of St. Vi[n]cent of Paul."]
EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS OF THE RECOLLECTS
Beaterio de Santa Rita
It is located on the ground plot of San Sebastian, in a district of
the same name, outside the walls of Manila, where the Augustinian
Recollect fathers have a convent whose foundation dates from the
year 1621, and a magnificent iron church dedicated in the year 1891,
in which is venerated the miraculous image of our Lady of Carmel.
This beaterio, separated from the convent only by the portico which
gives entrance to the church, was founded about the year 1730, and
was due principally to our father Fray Andrés de San Fulgencio, who,
acceding to the reiterated urgings and petitions of some pious women,
who desired to live in retreat from the excitement of the world, built
them a house, and gave them the habit of manteletas, or Tertiaries
of the Augustinian order.
The preferred occupations in which those pious women who have had
the good fortune to take our holy habit in this beaterio, have
busied themselves, have been, and are at present, beside their own
sanctification, the solid and Christian instruction and education of
a certain number of girls; the cleaning and renovating of our church
of San Sebastian; and the propagation of worship and devotion to our
Lady of Carmel, for whom they act as the perpetual attendants.
They lead a very austere life, and one completely abstracted from the
world, scarcely ever leaving the beaterio unless to go to the church,
and it is a very remarkable circumstance that in the two hundred years
almost, which have elapsed since their foundation, no sister who has
taken the habit has abandoned it in order to return to the world.
The inspection and direction of the beaterio belong to the father
prior of the convent of San Sebastian, who, with the consent of our
father provincial, dictates the suitable provisions for maintaining
in that holy house the spirit of piety with which it was founded.
School of San José of Bacolod, Negros
In the intermediary chapter, celebrated in the convent of Manila,
October 31, 1895, the installation (in Bacolod, the capital of the
island of Negros) of a college of primary and secondary instruction,
was determined upon. That determination of the chapter was approved by
the most reverend apostolic father, commissary-general of the order,
December 18, of the same year 95. January 28, 1896, the very reverend
father provincial, Fray Andrés Ferrero, now his Excellency, the
bishop of Jaro, petitioned his Excellency the governor-general to have
the kindness to authorize him as founder of a school of primary and
secondary instruction in the province of Negros under the advocacy of
San José, in which they could establish all the courses, the study of
which was required in order to obtain the degree of bachelor of arts.
The superior government acceded to the petition by a decree dated
February 21, of the same year, on condition of first receiving a
favorable report from the very reverend father rector of the royal
and pontifical university of Manila. In June of the same year they
proceeded to the opening of the school of Bacolod, which was placed
under the said university. The disasters that occurred in this
archipelago in consequence of the insurrection, have been the cause
of this school running for only two years.
Seminary school of Vigan
The corporation of Augustinian Recollects had in its charge the
seminary of Vigan between the years 1882 and April, 1895. During that
time various courses were added, and, in July, 1892, the complete
plan of studies for secondary instruction was established in the said
seminary, and it was officially placed under the university of Manila.
School of Santa Rosa
The foundation of this school having been authorized by a royal decree
of September 22, 1774, its direction and government (besides that
which by right belongs to the diocesan ecclesiastical authority)
was committed to the senior auditor, who was afterwards called
the president of the royal Audiencia. He was aided by a council of
four votes. Thus it continued until December 17, 1891, in which in
accordance with a royal order of October 6, of the same year, the
general government of these islands appointed as president of the
assembly the very reverend father provincial of the Recollects. From
that time all the intervention and authority which thitherto had been
held by the presidents of the royal Audiencia, were delegated to him.
The individuals composing the Administration Board are appointed by
the archbishop of Manila, at the proposal of the father president. The
Board informs his reverend Excellency, of the most important decisions
which are made so that he may approve them.
THE FRIAR VIEWPOINT
I
EDUCATION
The truth in this matter. If the means are sufficient and efficacious,
the ends will be obtained. Uniformity in the method.
There are matters of importance so transcendental in the progressive
evolution of peoples, and which determine in so efficacious a manner
the greater or less future and civilization of those peoples, that
they cannot be less than regarded by men who govern with the most
profound attention and persevering study, converting them into the
object of their studies, of their zeal, and of their energies. Perhaps
nothing occupies the foremost place with more reason and right than
education. The desire of happiness is as natural as it is legitimate
in man. That desire is so noble and elevated an aspiration, and man
feels that desire in the bottom of his soul with so irresistible a
force than one may say without any kind of exaggeration, that even
unconsciously he is dragged along by it. Hence, every new step that
he takes, every ray of light that he perceives, every unknown point
that he discovers in that road, induces one to believe that it is
one factor more for arrival at a safe port, one greater facility
which he acquires for the attainment of that end. And since that
end in man cannot be more than the highest end, hence it is that he
feels in an invincible manner the necessity of its possession, which
is that which constitutes the highest perfection of that privileged
creature [man]. Now, then, in order to attain possession of that end,
it is necessary to know it, and in order that it may have a practical
result, one must know the means which conduce to it, and perfect them
so that the result may be complete. Most marvelously is this trust
filled by the teaching which has as its direct object the education and
perfection of the faculties of man, which are the only means conducive
to the knowledge and possession of God--the supreme end, hence, the
highest happiness of man. Education is the object and noble finality
of teaching, the unfolding and perfection of the faculties of man,
both in the physical order, and in the intellectual, esthetic, and
moral; to develop the physical energies, producing the most perfect
health and robustness of the body, to extend the horizons of the
intelligence, the greater number of points of knowledge conducing
to the discovery of truth proportioning it; increasing and ennobling
man's sentiments for beauty, and directing the will along the road of
the good and the just, and removing it from their opposites, the evil
and unjust. It is the primordial object and noblest end of every man
who governs to endeavor to broaden, extend, and perfect instruction
among the peoples under the control of his government and direction.
It is the most sacred duty of every gubernatorial authority to
excogitate and choose the most suitable, safe, and correct methods
of teaching for the attainment of so sacred an end. It cannot be even
doubted that the authors of our traditional legislation for the Indias
had other motives than the accuracy and rectitude in the creation of
the laws concerning instruction, or other primordial end in it than the
knowledge and adoration of God, the supreme end of man on earth; and as
a means, the knowledge of the divine mysteries, of the revealed truths,
in a word, of the Catholic religion, among the human beings of the New
World. Rapid without doubt was the progress which the Catholic faith
made in the immense territories of that unknown world, notwithstanding
the interminable series of difficulties which our fervent missionaries,
covetous to gain souls for God, were to meet in the evangelization of
so many races and so numerous peoples divided by so diverse languages,
which were so many other obstacles superable by their strong desire
and never-satisfied zeal. In order to conquer those difficulties,
and that that zeal might be more productive for the cause of religion,
and more advantageous for the believers, fifty-eight years after the
immortal Colón had discovered this world full of marvels, the first law
was dictated in regard to the creation of schools for the teaching of
Castilian, signed by Carlos V while governing at Valladolid, June 7,
and reproduced July 17, 1550. Such is law xviii, título i, book vi,
which reads as follows.
"Having made particular examination in regard to whether, even in
the most perfect language of the Indians, the ministers of our holy
Catholic faith can explain themselves well and fittingly, we have
recognized that that is impossible without committing great discords
and imperfections; and although chairs are founded where the priests
who shall instruct the Indians may be taught, this is not a fitting
remedy because of the great diversity of languages; and having resolved
that it will be advantageous to introduce the Castilian language: we
command teachers to be given to the Indians, in order to teach those
who wish of their own accord to study it, in the way which will be
of least trouble and without expense to them. It has appeared that
this can be well done by the sacristans, as in the villages of these
kingdoms they teach reading, writing, and the Christian doctrine."
But one can immediately understand that teachers who taught without
any charge, who might be sacristans, and Indians who wished to study
voluntarily, were not fitting factors to attain the most praiseworthy
end which the legislator proposed to himself; and in fact it could not
have given the desired result since eighty-four years afterwards, law
v, título xiii, book i, was issued by Felipe IV, without indicating the
means, in Madrid, March 2, 1634, and repeated two years afterward, on
November 4, which reads as follows: "We ask and request the archbishops
and the bishops to provide and order the curas and missionaries of
the Indians in their dioceses, by the use of the mildest means,
to arrange and direct that all the Indians be taught the Spanish
language, and in that language the Christian doctrine, so that they
may become more capable of understanding the mysteries of our holy
Catholic faith and so that other advantages may be gained for their
salvation, and follow in their government and method of life." The
fulfilment of both laws [was] recorded by the royal decree of March 20,
1686, [82] and those laws were at the same time extended to Filipinas,
since the desire of the legislator was the same in both parts, namely,
"to consult upon what is the most efficacious means for destroying the
idolatries incurred at present by the majority of the Indians as was
true at the beginning of their conversion, etc.," as is said in the
above-mentioned royal decree. From that decree one infers a wholesome
instruction for Filipinas; but it is no wonder that the Filipinos
have not learned Castilian, and that they abandon their primitive
superstitions with difficulty, when the Americans of greater capacity
than they, with greater means, with a powerful and constant stream of
Christian civilization, carried by numerous missionaries, and a greater
European emigration, after two centuries did not know the Castilian
speech, and the majority were sunk in their idolatries, a thing which
does not occur with the masses of the Filipinos, although they are
not a little superstitious, a quality exhibited in more or less degree
by numerous peoples of Europa after so many centuries of illumination.
For the same end and filled with the same spirit was issued the royal
decree of April 16, 1770, which, like the preceding one, was also
extended to Filipinas, as were also other later ones, all of which were
animated by the most Christian zeal, so that the Indians might learn
better the mysteries and doctrinal points of the Catholic religion,
for the easier and surer salvation of their souls. Without danger
of taking from these laws any valuable data, in accordance with the
necessity which counsels it, let us reduce ourselves for the moment
to a review of the orders given directly for Filipinas which are
found in the celebrated ordinances, first in those given by Corcuera
in the year 1642, revised by Cruzat in 1696, and added to by their
successors. Among them is one, the 52d, of Governor-general Solis,
marquis of Obando, dated October 19, 1752. Among other things that
ordinance says: "Through my desires of aiding with the greatest
exactness the spiritual and temporal welfare of those vassals,
supplying them with all the means of acquiring and consolidating it, I
have resolved to order, as by the present I do order and command, said
governors, corregidors, alcaldes-mayor, and other justices of these
islands, that exactly and punctually, and without interpretation or
opinion, they give and cause to be given the most opportune measures,
so that in the villages of their districts they demand, establish,
and found, from this day forward, schools where the children of the
natives and other inhabitants of their districts may be educated and
taught (in primary letters in the Castilian or Spanish language),
seeing to it earnestly and carefully that they study, learn, and
receive education in that language and not in that of the country or
any other. They shall work for its greater increase, extension, and
intelligence, without consenting or allowing ... this determination
to be violated, or schools of any other language to be erected or
started, under penalty of five hundred [pesos?] applied in the manner
decreed by this superior government.... For that purpose, and so that
it may have the fullest effect, I revoke, annul, and declare of no
use and value ordinance 29, which declares that Spaniards shall not
be allowed to live in or remain in the villages of the Indians; for in
the future they must be admitted to such residence. The alcaldes-mayor
and justices shall see to it that such people live in a Christian
manner and according to the commands of God; and they shall arrest,
punish, and exile those who fail in this matter. This is to be
understood of the schools which are to be supported and maintained
at the cost of the villages themselves and of the funds which the
communal treasuries shall have assigned for those of the languages of
the country (for as abovesaid the latter must cease and shall cease
in proportion as the schools for teaching in the Castilian language
shall be built and established); and for the attainment of the duties
and posts of governors and other honorable military posts it shall
be a necessary qualification that those on whom they are conferred
be the most capable, experienced, and clever in being able to read,
talk, and write, in the above-mentioned Spanish language, and such
posts must be given to such persons and not to others," etc.
In accordance with all that which is faithfully quoted in regard
to this particular, is ordinance 25 of the zealous Raón in 1768,
which reads as follows: "As it is very important that there be
good schoolteachers for the teaching of the Indians, and as it is
advisable for them to learn the Spanish language in order to know the
Christian doctrine better, and since the salary of one peso and one
cabán of rice, which it is the custom to give them from the communal
funds each month, is very little, it is ordered that the alcaldes,
with the intervention of the curas, or missionary ministers, make
a computation of the salary which can be given in each village (in
proportion to its tributes) to the schoolteacher, giving an account
thereof to the superior government for its approval.... For, with
the increase of salaries, better teachers can be had and the end of
law xviii, título i, book vi, as will be related hereafter, can be
better attained." This is fulfilled at greater length in ordinance
or article 93, reading as follows: "In accordance with section 52
of the ancient ordinances, and 17 of those drawn up by governor Don
Pedro Manuel de Arandía, it is strictly and rigorously ordered the
alcaldes-mayor, and asked and petitioned from the father ministers,
that each one, in so far as concerns him, shall apply his zeal to the
end that in all the villages there should be one schoolmaster well
instructed in the Spanish language, and that he teach the Indians to
read and write in it, the Christian doctrine, and other prayers, as
is ordered by the king, our sovereign, in his royal decree of June 5,
1754, because of the most serious disadvantages which result by doing
the contrary to the religion and the state. For the attainment of so
important teaching, the salary of each teacher shall be paid punctually
from the communal funds, namely, one peso and one cabán of rice per
month. Permission is given to the above-mentioned alcaldes-mayor
so that, in the large villages and in proportion to the capacity of
said teachers, they may increase their salary by giving information
thereof to the superior government for its approval, as is stated
in section 25. The above-mentioned teachers shall be informed that,
if they do not teach the Indians, and instruct them in the Spanish
language, they will be condemned to make restitution of the pay which
they shall have received, and shall be deprived of holding any post in
these islands and punished at the will of said alcaldes. The latter,
especially in their visit to the villages of their provinces, shall
investigate with particular care the observance of the abovesaid, and
shall inform the superior government.... It is to be noted that for
any slight omission of the alcaldes in regard to this most important
point, they shall incur the indignation of the superior tribunals,
and shall be rigorously punished and fined in proportion to their lack
of zeal and fulfilment of this section; for experience has taught that
for particular ends and unjust laxity or neglect they have proceeded
hitherto with little zeal and with total want of observance of law
xviii, título i, book vi, which is corroborated and confirmed by
many royal decrees and by the abovesaid sections of the ordinances
preceding that law."
Since we are decided to make an exact and complete adjustment of
accounts treating of this matter, we transcribe here, in order to
attain that, whatever has to do most especially with both ancient
and modern legislation, in order to remove at once the mask under
which the detractors of the religious orders have been masquerading,
blaming them openly for the backward state of the Filipino villages,
for their deficiency in education and especially for the ignorance of
Castilian, without other proof than the completely gratuitous assertion
that those religious orders have constantly opposed the development
of education and, in a resolute manner, the study of Castilian. [83]
In order to prove this supposed opposition, they adduce as an argument
(which is negative, and, consequently, of no value) the fact that
although the teaching (and with it the Castilian speech) was ordered
from the beginning of the conquest with evident insistence and under
heavy penalties, the established laws have not given the abundant
results which were to be desired. Now, because those results have
not been obtained, are the missionaries to blame? The supposition
made in order to hurl this crimination upon the religious orders is
not serious nor can it be cited by persons who esteem themselves as
sensible and reasonable beings.
Before that criminal supposition and that groundless crimination it is
fitting to ask: "Were those laws, given with the most just desire and
the most holy finality, as is that of christianizing those idolatrous
souls and guaranteeing them in the faith of Jesus Christ, suitable for
the production of the desired ends? Were the means, which were proposed
in those laws, conducive to the end which was being prosecuted? Nay,
more, granting the sufficiency of those laws and the propriety of those
means for the American districts, since those laws were given for them,
was it within the bonds of reason to adapt them with equal propriety
and sufficiency to Filipinas?" If it is impossible to grant the first,
it is evidently impossible to assent to the second as certain.
It has been shown that law xviii was given in the year 1550, or
fifty-eight years after the discovery of the New World. One hundred
and forty-two years later that order was repeated by means of law v,
of 1634, the fulfilment of which was recorded in 1686, or one hundred
and ninety-four years after our arrival on the American coasts. Those
laws had been, if not barren, of little fruit, whenever the cause
for repeating that law was to banish the idolatries in which the
majority of the Indians are now sunk, as they were at the beginning of
the conversions. How can that development in instruction be acquired
"with Indians who would like to learn, when taught by teachers without
pay, and which, so that the teachers might not cost anything, could
be well done by the sacristans," who would immediately be Indians
like the pupils, doubtless stupid in learning and incapable of
teaching the Catholic doctrine in Castilian? Now then, if those laws
were inefficient in the American districts, a country more compact,
could they be more efficient in Filipinas, which is composed of many
islands; could those means exercise more influence on the intellects
of those islanders who are of less capacity than the Americans, and
the latter were directly invaded by a constant and powerful stream
of civilization, catechised and administered by a numerous pleiad of
missionaries when the islands of Urdaneta and Legazpi did not receive
more than the residues or crumbs, which, both of the former and the
latter, came by way of Acapulco--in America with an invader who carried
almost all before him, and who tended by his number to cause the pure
primitive race to disappear, exactly the contrary to what occurs in
the Filipino country, where the native race, in an imposing mass,
is above all absorption, this idea being sufficient only so that not
even with very many means more powerful than those hitherto placed
in practice can they attain the effects which the laws demand?
Consequently, the laws were not adaptable to that country for which
they were not made, and not even was that country known when law
xviii was given. Neither have the means or factors which have been
put in play since, been in relation, even remote relation, with the
ends whose attainment is desired.
On one hand, the great scarcity of missionaries scattered among so
numerous islands (each one occupying a most extensive territory,
with scarcely any communication [with one another], with a work both
arduous and multiple, in all the orders, especially in the learning of
so diverse and most difficult languages, and the adaptation of these
languages in regard to their characters, phonetics, pronunciation,
etc., to our characters, spelling, etc., a knowledge attained afterward
by prolonged and constant phonological and philological studies),
abandoned to their own resources and energies, since it is known
that for many dozens of leguas there was no other Spaniard than the
missionary, occupied preferably in the administration of sacraments
and evangelization and the conservation of so numerous fields of
Christendom; on the other hand the means which the laws granted them,
entirely null and void, as has been shown, as is also the result
obtained by the last royal decree of 1686, by which it is newly ordered
"that schools be established and teachers appointed for the Indians, in
order to teach the Castilian language to those who would voluntarily
wish to learn it, in the way that may be of less trouble to them
and without expense;" and with this clause of voluntary instruction,
without trouble and without expense, since the natives were scattered
in so many and so distant villages or reductions, and had no teachers,
not since they knew the Castilian language, but that they could not
even know it except by a rudimentary method in their own language:
was there any possibility even that that beautiful language whose
knowledge would have freed the missionary from so many sorrows, from
so painful labor, from so continual anxieties as the detractors of
those orders cannot even imagine, could be taught? Notwithstanding,
it will be proved by unassailable documents that those missionaries
with some useless laws, most of them deficient, have obtained what no
one else could have obtained. Those religious orders, then, have not
been the enemies, but the great friends, of instruction. They Have not
been opposed, nor only slight lovers of its development, but decided
well-wishers, and even enthusiasts in its greater development; and
in order to achieve that, the missionaries and parish priests have
done that which very few, perhaps no one, could have done: namely,
to create schools wherever they preached the gospel; to support them
by all means, and even pay them from their scant savings; to bring to
a head all classes of philological work; to compile methods, grammars,
innumerable dictionaries, books of doctrine, of doctrinal discourses,
and many others which besides illuminating the understanding,
strengthened the souls in the faith, in accordance with the spirit
of those laws.
Furthermore, do the detractors of the religious believe that,
if the alcaldes, corregidors, and justices, threatened with very
severe penalties by those laws, were convinced of the fact that the
missionaries were opposed to the teaching in that part which was viable
or feasible, they would not have used their authority to punish,
correct, or prevent, that opposition? The ordinances above copied
are a copy of the laws given for America, as already mentioned, and
suffer in great measure from their peculiarity and lack of application,
especially in what regards the teaching of Castilian.
It was in every point impossible that, with the elements possessed
by the alcaldes-mayor, corregidors, and governors, they could have
observed ordinance 52 of the marquis of Obando. That ordinance contains
orders that are positively impracticable and even contradictory. On one
side it is ordered "that schools be erected where the children of the
natives may be educated (in primary letters in the Castilian language)
seeing to it that in this language and not in that of the country, or
in any other, they study, be taught, and educated, and that schools
of another language be not erected or started under penalty of 500
[pesos?] applied at the will of this superior government." This is
ordered absolutely and without any limitation in immense districts
where there is not a single school of Castilian, nor methods, nor
grammars, nor dictionaries, nor any other method of teaching that
language, nor teachers to teach it, nor scarcely any Indians who have
been able to learn it, as they have not had any great familiarity
with Spaniards who were prohibited by ordinance 29 from residing in
the villages of the Indians. This happened in the year 1752. That
prohibition was suppressed by the above-mentioned ordinance 52. By
the same ordinance was prescribed the quota which the communal
funds were to pay to the teachers, which makes one see immediately
the contradiction of the finality of the preceding order with that
stating "because as abovesaid, these languages must cease and shall
cease in proportion as schools for the Castilian language shall be
erected and established;" the only ones who were ordered to pay.
It results, therefore, quite evidently, both from the context of the
latter ordinance and from ordinance 17 of Arandía, and 25 and 93 of
Raón, that in the Filipino provinces and districts there were no
means of establishing instruction in Castilian; and that the only
schools which were ordered to be paid from the communal funds were
those which should be established with that instruction. Consequently,
neither the alcaldes and other justices threatened with very severe
penalties, and "the anger of the superior tribunals" nor the teachers
"condemned to make restitution of the pay which they had received,"
and punished according to the order of the alcaldes, could make in
their promises and villages those laws, given in the Peninsula and
in the official residence of the first authority of the islands,
viable or practicable. How many laws are there which are very
good and of elevated ends, but barren and unpractical, as they lack
practical meaning! However, in the midst of so many contradictions and
difficulties, in the midst of a work so toilsome and without rest,
in spite of the penury and scarcity which God alone can, and knows
how to, appreciate, in constant struggle with the elements and the
Moros, having to create it and conserve it all, it can be no less than
contemplated with pride by every good Spaniard that those heroic and
humble sons of España attended from the beginning of the conquest to
teaching with a zeal worthy of all praise.
A precious testimony of this is that mentioned by the erudite father
Augustín María, O.S.A. in his Historia del Insigne convento de San
Pablo de Manila [i.e., History of the glorious convent of San Pablo in
Manila], which is preserved unedited in the archives of said convent,
when he says: "In the same year (1571) was founded this convent and
church of San Pablo, which is the chief one of this province, the
capitular house for novitiates, and of studies in grammar, arts,
theology, and canons for Indians and creoles, until the Jesuits
came and opened public schools." Passing by those teaching centers
created in Manila by the religious orders scarcely yet born in those
islands, omitting the introduction of printing, a powerful means for
progress, by those orders, some decades after their establishment in
the islands, and limiting ourselves only to the creation of schools
and the progress of primary instruction, we do not fear to affirm
that before our legislators occupied themselves in giving laws for
teaching in Filipinas, laws had been proclaimed in the assemblies of
the religious orders. Before the famous ordinances of Obando and of
Raón had been published, the printing houses of the said orders had
already printed works entitled: Práctica del Ministerio que siguen
los religiosos del orden de N. P. S. Agustín en Philippinas [i.e.,
Practice of the ministry followed by the religious of the order of our
father St. Augustine in Philippinas]; and the Práctica de párrocos
dominicana [i.e., Practice of the Dominican parish priest]. Before
treating of one or the other it is a duty of historical justice
to discard the two above-cited laws given for the New World, the
first in 1550, fifteen years before the conquest of Filipinas, and
the second in 1634, and both recorded in the royal decree of 1686,
[84] given likewise for América and all extended to the archipelago
of Legazpi. Now then, much before those last dates, the Augustinian
order in its tenth provincial chapter, held May 9, 1596, in which the
reverend father, Fray Lorenzo de León, was elected provincial, among
the acts and resolutions which it established, which are capitular
laws, compulsory on all the religious of the province, was the
following: "It is enjoined upon all the ministers of Indians, that
just as the schoolboys are taught to read and write, they be taught
also to speak our Spanish language, because of the great culture
and profit which follow therefrom." That document was providentially
conserved in the secretary's office of the convent of San Pablo in
Manila, notwithstanding the devastation which that convent suffered
and the loss of precious documents during the English invasion.
They did not cease to hope for the abundant fruits which resulted
from such wise rules as the above, and the schools were created and
continued to increase in a remarkable manner. In order that there
might be uniformity in the method of teaching, in the Augustinian
provincial chapter, held in Manila in August 1712, the practice of the
ministry prescribed in the [provincial] chapter of April 19, 1698, was
ordered to be observed in definite terms. That was directed even in the
chapter held May 17, 1716, in which it was ordered by minute 21 that
the provincial elect, reverend father Fray Tomás Ortiz "should make a
Práctica del Ministerio" [i.e., Practice of the Ministry] and after it
was made to send it through the provinces, "so that all the religious
might observe it;" he did that, signing the circular which accompanied
said Práctica, at Tondo, August 10, of the abovesaid year. From this
Práctica, we copy the following paragraph in regard to the schools:
"Number 79. Not only by a decree of his Majesty, but also by his own
obligation, the minister must use all diligence and care in promoting
and conserving the schools for children in the villages. And when he
encounters difficulty in this, it will be advisable, and many times
necessary, for him to make use of the alcaldes-mayor, so that they
may obtain by their influence what the ministers could not obtain
in this matter by their own efforts. And if the parents refuse to
send their children, the ministers shall also be able to inform the
alcaldes-mayor [i.e., sub-alcaldes] of it in order that the latter
may force them to do it. And above all, the minister ought to be very
happy in contriving to conserve the schools, and in suffering with
patience the great resistance which is found among the natives to
the schools. It will be well to care for them with some expenses for
their conservation, for they are very useful and necessary." Beyond
this valuable paragraph are prescribed the days for school and the
hours and exercises in which the children are to be employed.
This same Práctica del Ministerio remarkably increased by its author,
the reverend father Fray Tomás Ortiz, was printed in "Manila, in
the convent of Nuestra Señora de los Angeles [i.e., Our Lady of the
Angels], in the year 1731," and we copy from it, for the eternal
and most valuable testimony in proof of our assertion, the principal
paragraph, which reads as follows:
"158. The father ministers, in fulfilment of their duty, are obliged
to procure, by all means and methods possible, and, if necessary,
by means of royal justices, that all the villages, both capitals
and visitas, shall have schools, and that all the boys attend them
daily. If the natives of the visitas refuse or are unable to support
schools, the boys of those visitas shall be obliged to go to the
schools of the capitals, for in addition to the schools being so
necessary as are attested by ecclesiastical and secular laws, the
absence of schools occasions many spiritual and temporal losses,
as is taught by experience. Among others, one is the vast ignorance
suffered in much of what is necessary for confession in order that
they may become Christians and live like rational people.
"In order to be able to conquer the difficulties which some generally
find in maintaining schools, it is necessary for the father ministers
to procure and solicit two things: one is that ministers be assigned
with salaries suitable for their support; the other is that the
children have primers or books for reading and paper for writing. When
these two things cannot be obtained by other means than at the cost
of the father ministers, they must not therefore excuse themselves
from giving what is necessary for the said two things. For, besides
the fact that they will be doing a great alms thereby, they will also
obtain great relief in the teaching of the boys, and will avoid many
spiritual and temporal losses of the villages, to which by their office
they are obliged. And if the end cannot be obtained without the means,
so also the schools cannot be obtained without any expense, or the
teaching of youth without the schools, or the spiritual welfare of
souls without the teaching, etc. For the same reasons respectively,
endeavor shall be made to maintain schools for little girls, which
shall be held in the houses of the teachers where they shall learn
to read and pray, for which great prudence is necessary."
Another very notable paragraph, in which are prescribed the days for
school, attendance, method, subjects, etc., follows this paragraph
which is worthy of the highest praise. That paragraph imposes the
obligation on the children of great practical sense, that after "mass
is finished (which they were to hear every day) they shall kiss the
father's hand. By this diligence the latter can ascertain those who
do not attend, and force them to attend, etc."
In order that one may see the rare unanimity existing among the
religious corporations in a matter as transcendental as is that of
education, it is very fitting to transcribe here some paragraphs of
the instructions which the reverend father, Fray Manuel del Río,
provincial at that time of the Dominicans, gave to his religious
under date of August 31, 1739, which were printed in Manila in the
same year, and which we have entitled Práctica del párroco dominicana
[i.e., Practice of the Dominican parish priest] as the valuable copy
which we possess has no title page. It reads as follows:
"The king, our sovereign, orders that there be schools in all the
villages of the Indians in order to teach them reading, writing, and
the doctrine. In those schools the ministers must work zealously and
earnestly, as it is a thing which is of so great importance for the
education and spiritual gain of their souls. Schools shall also be
established in the visitas, especially if they are large or distant
from the capital, and in those visitas which are furnished with no
schoolteacher because they are small or near the capital, the lads
shall be obliged to attend the school at the capital. All the lads,
whether chief or timaoas, must attend the school, and they, and their
parents or relatives must be obliged to do so, so that they may not
be exempted from that attendance by any excuse or pretext, except
the singers, who will be taught to read and write in the school of
the cantors. For the more exact fulfilment of this, a list shall be
made of those who ought to attend the school, and a copy of it shall
be given to the said teacher. This shall be read frequently in the
school, noting those who fail in order to punish them.
"In order to maintain said schools and the attendance of the lads
therein without the excuses which some generally offer of not having
primers, pens, or paper for writing, it is necessary for the minister
to solicit the one who has those things for sale in the village, for
those who can buy them. Those who find it impossible to do so shall
be furnished by the minister with those articles by way of alms, and
in that, besides the merit acquired by this virtue, he will gather
the fruit of the welfare and the gain of their souls.
"Girls' schools shall also be formed by causing them to go to the
house of their teacher, so that they may learn to read and sew, and
also learn the doctrine. But they shall not be obliged to attend church
daily, as are the boys, but only on Saturday or any other day assigned
for the reciting of the rosary and the examination in the doctrine."
It is to be noted that both provincials, as well as their successors,
imposed on their subjects the obligation to faithfully observe what
is prescribed in the Práctica and respective instructions, which
the ministers of the Lord fulfilled with especial solicitude and
constancy, since only in this way could they gather the most copious
fruits which we all admire.
The unity of thought and action which the religious corporations had in
a matter so primordial as is teaching is also to be noted. Evidently
it is to be inferred from those beautiful periods that the religious
were trying to pay the teachers, having recourse even to the alcaldes
when that was necessary; and when that could not be obtained they
themselves paid the teacher the fruit of his labors as well as
supplying also the children with everything necessary for their
instruction, such as primers, books, papers, pens, etc. For that, no
quota was put in the budget, since, as is seen, that most essential
datum is not mentioned in the laws, ordinances, and royal decrees
above given. It is also to be noted that, in the rules above cited,
there is no mention of other than boys' schools, but none for girls,
while all were alike considered, both of those of the capital or
villages and those of the barrios, with an equal vigilance by our
missionaries, who from the first, established compulsory attendance as
absolutely indispensable, in contradiction to the old laws, in which
was noted the tendency to liberty or non-compulsion, as is inferred
from the royal decree of November 5, 1782, [85] given for Charcas
(Méjico) and extended to Filipinas confirmed by the law of June 11,
1815, which cites it in its two extremes.
In this way those humble religious worked out the laws as much as
possible, although it cost them much, by rectifying what was not
viable and by supplying the deficiencies of those laws, especially
in the matters pertaining to the salaries of the teachers, and
payment for school supplies, which, on account of the scarcity of
funds from the treasury, the legislature was compelled to establish
as is established in this last royal decree above cited: "That, for
the salary of teachers, the products of foundations, where there
shall be any, be applied in the first place, and for the others,
the products of the property of the community, in accordance with the
terms of the laws." But since the foundations, in case there were any,
existed only in the capitals, which were at the same time the episcopal
residence, and the communal funds were in general exhausted, it was
the same thing as determining that the parish priests would continue
to pay the expenses from their poor living, or find some means which
would give that so desired and difficult result. This penury of the
treasury which was felt equally in España and in Filipinas obliged
his Majesty to extend to these islands the royal decree of October 20,
1817, which reads as follows:
"The existing state of exhaustion of my royal treasury does not permit
that so great a sum be set aside for the endowment of these schools
as would be necessary for so important an object; but the convents
of all the religious orders scattered throughout my kingdoms may in
great measure supply this impossibility...." There was no need to put
this royal decree in force in the Filipinas, since, in the majority
of the convents or parish houses, schools for boys had already been
established in their lower part, and those for girls in the houses
of the women teachers, and other houses made for that purpose. It
is but right to note how much the missionary always labored for the
education of the woman whose better gifts he recognized always. He
created numerous schools for her instruction, and paid for them
from his living, quite contrary to the total inattention which the
administration paid to the schools and teachers for girls, until the
regulations of December 20, 1863 were formulated, the eighth article
of which orders that "there shall be a boys' school and another school
for girls in every village, whatever its number of souls."
Article 2 of these regulations, [86] quite distinct from the path of
the ancient legislation, recognized, in accordance with the conduct
and laws of the religious orders, the necessity of establishing
compulsion in primary teaching; and firm in this principle, it
ordered that "the primary instruction should be compulsory for all
the natives, to the degree that the inattendance of the child might
be penalized by virtue of art. 2, with the fine of from one-half to
two reals." Neither is the legislation exclusive with relation to the
study of Castilian, as is seen by the context of its art. 3; it ordains
education gratis to the poor by art. 4; and the well-to-do shall pay
the teacher a moderate monthly fee, which shall be prescribed by the
governor of each province, after conferring with the parish priest
and gobernadorcillo. Paper, copybooks, ink, and pens shall be given
free to all the children by the teacher, who, at the proper time,
shall receive for this service one duro per month, for every child
who writes, in accordance with the ruling made by a decree of the
superior government, February 16, 1867. Very suitable measures were
to be taken, all in accord with the action of the parish priest,
in order not to give any occasion for fraud. That was a very well
taken resolution, for it stimulated the zeal of the teacher, who
received on this account a sum not to be despised, which, together
with the quota of the well-to-do children and the monthly pay which
he received, according to art. 22, consisting of 12, 15, and 20 pesos,
according as the school of which he was in charge was entrada, ascenso,
or término, he received a pay quite sufficient for his needs, enjoying
in addition, by art. 23, a free dwelling-house for himself and family,
and in due season the pension prescribed by art. 24.
Article 32 determines the powers of the parish priest as local
supervisor, which, although they were conceded with a certain timidity,
were perhaps believed to be excessive or unnecessary, and it seems
its abolition was clearly agreed upon by art. 12 in declaring the
municipal captain "supervisor of the schools." This blow must be
judged as a very strong one in the lofty governmental spheres of
the islands, for the genuine representation of the parish priests in
the villages is one of the functions most natural to their charge,
both as teachers of the Catholic doctrine and ethics, and in the role
of traditional supporters of the schools, although in art. 102 was
established the following as an explanation to art. 12 of the decree:
"Without prejudice to the supervision which belongs in the instruction
to the parish priests according to the regulations of December 1863,
whose powers are not at all altered, the tribunal shall watch carefully
over primary instruction; shall demand the teaching of Castilian in the
schools; shall oblige the inhabitants to send their children to them;
and shall stimulate instruction by means of adequate examinations and
rewards. Said tribunal shall place in operation the most practical
means for the diffusion of the Spanish language among the inhabitants,
deciding upon those means in meetings with the parish priests and
the delegates of the principalía."
At first view one observes the good desire which the author of said
article shelters when he says that the powers conceded to the parish
priest as supervisor of schools by art. 20 of the regulations of
the same shall not be changed in any point, without perceiving that
directly afterward it created another authority in opposition to
that of the parish priest, if not with all the powers of the latter,
because those which he possesses as teacher in ethics and the doctrine
do not admit of transmission, yet clearly of all the others, and in
them with prior rank.
It is evident that, by the context of this article, the power of
"watching carefully over primary instruction" is conceded to the
captain, which is identical with the first part of art. 32 of the
school regulations conceded to the parish priest which reads as
follows: "To visit the schools as often as possible." This is the
first part of that article, and the second part "and to see that the
regulations are observed," whose art. 3 orders that "the teachers shall
have special care that the pupils have practical exercise in speaking
the Castilian language," is of identical meaning and effect with the
power conceded to the captain, which declares, "he shall demand that
Castilian be taught in the schools." This power is followed by those of
"he shall compel the inhabitants to send their children to the schools,
and shall stimulate instruction by means of adequate examinations
and rewards;" both powers similar to those which are conceded to the
parish priests by the third part of said art. 32, which declares,
"To promote the attendance of children at the schools." To supplement
this with the compulsory virtue, he is authorized by art. 2, explained
and ratified in No. 3 of the decree of the superior government of
August 30, 1867, to be able to admonish and compel parents, who are
slow in sending their children to the schools, by means of fines from
one-half to two reals, and that which is conceded to him, in accordance
with annual examinations, by art. 13, and art. 7 of the decree of the
superior government, of May 7, 1871, which declares: "The reverend
and learned parish priests, accompanied by the gobernadorcillos and
by the principalías of the villages, shall visit the schools monthly,
shall hold examinations every three months, etc." By this one can
see that the parish priest conserves the first place, even in this,
over the gobernadorcillo and principalía, by whom he is accompanied,
in order to give more luster to the ceremony. That happens in no act
or meeting of the present municipality, in which the parish priest has
no other functions than those of intervention and counsel, included in
that which is signified in the last paragraph of the above-mentioned
art. 102, which says when referring to the municipal captain: "He
shall put in force the most practical means for the diffusion of the
Spanish language among the inhabitants, agreeing upon those means in
meetings with the parish priests and delegates of the principalía;"
and although it is established that the creation of the Sunday
schools of which art. 29 of the regulations speaks, which are also
of the intervention of the parish priest, as are the boys' schools,
falls completely to his share, as the means, if not sole, yet the
one most efficacious and of practical application, it would result
as in all the other powers which have been enumerated as conceded to
the parish priest by the school regulations and to the captain by
decree and municipal regulations--it would result, we say--at each
step in an encounter and rivalry in which the parish priests would
come out second best, for the simple reason, repeated to satiety in
innumerable articles of the decree and municipal regulations, that
the action of the parish priest is nothing more than supervision and
counsel, [87] with the added abasement that "his presence shall not
be included in the number of those who shall concur in the validity
of the deliberations," as is prescribed by art. 49 of the decree
and 64 of the regulations. Sad then, is, and at once, graceless, the
function of the parish priest compared to the action of the captain
and of the board which is executive.
It seems unnecessary to say that the action and powers of the parish
priest in his duties as local supervisor of schools result in the
theoretical legal sphere of action, completely null and void, and
that action carried to the practical field of action exposes it
to continual rivalries, numerous frictions, and even deep quarrels
between two authorities, who in that, as in everything which belongs
to the multiple affairs of the village, ought to be in perfect accord,
as is demanded jointly by the lofty interests of religion and of the
fatherland, of the spiritual welfare and of the material order and
peace of the villages.
And as that duality, besides being shameful and lowering for the
parish priests, is inviolable, and since by another part art. 12 of
the decree and 102 of the regulations, both above cited, in the form
in which they have been compiled, do not fill any need or space,
as all that which is ordained therein is a repetition of what has
been already decreed, there is no reason for their existence, to the
evident common harm, and to the small shame of the parish priest,
who deserves eternal gratitude for his labors, for his solicitude,
and for the zeal which he has ever displayed, and in the midst of
the greatest sacrifices, for the instruction.
Nearly three centuries, since 1565, when the first Augustinians,
the companions of Legazpi and Salcedo reached the Filipinas shores,
until 1863, the year in which regulations were first made for primary
instruction, outlined only hitherto in numerous laws and royal decrees
which it was impossible to fulfil, as is proved, for almost three
centuries, we say, of bold zeal bordering on the inconceivable, of
constant anxiety and watching, of unusual effort, which borders on
the heroic, and with remarkable expenses never paid back, ignored
by most people, and recognized and praised by very few: are these
not sufficient, not only so that the liberty to exercise the noblest
charge which Church and fatherland have confided to them for centuries
in the teaching of the schools, which is intimately associated with
the teaching in the pulpit, be conceded to the parish priests, but
that also by justice illumined by gratitude, the necessary law, moral
force, aid, and support, for the exercise, with perfect repose and
without any impediment, and more, without any asperity and struggle,
of that sacred duty so full of trouble and bitterness for him, so full
of results most beneficial for religion and fatherland, be conceded to
him? If, then, one desire to concede to the parish priest the position
which is in justice due him in education, if there is to be granted
to the missionary that which the most rudimentary gratitude urges,
it is of imperious necessity that that mortifying and abasing duality
be radically destroyed, for it renders useless all the energies of
the parish priest supervisor, and stifles his noble and disinterested
aid offered without tax for the service of the holy ideals of God and
fatherland. Perhaps the parish priest is deprived of this salutary
intervention because such intervention is believed unnecessary,
superfluous or prejudicial to the lofty interests of the fatherland
or of the well-being of the native? Today necessarily more than ever,
through the deep-colored dripping of the blood of the insurrection,
[88] one can see with the clearness of noonday that the intervention
of the parish priest ought to be established in all the orders, in
order that it might again take the lofty position which was overthrown
thirty years ago. Is it, perhaps, because the intervention of the
parish priests will be a barrier, or obstacle, even to the sustained
mark of true progress in education in general, or of Castilian in
particular? But this is perfectly utopian, and even an argument now of
bad taste. The religious orders enemies of true progress! Perhaps they
are not the ones who in their teaching have created everything today
existing in Filipinas? Are not the religious corporations those who
have always formed their ranks in the vanguard of science, and today
especially both in the Peninsula, and in the Magellian Archipelago,
do not numerous colleges nourish with special predilection on the
part of the public? As an incontestible proof of this truth, let one
concede without difficulty what shall afterwards be proposed as a
supplement of that existing today.
The argument of Castilian is a mythical argument of more than long
standing, since it has been proved quite clearly during the preceding
centuries that there has been an absolute lack of material for teaching
it. The patronizing enthusiasts of the Castilian, who think it to be a
panacea, so that the Indian may learn everything and obtain the social
height of the peoples of another race and of other capacities, and who
are persuaded, or appear to be so, that "what is of importance above
all else is that the Indian learn Castilian in order to understand
and to identify himself with the Castila," are laboring under a
false belief. We sincerely believe that the native, if he once come
to understand the Castila in the genuine meaning of the word, will
never come to identify himself with them. Thus it was explained
by a distinguished man of talent, both illustrious and liberal,
Don Patricio de la Escosura, [89] the least monastic man in España
and the one most favorable to the friars in Filipinas of his epoch,
as he himself declared in most ample phrase; a man of government
and administration, who throwing aside as was proper the vulgar
opinion that the friars were opposed to the teaching of Castilian,
assigned in his famous Memoria on Filipinas "of the parish priests,
I say, little must be expected in this matter;" in order to affirm
as follows: "And by this I do not pretend, and much less, deny to
them their apostolic zeal, their desire for the common good, and the
importance of the services which they have lent to religion and the
mother country, and are lending and may lend in the future;" and adding
some years later in his prologue to the small work Recuerdos [i.e.,
Remembrances] which could better be entitled Infundios [i.e., Fables]
of Señor Cañamaque: "Let the friars in the archipelago be suppressed,
and that country will soon be an entirely savage region of the globe,
where there will scarcely remain a vestige or perhaps a remembrance of
Spanish domination. That is a truth, for all those who know and judge
impartially concerning the archipelago, of axiomatic authority." And
that truth established, he immediately asked: "Why then is not that
force utilized, in whose existence and supreme efficacy all agree? Why
are not the friars charged as much as possible with the responsibility
of the immense authority which they in fact exercise by associating
them officially and in reasonable terms with the governmental
and administrative action in Filipinas?" Why? For a very simple
reason. Because governments, like ministers of the crown and royal
commissaries in Filipinas, like Señor Escosura, suffer prejudices and
embrace opinions so original and vulgar as that of the opposition of
the religious corporations to the teaching of Castilian, a universal
panacea as abovesaid, to knowing everything, and which will enable the
native to conquer every sort of obstacle; for this most clear talent,
and we say it truly, caused to be based on the ignorance of Castilian
"so much ignorance and so absurd superstitions at the end of three
centuries, and in spite of the efforts of the Spanish legislator to
civilize the Indians. So long as the Indian," he adds, "speaks his
primitive language, it is approximately impossible to withdraw him
completely from his prejudices, from his superstition, erroneous ideas,
and the puerilities belonging to the savage condition. So long as he
understands the Castilian with difficulty, ... how can he have clear
notions of his duties, and of his rights--he who cannot understand
the laws more than by the medium of some interpreter?..."
What candor and how little understanding of the native, or what excess
of political or party idea!
That illustrious statistician believed that the knowledge of
Castilian and the unity of the language could not be in any time a
favorable base for the insurrection, which was one of the contrary
arguments which he was opposing, for, he was asserting in general
that "neither the population through its number, nor the native
race through its nature and special conditions, are here capable
of independence at any time. This country is not a continent, but
an archipelago. Its diverse provinces are for the greater part,
distinct islands; ... and so long as there is a Spanish military
marine in these waters, supposing that any serious insurrection
should arise (which seems to me highly improbable) there is nothing
easier than to circumscribe it to the locality in which it should
be born, and consequently to stifle it in its cradle." A few lines
afterwards he says: "The Indians here, I repeat, can never become
independent. They feel that also for the present, although perhaps
they do not understand it; and furthermore by instinct they prefer
at all times Spaniards to foreigners, on whom they look moreover
with unfavorable caution." What an illusion, and what an enormous
disillusion! How great would be the deception of Señor Escosura if
he would come to life in his grave! Without troubling us with the
argument of the Castilian, or taking into account the circumstances
that he lays down in regard to the multiplicity of islands which
are extremely unfavorable for their defense, according to his way of
thinking, what would he say now if he lifted his head and observed that
the knowledge of Castilian has been considerably extended--perhaps
four times as much as when he went as royal commissary to Filipinas,
in order to write that Memoria; that, if not the lawyers, the men of
most letters and knowledge of Castilian, the intelligent, and those
of the most cultured native society, in which figures a numerous
pleiad composed of advocates, physicians, pharmacists, painters,
engravers, normal and elementary teachers, municipal captains,
past-captains, cuadrilleros, [90] and hundreds more of those who
understand one another and are in the way of identifying themselves
with the Castila, as Señor Escosura would say, are the leaders, are
those who captain and direct the enormous native multitudes who are
related to them in thought and action, and stimulate and spread that
bloody rebellion which is spreading through all the islands like an
immense spot of oil, in spite of the fact that they are so numerous
and are defended by a respectable squadron; of that insurrection,
which scarcely born and without arms, presents itself powerful, and
armed in the greater part of Luzón and certain other provinces, and
latent or masked in all the remaining provinces; of that insurrection
which without any preamble of liberties, and of little more than
two years of limited exercise of municipal autonomy, is beginning
to proclaim and demand independence, and passing to active life is
establishing a government and is exercising perfect dominion for more
than one-half year in an entire province a few leguas from Manila,
at the very foot of a strong fort and under the fire of its arsenal,
in spite of the numerous squadron which touches its coasts. What would
the author of that Memoria, abounding in liberties and so ample in his
criticism, say? He would say much of that which he then censured in his
opponents. He would ingenuously and solemnly assert in the face of the
bloody panorama of so enormous hetacombs that he had been deceived,
and he would even add that it is at least rash to sow the winds,
which become, as a logical sequel, fatal whirlwinds to finish us;
that the implanting of a certain class of reforms and liberties is a
rash work; and would adduce the reason which he gave in the above-cited
prologue when treating in regard to the difficulty of implanting with
result in those islands "certain literary and scientific professions;"
namely, "that given the physical and intellectual qualifications of
their race, it would be rash to expect that they would ever compare
with Europeans. The Indian learns much more readily than we do; but
he forgets with the same readiness, and retrogrades to his primitive
condition." It seems impossible how a man of so clear judgment and so
exact concepts in regard to persons could stumble so transcendently
as is found throughout in his Memoria. How powerful is the strength
of consistency. The political ideal, like the sectarian, annuls the
deepest and most righteous convictions.
But let us turn backwards a piece to pick up an end not allowed to fall
to chance. We said that, as a proof that the religious orders have
neither now nor ever been opposed to the teaching, one would concede
without difficulty what we are going to set forth as a supplement of
what exists today.
It is known by all, and is demonstrated quite clearly, that the
traditional laws for teaching, if admirably penetrated by the spirit,
profoundly Catholic, of their epoch, were very deficient, and in no
small measure impracticable in Filipinas, because they lack almost
all the means indispensable for the happy attainment which legislators
and missionaries ardently desired; equally notorious is it, and also
demonstrated, that the absolute lack of legal rules and regulations to
facilitate their obligation accentuated more strongly the deficiency
of those laws. We say legal, because the few regulations that there
were, and which were practiced, were those of which mention has
already been made in the Práctica del Ministerio of 1712, circulated
as was compulsory, by their provincial among the Augustinian parish
priests, revised in the provincial chapter of 1716, and amplified and
printed in 1731; and the Instrucciones morales y religiosas [i.e.,
Moral and religious Instructions], [91] printed in 1739 for the use
of the Dominican fathers--a lamentable lack which disappeared with
the publication of the regulations of December 20, 1863.
This law which was successively perfected by numerous decrees of the
superior government of the islands, especially by generals Izquierdo,
Gándara, and Weyler, who were filled with the praiseworthy desire for
the teaching; this law together with the opening of the Suez Canal,
which has produced a notable increase in the European population,
[92] and by this and by the facility of numerous communications and
most valuable commercial transactions, has been an abundant fount of
education and progress, which must be perfected and heightened so
that what ought to be an abundant and beneficial irrigation for so
valuable possessions may not be converted into a devastating torrent.
But even after this which we might call a giant's step in the history
of the Filipinas, their progress and their relations with Europa,
within the islands even, very much still needs to be done. It is a
fact that the coasting trade steam vessels have acquired an increase
more considerable than could have been imagined twenty years ago,
while the sail-coasting trade has not been diminished for this reason,
but increased. But just as the maritime communications have acquired
great facility, communications by land have deteriorated not a little,
and the neighborhood roads of all the islands have been falling into
complete neglect since the day when the days of forced labor began
to be reduced, and this tax became redeemable [in money].
If the greater number of roads in good condition with their
corresponding log bridges over the creeks and the simple plank
over the narrow valleys are absolutely indispensable for commercial
transactions, for the advisable development of primary instruction, the
capital is the constant attendance of the children at the school. In
order that this may be attained, it is quite necessary to construct
those roads, for in their majority they have no existence, and where
they have fallen into neglect they must be made passable alike for
the dry season and for the rainy season, prohibiting and rigorously
fining the owners of the adjacent fields who cut the roads in order
to make fields or runnels of water for the same. This being done,
it is equally necessary that the small barrios and isolated groups of
dwellings be grouped together, thus forming large barrios; or those
already existing be united in such manner that they form districts
of seventy to eighty citizens as a minimum.
Not a little labor and repeated orders will it cost to form these
groups, since it is known that the native feels as no one else
the homesickness for the forest, an effect perhaps of his humid
temperament, perhaps the reminiscence of his primitive condition;
and when this is done, to establish municipal schools for both sexes
in all the barrios which consist of more than one hundred citizens,
or uniting two for this purpose, which are distant more than three
kilometers from the central schools or from the village, which is
the distance demanded by the law for the compulsory attendance of the
children. These Schools, with the necessary conditions of ventilation,
capacity, and security, ought to be erected by the respective
municipalities, in accordance with the simple lithograph plans which
must be furnished gratis by the body of civil engineers which shall
be conserved, as was formerly done, in the archives of said tribunals,
in order that they might be used when the time came. The men and women
teachers who shall be normal [graduates] shall have the option of
petitioning these posts, and if they should not be supplied with them,
the former teacher may petition them under the condition of capacity,
which they shall prove by a preceding examination held before the
provincial board of primary instruction, in case that they shall not
already have stood a prior examination. Both of them shall be suitably
paid according to circumstances, and that quota shall be completed
with another small particular quota from each well-to-do child.
It is of great convenience for the ends of fitness, and especially of
morality, that men or women teachers shall not be appointed either in
the villages or in the barrios of the villages, without a previous
report of the parish priests of their native towns, to the effect
that they do not fall short of the age of twelve years, and naming
the villages where they shall have been resident; and that the parish
priests have the power of suspending them, according to the tenor of
the second authorization of art. 32 of the school regulations and the
superior decree of August 30, 1867, informing the provincial supervisor
for the definitive sentence, if this last measure of rigor shall have
been used; naming or recommending, according to the cases of casual
or definitive suspension, the substitute with his respective pay.
An unequivocal proof that the religious corporations not only are
not trying to escape the instruction, but that they are promoting it
with all their strength, is that they believe and sustain both in
Manila and in the provinces, numerous schools and refuges for both
sexes. And so that so praiseworthy desires, as the said corporations
are found to possess in this matter, may have a happy outcome,
and so that the provinces may reckon an abundant seminary of the
youth of both sexes, which in due time shall be converted into an
intelligent and capable staff of teachers, which shall have as its
base morality and unconditional love for España, who shall cause
those two sacred loves--love of virtue and love of fatherland--to
spring up in the hearts of their pupils, not only should the
above-mentioned corporations be empowered but also furnished all the
means of establishing normal schools for men and women teachers in the
principal provinces of the archipelago, under the direction and care
of those corporations, in order by this means to assure the Catholic
and social education, which carry with themselves a deep and abiding
love for España.
No one, in better conditions than the religious orders, who by means
of the parish priests are at the front of the villages, can proceed
with more accuracy and knowledge of the cause in the selection of
the youth who shall people those schools, for no one, better than
the parish priests, has a more perfect knowledge of the moral and
intellectual conditions of those youth and of their inclinations and
ancestral inheritance from their forbears, the absolutely necessary
factors for obtaining the beneficent result which it is desired to
obtain, namely, the most complete moral, intellectual, and truly
conceived patriotic regeneration, profoundly disturbed by a not
small number of causes, which rapidly developing within the envenomed
surrounding of masonry, and powerfully pushed forward by that impious
sect, have produced grievous days for España and Filipinas, in which
the precious blood of their sons has been abundantly shed, causing
thereby enormous expenses to the Peninsula, and a half century of
retrogression for the islands, together with the infamous blot of
the highest ingratitude of its rebellious sons. Now more than ever
is this means of regeneration demanded.
And we faithfully believe that that means of regeneration ought to
be placed in practice as soon as possible, the government removing
on its part every kind of obstacle, especially of documents and
information. That is the point on which these initiatives are
wrecked, or are indefinitely detained, as happened to the zealous and
untiring Señor Gainza in regard to his school of Santa Isabel--the
normal school for women teachers in Nueva Cáceres--who after having
struggled for a long time in the offices of the superior government,
of administration, instruction, and engineers, was compelled to
resolve his cherished project by presenting it personally to Queen
Doña Isabel, who fully and kindly acceded to his supplication, and
even thus with the valuable license of her Majesty communicated in
due form, that eminent prelate still met all sorts of difficulties,
from the provincial chief, which only disappeared with his departure
from the same. In order that these labors might have a homogeneous
result and those normal schools respond efficaciously to the concept
of the fatherland, it is not advisable that the instruction in them
be given by others than Spanish corporations, and consequently, by
Spanish religious, who are the ones who can really impress that love,
prohibiting, as a consequence of this standard, the teaching of the
schools already established, be they private or not, from being given
in any other language than the Spanish, or in ordinary conversation,
that any other language than the Castilian be used, without this at
all preventing other languages from being taught.
For the better order, progress, and homogeneity, it is indispensable
that one bear in mind the capacity of the natives, in order to assign
the list of studies which they are to take. That must be proportioned
in all institutions to their nature, and those studies, as is evident,
must be suppressed, which either give an unadvisable or useless
result, because of being outside the intellectual sphere of the
native. Still more evident is the necessity of the instruction for
the natives obeying a uniform plan of method and social education,
in order to avoid ill feeling among the teaching communities, and
peculiarities and comparisons, which by themselves are always odious,
and which cause not a little mischief among the natives, who, if they
are not distinguished by their character and reasoning, yet are by
nature very observant, and lay great stress on all external details,
so that without troubling themselves in seeking the cause, they form
their opinion or standard; and from that time on they will not be
inclined toward those things which the masons and separatists are
pursuing with the greatest of rancor by finding in those same things
more obstacles for the attainment of their evil purposes.
The list of studies, as well as the method of teaching and
of education will be the first and immediate end of the studies,
opinion, and formula which the Superior Board of Public Instruction
shall bear to its conclusion with singular interest. This board
shall form the consequent schedules and above-mentioned methods,
which it shall subject to the approbation of the general government
of the archipelago.
The abovesaid superior board may be composed of the following
gentlemen: the archbishop of Manila; the intendant of the public
treasury; the president of the Audiencia; civil governor of Manila;
secretary of the superior government; one councilor of administration;
the provincials of the Augustinians, Franciscans, Dominicans, and
Recollects; the rectors of the university, of the normal school,
and of the seminary. To it shall be submitted the revision of the
present schedules, both for the normal schools and in so far as the
schedules of the studies of primary and secondary and higher education
need to be revised; and at the same time the method of teaching and
of education for both sexes, the execution of which, as I have just
said, will be accomplished under the character of its importance and
immediate necessity.
The attention of every studious and observing man, who has lived in
residence in the Filipino provinces, is not a little struck by the
excessive number of young men, who having taken more or less courses
in Manila, but without concluding the course begun, or even taking
the degree of bachelor, after their parents have spent considerable
sums on them, return to their villages with very little or no virtue,
but with many vices. At first sight one notes in these young men an
irritating radical attitude and a freedom mixed with unendurable
arrogance and vanity. Their fellow countrymen, whom they disdain
because they possess, although in a superficial manner, the Castilian
speech full of phrases and sounds, which would make the most reserved
Viscayan laugh, and of high-sounding words which they use without
understanding their real significance, immediately look up to them as
so many Senecas. They are persuaded that they are perfect gentlemen,
for by dint of seeing them practiced they have learned a few social
formulas; they wear a cravat, and boots, and pantaloons of the
latest style. For the rest, they are completely devoid of fundamental
knowledge, and of the fundamentals of knowledge in the studies which
they have taken, and have acquired only a slight tint of the part, let
us say the bark of those studies, which they conclude by forgetting
in proportion as time passes and their passions increase. These
young men who forget what they have learned with so great facility,
do not, as a general rule, devote themselves to any work, for they
do not like work and cannot perform any; for the habits that they
have contracted are very different--habits of pastime, idleness,
and the waste of their paternal capital. In such condition are those
who, as a rule, furnish the contingent of the staff of those who are
employed without pay, of aspirants, and amanuenses with little pay
of the offices and municipalities, while the most intelligent and
skilful devote themselves to making writs for parties in litigation,
a very handy matter, and one never finished among the natives, not
even by force of many deceptions and the loss of great interests.
And that our opinion is not formed from the smoke of straw, and
lightly, is proved by the numerous lists of matriculations which
accompany the conscientious and well written memorials by trustworthy
Dominican fathers, especially those which were published in the
years 1883 and 1887, because of the expositions of Amsterdam and
Filipinas, in Madrid. We cannot resist the temptation to transcribe
here a valuable paragraph, which wonderfully meets our purpose. It
is taken from the writing signed by the excellent Dominican, Father
Buitrago, for the last-mentioned exposition. It is as follows: "The
first thing which offers itself to the consideration of the reader,
is the multitude of the inscriptions of matriculation, and the small
proportionate number of approvals. On this point, the first thing that
offers is to investigate the causes of that disproportion, which is
a great surprise to those who are ignorant of the special conditions
under which secondary teaching in this country is found. Many of the
young men who matriculate for it, have scarcely any or no desire to
obtain a passing mark in their courses, their only object being to
learn the Castilian language, and to know, in order that they may
afterward occupy a more important position in their villages, some of
the customs of the Spaniards. Those who come to Manila with the decided
intention of terminating a literary career are relatively very few. In
this matter their families exact but little also. And then there is
added the method of living in this place, crowded together in their
greatest part in private houses under the nominal vigilance of their
landlords or landladies, as they call the owners of the houses in which
they are lodged. Consequently, not few in this capital are reared in
idleness and learn the vices of Europeans without taking on their good
qualities. The rector of the university can do nothing on this point,
for the rules allow students to matriculate two or three times or even
more often, in the same course, in spite of their not passing in it."
Before such an inundation of wise men, whose scholastic modesty suffers
with a serene mind and with immovable resignation [resignación de
estuco] three and more failures in one study, there is no other
means, since the lash cannot be legally used, or the oak rod of
the oldtime dominie, than to put in practice a salutary strictness
in the examinations of the secondary education, and to revise the
regulations more strictly, in order thereby to free the provinces of
that inundation of learning which parches the fields for lack of arms
to work them, uses up the savings of the wealthy families, fills the
villages with vampires who suck the sweat of the poor or careless with
impunity, increases the lawsuits and ill feeling in the villages,
makes of the municipalities and offices a workshop of intrigue,
and gives a numerous contingent to the lodges and to separatism.
And as the above-mentioned author of the said Memoria adds: "It is
apparent to us at times that (the rector) actively negotiated to
subject the lodging houses for students to one set of regulations,
in order to watch over their moral and literary conduct better; but
such efforts have had no result;" it is thoroughly necessary to create
a law, in which the rector shall be authorized to extend his zeal,
vigilance, and action to such houses, and also to subject all the
day students of Manila, without distinction of establishments, to the
university police of the rector and his agents, reëstablishing in this
regard the ancient university right. For that purpose, full powers
ought to be given to the rector, so that, now by himself in faults
of less degree, and now by the university Council in the greater,
he may impose academical fines, and even ask the aid of public force
in case of necessity, beginning by demanding from each young man who
wishes to matriculate, the certificate or report of good conduct given
by the parish priest of the village whence he comes. This requirement
is of exceptional advisability, not only for the general ends of the
instruction, but also for the more perfect selection of the persons
who, on devoting themselves to the noble employment of teaching,
shall form the understanding and the heart of future generations.
Only in this manner can we succeed in getting the Filipino youth to
acquire the conditions and habits of morality and study, until they
reach the end of their capacity. Only in this manner can we succeed
in giving to the fatherland, grateful children, to Filipinas, honored
citizens, to society, useful members, to families, children who honor
the white hairs of their parents, and to the public posts a suitable
staff, without pretensions, and faithful in the performance of their
duties; and that they shall be consequently, fervent Catholics,
who shall never forget what the parish priest taught them when they
were children, in his simple doctrinal lessons, and who shall be heard
afterwards to repeat to their teachers, to bless the divine cross which
illumined their intellects and saved their souls, and to bless España,
which amid the folds of its yellow banner or crowning its standards,
brought the cross triumphant to those shores, and with it Christian
civilization and true progress.
II
"Until the end of the year 1863 in which was dictated the memorable
royal decree, which established a plan of primary instruction in
Filipinas, and which arranged for the creation of schools of primary
instruction in all the villages of the islands, and the creation
of a normal school in Manila, whence should graduate well-educated
and religious teachers who should take the foremost places in those
institutions, it might be said that there had been no legislation in
regard to primary instruction in these islands. For, although it is
certain that precepts directed to the attainment of education by the
natives, and very particularly the teaching of the beautiful Spanish
language, are not lacking (some of those precepts being contained in
the Leyes de Indias, and in the edicts of good government), it is a
fact that those precepts are isolated arrangements without conclusions,
the product of the good desire which has always animated the Spanish
monarchs and their worthy representatives in the archipelago for the
advancement and prosperity of these islands, but without resting upon
a firm foundation for lack of the elements for its existence.
"Before the above-mentioned epoch the reverend and learned parish
priests of the villages came to fill in great measure and voluntarily
the noble ends of propagating primary instruction throughout these
distant regions by the aid of their own pupils, the most advanced of
whom dedicated themselves to the teaching of their fellow citizens,
although they received but very little remuneration for their work
and care, and there was no consideration of teachers or titles which
accredited them as such." [93]
In fact the religious corporations in Filipinas were those who busied
themselves with the interest which the matter deserved in primary
instruction, which was abandoned almost entirely by the authorities
until the year 1863, notwithstanding the repeated recommendations,
orders, and laws of our monarchs and of the Councils of Indias. The
religious were the first teachers of primary letters in Filipinas,
as they were afterwards in secondary instruction, in the superior
teaching with faculties, and in the principal arts and trades which
the Indians learned. By the advice of the religious, the villages
constructed the first schools. The religious directed the works; they
gave the instruction, until they had pupils who could be substituted
for them and leave them free for the spiritual administration of
the faithful; and they, the religious, paid the wages of those
improvised teachers, without official title or character as such,
but sufficiently instructed to teach the tiny people their first
letters, and to succeed in obtaining that seventy-five per cent of
the inhabitants [of the Filipino village] might learn how to read and
write correctly. Señor Hilarión, [94] archbishop of Manila, was able
to say to the most excellent Ayuntamiento of that city when provincial
of the calced Augustinians: "There are multitudes of villages, such
as Argao, Dalaguete, and Bolhoon, in Cebú, and many in the province
of Iloilo, in which it is difficult to find a single boy or girl who
does not know how to read or write, an advantage which many cities
of our España have not yet succeeded in obtaining."
The pay that the religious could give to the teachers educated by
them was moderate, but in faith none of the detractors of the monastic
corporations of Filipinas had given as much, or even the half, for so
beneficial a work. The religious not only provided large, roomy, and
ventilated places for the primary instruction of the two sects, and
acted as teachers until the most advanced pupils could use something
of what was supplied them in teaching, but also provided the schools
with the suitable and necessary furnishings in which the industry
and genius of the parish-priest regular came to aid their pecuniary
appeals and the absolute lack of the materials for teaching. There
was no ink, paper, or pens. The first was not necessary for the new
papyrus, which was no other than the magnificent leaf of the banana,
and the pen was a small bit of bamboo cut in the manner of a pen. From
each leaf of the banana they could get twenty or thirty pages of a
larger size than those of Iturzaeta. On the other side of the leaf,
covered with fine down and smooth as that of velvet, the Indians
wrote their letters with the bamboo cut in the form of a pen or of
the ancient stylus. What was thus written was not very permanent,
nor was there any need that it should be, for the copy pages were
not kept as a justification of the expenses of writing allowed by
the teachers according to rule later, because of the distrustful or
cautious official administration. Since the material was plentiful
and free the children were allowed to write as many pages as they
wished. More, in fact, they would be seen seated and writing at all
hours of the day, not only in their houses, but also in the square,
in the street, on the roads, for in all parts they had ready at hand
bananas and bamboos, and a stone or any other kind of an object was
used as a desk. And, since the aptitude of the native Filipino is
so remarkable for imitation, and his patience so great, they did
not stop their writing until they imitated ours with the greatest
perfection. The religious also wrote the books and primers for their
reading, formerly in manuscript, then printed in their own dialect,
so that they might profit from the maxims and doctrine, and history
and religion, in proportion as they became proficient in reading.
Notwithstanding, after 1863, when the government took charge of
education, and the normal school directed by the Jesuit fathers
provided the villages with normal teachers under official title and
pay, the religious ceased to continue to foment education in their
villages, yet not only as local supervisors, with which character they
were invested by the memorable decree of that date--the foundation of
all the circulars, decrees, and instructions which afterward fell upon
that historical document in a vast jumble--but also since the boys
and girls of the barrios distant from the villages twenty kilometers
and sometimes more, were not able on account of the distance to be
present at the official school, did the parish-priest religious,
attentive and vigilant, hasten in their anxiety to supply with their
pecuniary resources the official deficiencies in every barrio or
visita. They had schools built of light materials but solid and well
built, in which teachers, both male and female, appointed and paid
by the parish priests, gave primary instruction in reading, writing,
and arithmetic; and sewing and embroidery to the girls. Finally,
the parish priests also supplied them with paper, pens, ink, books,
thread, needles, and all the other materials needed in teaching. The
said schools were visited by the parish priests, if not periodically,
yet whenever the duties of their ministries would permit. All the boys
and girls of the nearby barrios attended those schools. Every Sunday
after mass, masters and mistresses, with their respective scholars
presented to their parish priests their copy books, sums, sewing,
and embroidery, which they had made during the week. In order to
comprehend the significance of all that has been set forth to this
point, one must bear in mind that the population in Filipinas is
found much scattered in groups of houses called barrios or visitas,
more or less densely populated, and separated by a greater or less
distance from one another. So true is this that of the fourteen
thousand inhabitants of the village of Ogton, verbi gratia, scarcely
four thousand lived within the radius of the village. This scattering
of the inhabitants throughout the jurisdiction of the villages, if it
were meet and convenient at the beginning of the conquest, in order
that the barrios or the visitas might become the nucleus of future
villages, yet had no reason for existence, during the last half of
the past century in the very densely populated provinces like that of
Iloilo and others. The inhabitants of the barrios distant from the
village, from authority, and from the parish priests, could not be
watched and attended to by the paternal solicitude of the latter,
so much, or so well as those of the village, who lived under his
immediate eye. Many of the priests themselves were suspected by
the authorities as breeders of evil doers and criminals, for in the
distant barrios people of evil life gathered, combined their thefts,
and concealed the thefts. They were the pests of the civil guard and
of the local authorities, and the constant preoccupation of the parish
priests who saw that they were not fulfilling their religious duties
as good Christians, and who, in order to administer the sacraments
to them, had to go on horseback, by chair [horimon] or by hammock,
whether it rained in torrents, or the equatorial sun melted their
brains. Many times, and in distinct seasons and occasions, the superior
authority of the islands ordered that the barrios be incorporated into
the villages. Not being able to succeed in that, they ordered the
small barrios to be fused into the greater, and roads to be opened
which would put them in communication with the mother village. Not
even this could they obtain because of the inborn passivity of the
Indians. The one most harmed by that order of things was the parish
priest who had the duty of watching over those scattered sheep, and
giving them the food of the spirit to the danger of his health, and
the exhaustion of his purse, by paying the wages of the teachers and
for the materials used in teaching for the schools of the barrios. [95]
When the schools were already running with regularity, and the fruits
which were produced under the accurate direction and immediate
inspection of the parish priests were plentiful, the superior
government of the islands took possession of the department of
education, and in the above-mentioned decree of 1863, gave official
character to the schools instituted by the parish priests. It conceded
titles as teachers ad interim to those who were then in charge of the
schools appointed by the religious. It assigned them a moderate pay,
but one much greater than that received from the parish priests,
whose resources were certainly very meager, and with which they had
to attend to other duties which their ministry imposed on them. But
the government left in most complete abandonment the settlement of
the barrios composed generally of two-thirds of the total number of
souls. We have already related how and in what manner the parish
priests supplied the governmental omission. Teachers ad interim
were gradually substituted by the normal teachers as they graduated
from the normal school. Indeed in the last years of the past century
there were but few schools not ruled over by teachers of the normal
school. Did education gain much by the semi-academical title of the new
teachers? Did the language of the fatherland become more general? At
first, we must reply with all truth that while the normal teachers
remained under the immediate supervision of the parish priests,
authorized by the official rules to suspend them and fashion them
suitably, education made excellent progress. But when they were
emancipated from the supervision of the parish-priest religious by the
decree of sad memory countersigned by Señor Maura in 1893, creating
the municipalities to which passed the supervision and management
of the schools and the teachers, education went into a decline. [96]
The presence of the children became purely nominal in the triplicate
report which the masters and mistresses sent monthly to the government
of the province. That report had to be visoed by the parish priests,
but the governors received and approved them without that requisite,
disdaining and despising the signature of the parish priests. In that
the latter understood that the visto bueno [i.e., approval] was a
farce, which, taken seriously, lessened the reputation of and gained
ill will for them, without any profit to the teachers and municipal
captains. Consequently, it was all the same for the results whether
they signed the said reports, or did not sign them. But if was painful
to contemplate the empty benches in the school, from which those
regular and interminable rows of four hundred or five hundred boys,
and two other rows of as many or more girls, reduced afterwards to
two or three dozen at the most, no longer went to the church after the
afternoon class. That happened and we have seen it. It was one, and not
of the least serious, misfortunes that came upon the country because
of the unfortunate decree in regard to the Filipino municipalities.
On the creation of the normal school the government proposed as its
principal object the rapid and quick diffusion of Castilian as the
bond of union between the mother country and the colony. The end
was good and praiseworthy, but a mistake was made in the means by
which it was to be obtained, for those means were neither sufficient
nor efficacious. Departing even from the false supposition that all
the normal teachers constantly directed their efforts to teaching
Castilian to the children, nothing serious and positive could be
obtained. In the schools the children read and wrote in Castilian,
learned the grammar by heart, and some teachers gave the explanation
in Castilian also. The teacher asked questions in Castilian, and
the scholars replied in certain dialogues, which they learned by
heart. [97] But what was the result? The children did not understand
one iota of the master's explanation. They answered in the dialogue
like parrots, and the few phrases which they learned in the harmonious
language of Cervantes, they forgot before they reached home, if not in
the very school itself, because they did not again hear them either
when playing with their comrades or in their homes, or in the school
itself. For the constant and daily presence in the school left much to
be desired, especially during the last decade of Spanish rule. Before
the creation of the municipalities to which Señor Maura gave the
local supervision of the schools, the parish priests visited them
frequently. Every afternoon when the boys and girls were dismissed
from school they went to the church in two lines, and the parish
priest observed and even counted the number of those who were present,
and when many of them were absent, they asked the teachers for their
report of the absent children, called on their parents, and with
flattery, admonitions, or threats, succeeded in getting the latter
to see that their children were punctual in attendance. Furthermore,
they clothed at their expense the poor boys and girls who excused
their non-attendance at school because they had no pantaloons,
or were without a skirt with which to cover the body. Later, with
the municipalities, neither the municipal captains nor anyone else
took care of the daily attendance of teachers and scholars in the
school. If primary instruction in Filipinas had gone on in this way
for considerable time it would have pitifully retrograded.
We have already seen the intervention which the parish priests had
in primary education before the decree of 63, after that date, and
also after the never sufficiently-deplored decree in regard to the
municipalities, proposed for the royal signature by the then minister
of the colonies, Don Antonio Maura, in 1893. But, notwithstanding that,
there are many Spaniards who blame the parish-priest religious for the
ignorance of the Indians of Castilian. Why this charge, both gratuitous
and unjust? Some have argued that the parish priests should personally
teach Castilian to the native children. In order to understand the
absurdity of so great a pretension, one need only bear in mind that the
parish-priest regulars in Filipinas had in their charge the spiritual
administration of the villages, the number of souls in the smallest
of which was not less than six thousand, and for the greater part
reached ten thousand, fourteen thousand, and even twenty thousand,
and more. For that work only a few parish priests had a coadjutor, and
those among the Tagálogs, two or three Indian coadjutors, who aided
them in the administration of the sacrament to the well and sick. It
was also the duty of the parish priest to reply to consultations,
give advices, direct communications, exercise the duties of alcaldes,
justices of the peace, decisions, etc.; for in all that they had
to take action, as neither the municipal alcalde nor the justice
of peace of the village understood Castilian, and least of all,
understood the orders, reports, acts, and measures. And it is asked
us, if, after attending to so varied occupations, some peculiar to
their ministry, others imposed by charity and by necessity, the parish
priests would have time, willingness, or pleasure, in officiating as
masters of Castilian without pay; however, there is still more. The
parish priests were the local presidents of the boards of health
and of locusts, public works, industrial and urban contribution,
citizen and tributary poll, etc., etc., and we are asked, I repeat,
if with all these trifles and mummeries the parish priest would have
time even to rest, at the very least.
Others carried their pretension even to meddling with sacred matters
of the temple and interfering with the parochial dwelling, demanding
from the parish priests that the theological moral preaching, and
the explanation of the Christian doctrine be in Castilian, as if it
were the duty of the parish priest to please four deluded people, and
not to instruct his parishioners who, not understanding Castilian,
would have obtained from the catechism and from the sermon that
which the negro did from the story. The same is true of the demand
that the religious should address their servants in our beautiful
language. Seeing that the Indian servants did the reverse of what their
Spanish masters ordered them, and seeing the desperation of the latter
for the said reason, why should the religious have to be subjected to
like impatience when they could avoid it by addressing their servants
in their own language? So general was the opinion that the religious
were opposed to the Indians learning Castilian that Governor-general
Despujols, in his visits to the Ilonga capital, apostrophized the
parish-priest religious harshly, who had gone in commission to salute
him. "You," he said to them, "are the ones who oppose the diffusion of
Castilian in the country." Such were the words of that Catalonian, who
claimed that a colony separated from the mother country by thousands
of miles, and almost abandoned for that reason until the opening
of the isthmus of Suez, should know and speak the Castilian, which
is not known or spoken as yet in Cataluña, or in other provinces of
España. It was very convenient for the Spaniards who went to Filipinas
on business or as employes, and even necessary for them to understand
the Indians, and they demanded that the latter learn Castilian. It
was also very convenient and comfortable for the religious, since
the learning of a dialect of the country cost them at least a year's
study and practice. But was it not easier and more just that forty or
fifty thousand Spaniards learn the language of the country since they
needed it to live and do business in it, than to make six or seven
millions of Indians, very few of whom needed to know it, learn Spanish?
Father Zúñiga [98] already declared in his time: "It has been ordered
that books be not printed in the Tagálog language, that the Indians
learn the doctrine in the Castilian language, and that the fathers
preach to them in that language. The religious, in order to observe
that command preached to them in Spanish and in Tagálog, but to ask
them to confess some Indians who only knew the doctrine in a language
which they did not understand and that the parish priests should be
satisfied by preaching to their parishioners in a language of which
the latter were ignorant, was almost the same as asking them for that
which Diocletian asked from the Christians, and they would rather
die willingly before fulfilling it.... In order that one may see
the inconsistency of those who rule, it is sufficient to know their
method of procedure in regard to plays. These Indians, as I have said,
are very fond of plays, and the most influential people are those who
become actors. Since such people do not generally know the Castilian
language, they petition that they be allowed to play in their own
language, and there is not the slightest hesitation in allowing plays
in the Tagálog language in all the villages of this province, even
in that of Binondo, which is only separated from the city [of Manila].
"And it is asked that the parish priests preach in Spanish!" [99]
In 1590, we find in the records of our province the following most
note-worthy minute of the provincial chapter: "Likewise, it shall be
charged upon all the ministers of the Indians that, just as the lads of
the school are taught to read and to write, they also shall learn to
talk our Spanish tongue because of the great culture and profit which
follow therefrom (Archives of St. Augustine in Manila)." This was the
rule made by the Augustinian fathers in 1590, and still there are some
who accuse the religious of having been opposed to the diffusion of
Castilian in Filipinas.
The decree in which the religious were charged to teach Castilian in
the kingdoms of Indias is as follows: "By Don Felipe IV, in Madrid,
March 2, 1634; and November 4, 1636, law v. That the curas arrange to
teach the Indians the Castilian language and the Christian doctrine
in the same language.
"We ask and charge the archbishops and bishops to provide and order
in their dioceses the curas and instructors of the Indians, by using
the gentlest means, to arrange and direct all the Indians to be taught
the Spanish language, and that they be taught the Christian doctrine
in that language, so that they may become more apt in the mysteries
of our Catholic faith, and profit for their salvation, and attain
other advantages in their government and mode of living."--Book i,
título xiii.
"We could cite other dispositions [100] but these are sufficient to
cause the noble propositions of our governors-general and the first
apostles of Christianity in that country to be appreciated. Apart
from the fact that in former times the friar could not alone carry
the weight of the extraordinary labor, which is inferred from the
teaching of a language which can be contained in the head of but very
few Indians, the aspiration that our language supplant the many which
are spoken in Filipinas can be only completely illusory."
We cannot resist the desire to reproduce here some paragraphs of
the Carta abierta [i.e., open letter] which was directed through the
columns of La Época by Señor Retana to Don Manuel Becerra, who was
then minister of the Colonies. [101]
"I do not see, Señor Don Manuel, that a single Spaniard exists who
would not be delighted to know that peoples who live many leguas
from ours use the Spanish language as their own language. Why
should we not be proud when we are persuaded that in both Americas
live about forty millions of individuals who speak our beautiful
language? Consequently, I esteem as most meritorious that vehement
desire of yours to effect that there in Filipinas the Malays abandon
their monotonous and poor dialects, and choose as their language that
which we talk in Castilla. Very meritorious is it in fact among us to
sustain so fine a theory; and I say, among us, for if you were English
and set forth your laudable propositions in the House of Lords, or the
House of Commons, of diffusing the language of the mother-country among
the natives of unequal colonies, you may be assured, Señor Becerra,
that on all sides of the circle there would come marks and even cries
of disapproval. For it is a matter sufficiently well known in Great
Britain and in Holland; and in a certain manner in France also, it
is not maintained, not even in theory, that it is advisable for the
conquered races to know the language of the ruling race. The great
Macaulay, a liberal democrat, freethinker, a sincere and enthusiastic
man, published his desire that Christianity be propagated in India,
but he never spoke of a propagation of the English language in the
Hindoostan Empire.
"Think, Señor Don Manuel, and grant me that if it were possible
to please all the Spaniards to have our language propagated in all
quarters of the world, there may be some persons who, thinking like
the English, may conceive that that propagation would be unadvisable,
from the viewpoint of politics.
"But by deprecating such tiquis miquis [102] since I hold, so far
as I am concerned, that today our fellow countrymen who think in
the English fashion in this manner are exceptional, let us come
to the real root of the matter. It is an easy thing for you, Don
Manuel, to see that it is practicable in a brief space of time
to place the Castilian in the head of seven millions of Filipino
Indians. Permit me to make a citation which is of pearls. Not
many months ago the director of the royal college of the Escorial,
or, to be more explicit, Fray Francisco Valdés, a man of superior
talent who has lived in Filipinas for eighteen or twenty years, said:
'Our language cannot be substituted advantageously for the Tagálog,
so long as the social education of that people does not experience
profound and radical transformations.' And the same author adds: 'And
since the total transformation of the customs and manner of living of
a race is not the work of one year, much less of one century, hence,
our firm conviction that great as may be our strength and much as the
fondness of the Indian for Castilian may be exaggerated, the latter
will never be the common idiom of Filipinas.'
"Do you think of tearing out the entrails of seven millions of
individuals by giving them other new ones in this manner all at
once? For the peculiar idiom is born in the peculiar country, and
develops with the individual, and there is no human strength, which
in many years can tear it out. At one step from us lie Cataluña
and Vascongadas, where no success is had in making the speech of
Cervantes common to individuals for whom the resonant drapery of our
rich language is very loose, and whom it suffocates. Much less could
it be so [in Filipinas]!
"Those who make the greatest propaganda are not, indeed, the
masters. As many masters as there are in Cavite, there are in Bulacan,
for example, or more, and in Cavite the people talk fairly good
Castilian, while in Bulacan they scarcely talk any. Why? Because
in Cavite there are many Spaniards who live there, while in Bulacan
there are perhaps not fifty. For the rest another citation and the
conclusion. The famous student of Filipinas, now the bishop of Jaca,
Fray Francisco Valdés, says: 'There are many Indians who come to
know quite well the material of the Spanish word; but the internal
signification and the logical character of our beautiful language is
for them an undecipherable secret. Our meanings [giros] and phrases
are opposed to their peculiar fashion of conceiving and correlating
ideas. From this discrepancy in the association of ideas, they produce
literary products as nonsensical as the one below. This example is
chosen from among innumerable others of the same kind, as it is the
work of a master who passed among those of his class and was really
one of the best instructed. The matter is an invitation elegantly
printed and gotten up on the occasion of the mass called vara which
the gobernadorcillos usually cause to be celebrated with great pomp
on that day when they receive from the governor the vara or staff of
command. It is as follows: On the nineteenth day, in the morning,
and of the present full moon, the mass of my vara will be held in
this church under my charge, for God has gratuitously granted me this
honorable charge. I invite you, therefore, to my house, so that from
that moment the vacancy of my heart having been freed, it may become
full by your presence, until my last hour sounds on the clock of the
Eternal.'" Come now Don Manuel, what do you say to this? [103]
"We might extend our remarks to much greater length [104] in
this important matter in order to prove that the 'Ordeno y mando'
[105] of those who govern always falls to pieces before insuperable
difficulties, and therefore to accuse the religious of being the
reason why Castilian is not popular in Filipinas when we have the most
eloquent data that in the villages ruled by secular priests of the
country, there is less Castilian spoken than in the parishes ruled over
by the friars, is an immense simplicity into which only the malevolent
can fall or those who do not know those races by experience.--Consult
Barrantes's La Instrucción primaria en Filipinas; and Father Valdés's
El Archipiélago Filipino." [106]
If the Spanish government desired that the Castilian language be
rapidly diffused in Filipinas, the normal school or the teachers who
graduated from it were not the most efficient and suitable means, but
the establishment in the Filipino villages of five hundred thousand
Spanish families. The servants of those families, and familiarity and
converse with the native families would have done in a short time,
what never would have succeeded by means of the normal teachers,
and which the other educational schools in which the native dialects
would not be allowed to be spoken, would have taken centuries in
obtaining. It was observed that in the ports and in the capitals
where the Spanish element was numerous, almost all the Indians spoke
Castilian. Consequently, this same thing would have happened in the
villages in which fifty or one hundred Spanish families would have been
settled. Neither was it the mission of the parish-priest religious to
teach Castilian to the Indians, nor did they have time to dedicate
themselves to it. Neither would they have succeeded in that in a
long time, not even with all their prestige and competency. Nor did
they need as parish priests that the Indian should know Castilian,
although as Spaniards they desired it, and very greatly. For, very
strongly did it come to them that language, religion, and customs,
are strong chains which united mother countries to colonies.
No one could be in a position to know the needs of the country, to
feel its forces and appreciate its progress as could the parish-priest
religious. Individual members of respectable communities consecrated
to the spiritual and material happiness of the Indians, passed,
but the spirit which guided their footsteps toward so noble an end,
without separating itself any distance from the preconceived plan,
always existed. When the opportunity to give greater amplitude to
education, and to open up new and vaster horizons to the studious
youth of the country, came, the parish priests were the ones who
recognized that need and satisfied it. By a royal decree of June 8,
1585, King Don Felipe II arranged for the foundation of the college
of San José, which was destined for the education and teaching of
the children of Spaniards resident in Filipinas. Lessons in Latin,
rhetoric, and philosophy, were given in that college by distinguished
Jesuit fathers. The restrictions placed as to the number and quality
of the pupils did not satisfy the need for more centers of learning,
which the Filipino youth urgently demanded within a little time. His
Excellency, the archbishop of Manila, Señor Benavides, a Dominican,
projected the foundation of the college of Santo Tomás, aided by
his Excellency, Don Fray Diego de Soria of the same order, bishop
of Nueva Segovia. [107] With the one thousand pesos fuertes donated
by Señor Benavides and the four thousand by Señor Soria, and the
acquisition of the libraries of both, the works were commenced in the
year 1610. In 1617, the college was in condition of being admitted as
a house by the province of the Dominican fathers in the islands. In
1620, having been provided with professors, it opened its halls to
the Filipino youth without distinction of race. King Don Felipe IV
took the college under his special protection by a royal decree of
November 27, 1623. Some years later, its royal protector obtained
from his Holiness, Pope Innocent X, the fitting bull given November
20, 1644, by which the said college was erected into a university,
and the latter decorated with the honorable titles of Royal and
Pontifical. By a royal decree of May 17, 1680, it was admitted
solemnly under the royal protection, and his Majesty, the king, was
declared its patron. By another royal decree of December 7, 1781, the
statutes approved by the government of the colony, October 20, 1786,
were formed. It continued and is at present in charge of its founders,
the learned and virtuous Dominican fathers. That royal college and
pontifical university has a rector religious, and all the professors
except those of medicine and pharmacy are also Dominicans.
The studious youth who saw in the new center of teaching the glorious
future which invited them by the golden laurels of learning, came in
crowds to fill the cloisters of the new university, which, narrow and
reduced for containing within their halls so many young men desirous
of learning and instruction, begged the aid of another institution
which should share with the university in the task of the teacher. The
time urged, the necessity was pressing, there was no time to think of
the construction of a new edifice for circumstances did not permit
it. Then there was fitted up as a college the school of primary
instruction instituted by the illustrious Spaniard, Don Gerónimo
Guerrero, of glorious memory, whose name should pass to posterity so
that he may be blessed eternally by Spaniards and Filipinos, since he
dedicated his wealth, his labors, and his care to their instruction
and education, not only instructing them in the primary letters,
but also supporting them and clothing them with his own resources
and with the alms which other charitable persons who were desirous
of contributing in so deserving a work gave him. The efforts of that
remarkable Spaniard deserved the protection of the government of the
mother country and the support of the Council of Indias. The king
remunerated them by granting him an encomienda in Ilocos as an aid in
that blessed establishment, and God rewarded it by conceding him the
religious vocation which induced him to take the habit in the order
of the Dominican fathers. He ceded to the latter his schoolhouse,
his encomienda, and all his goods, with the sole condition that the
said fathers were to take charge of the gratuitous education and
teaching of the poor Spanish and native boys. The condition having
been accepted by the Dominican fathers the schoolhouse of the worthy
Spaniard and now virtuous religious was erected into a college under
the advocacy of San Juan de Letrán, July 18, 1640, by license from
the governor-general and from the archbishop. Since that college
was a school, it had also as its object the elemental instruction
and education of abandoned and poor children, in order to make of
them good citizens and excellent military men for the defense of the
plaza of Manila, and the colony. Erected into a college, the students
continued therein the study of philosophy, theology, and canons,
in order that those who showed aptitude and merited that dignity,
might be ordained as priests. Later, all the young men who cared to
devote themselves to the study of secondary education were admitted
as pensioned inmates. At the end of that course, and after they had
taken their degree, they went to the university of Santo Tomás to take
up the higher branches. The above-mentioned college was always very
useful and commendable. A blessed asylum in its origin, it has always
been until today the institution of secondary teaching in which the
Dominican fathers, subjecting themselves rigorously to the urgent,
although ancient plan of studies, have been able to mold themselves
to the peculiar capacity of the natives, directing with exquisite
prudence, their native qualities to the professional studies which
most harmonize with them.
Thus, in proportion as the necessities for education were exacting,
the monastic orders, ever attentive to every movement which could be of
interest to the colony, continued to create centers of instruction:
the Jesuit fathers in the Ateneo and in the normal school in
Manila; the Dominicans in the university, Letrán, and Dagupan; the
Franciscans, in Camarines; the Augustinian Recollects, in Negros;
the calced Augustinians founded in Iloilo colleges of secondary
education directed by themselves, which promised to be the dawn of a
new era of civilization and culture, if the last Indian rebellion,
provoked by the obstinate governors and supported by the Americans
had not caused its ruin with a secular work, the wonder of the world,
with the colleges, with the Spanish domination, with the country, and
with all the existing things gained quietly yet at the cost of great
hardships, and of enormous sacrifices in self-denial and virtue. [108]
The weak sex also were attended to according to their merits by the
religious orders. From before the middle of the eighteenth century
dates the institution of the school of Santa Rosa, or of Mother Paula,
as its foundress was called. She was a religious of the tertiary branch
of St. Dominic, who went from Cataluña to Manila to consecrate herself
to the welfare of her own class. Having arrived at Manila, she saw
that the greatest benefit which her flaming charity could produce was
the education and instruction of the young Indian women. In reality,
she labored with pious and burning zeal, until she obtained a house,
in which she made the foundation of the beaterio school in which the
young Indian women received a Christian education. In the holy fear
of God, they learned the doctrine and exercised themselves in the
labors peculiar to their sex, in order to later dedicate themselves
to God and to the moral education of their sex, or to become married,
in which estate they gave application and example of the excellent
maxims and sane principles which they learned from their glorious
foundress. Mother Paula endured many persecutions which she suffered
with resignation and patience. She gave her name to the beaterio,
which continued as an educational institution and as a retreat for
the girls who desired to embrace it temporarily.
Before the beaterio of Santa Rosa, or of Mother Paula, was founded
that of Santa Catalina de Sena. The former was the complement of the
latter, which in its beginning only took charge of the education
of young Spanish women, It is said that its foundation was due to
a certain number of women of the tertiary branch of St. Dominic who
retired to a house in order to devote themselves to pious exercises,
and from which they went out only to hear mass. Others attribute
the foundation of that beaterio school in 1696 to the solicitude of
Mother Francisca del Espiritu Santo, and to the reverend father,
Fray Juan de Santo Domingo. The illustrious author, Fray Joaquin
Martinez de Zúñiga, recognizes as foundress of that beaterio in 1694,
Doña Antonia Esguerra, but from any of those three opinions which we
follow it will always result that the said beaterio school of Santa
Catalina de Sena was dedicated from its beginning to the education
and teaching given by women religious to the Spanish girls primarily,
and admitted afterwards into its classes Indian and mestizo girls. All
learned to read, write, reckon, and the work peculiar to their sex.
The prodigious increase of the Filipino population and of the general
prosperity of the country, and even more the advanced extension made
by culture in all social classes made the above-mentioned beaterio
schools insufficient, and, just as other monastic orders came to the
aid of the Dominican fathers when the needs of the times demanded
it, so also, the sisters of charity came to the aid of the tertiary
mothers, and founded the schools of Luban and Concordia in Manila,
in Tuguegarao, Pangasinan, Camarines, Iloilo, Cebú, and Ilocos-Sur.
The monastic orders, charged with the superior rule of almost all
the literary profession, directors of the scientific movement of the
country, could not have forgotten one class of the greatest utility at
any time of the scarcity of religious, although it never corresponded
as it ought to the desires of its professors, or to that which the
high spiritual interests of the Church and of the faithful demanded
and hoped from it. The bishops of the country all proceeding from
the monastic cloisters founded the conciliar seminaries directed by
religious of all the orders, in which the native clergy was educated,
instructed, and formed, as an aid to the regular clergy in the
beginning, and as parish priests and administrators after the missions
and ministries surrendered to the miters by the religious orders.
All the above-mentioned centers of education gave a suitable increase
for the end for which they were created. All attained in a short
time so high a degree of splendor, that but seldom or never is seen
in cultured Europa. They counted their regular pupils by hundreds,
and their day pupils by thousands. The confidence of the families in
the solid instruction and morality of the religious professors, in
the method and facility in the explanation by expert professors who
knew the qualities and defects of the scholars, and even the language
of the country, and in the moral and religious regimen to which they
rigorously submitted both regular and day pupils contributed to so
happy a result.
With respect to the condition of education in the last third of the
past century, some affirm that it was highly satisfactory, while others
have asserted that its backward state and abandonment were pitiful. If
we consider that the courses were made, if not by the rule of the
statutes approved by the general government of the colony, October
20, 1786, at least by a plan of almost as respectable an antiquity,
the secondary and university education had to result as deficient
for modern times. If we add the small capacity of the Indians for
the sciences, the chronological defects will show up more clearly
through the little gain of the scholars in spite of the enlightened
efforts of the eleven doctors, and eighteen licentiates of the royal
and pontifical university of Santo Tomás.
As if led by the hand we have now come to touch upon one of the
Filipino problems discussed so often and with so great heat, and yet
without result to the satisfaction of all. We speak of the aptitude
and capacity of the Indians for the letters and sciences.
Has the Filipino Indian that aptitude and sufficiency?
Before entering fully upon the question, we ought to advise that we
have lived in several Visayan villages for the space of twenty-three
years; that we speak the language fluently; that, as a parish priest,
we have necessarily had among our duties to treat with Indians of
all social classes, from the most enlightened to the rudest; that we
have merited their confidence; that we have studied them and observed
them at their domestic fireside and in public life; that we know their
customs, their passions, their defects, and their good qualities. And
if all this, and much more which we could add, is not sufficient to
form an exact and definite judgment on the nature of the Indian, we
will say that we have consulted the experience of our predecessors,
and the parish-priest religious brothers of the habit, friends, and
associates who took part in the sacred ministry in villages of other
provinces, and we have found our opinions upon this particular in
accord with their more valuable opinions. We will say also, in order
that our opinion may not be censured as partial, that by the divine
grace we wear the habit of our glorious founder, St. Augustine, the
wisest and most universal of the holy fathers, the great figure of
the fourth century, the wonderful ancient author, the admiration of
the moderns, from whom we have inherited our love for study and the
sciences, which with prayer and contemplation constitute the foundation
and essence of our institute, as it was founded by a saint consecrated
all his life to letters and converted to the faith by means of a book:
Tolle lege; tolle, lege. [109] Lastly, we advise that the Order of
St. Augustine, to which I have the good fortune to belong, also built
a school in Iloilo, dedicated to secondary education, in which it
spent huge sums to make it the equal of the best schools of Europa.
Now then, having set forth these preliminaries, we enter upon the
question. More than two centuries ago, the university and the colleges
of San José, and San Juan de Letrán, in Manila, opened their halls to
the Filipino youth. The Indians annually matriculated by thousands
in the various courses which were taught by erudite professors. How
many scientific notabilities have resulted from the natives up to the
present from the university cloisters? How many Indian theologues,
canons, philosophers, moralists [have graduated] from the conciliar
seminaries? Not even one by exception, which usually is found in
any general rule. At the most we have heard of some good advocate,
of some regular theologue, of some mediocre canon, of some advanced
pharmacist, or of some clever physician. But those whom we can consider
as exceptions to the rule, never reach the top rank of their equals
in other countries. This lack is not attributed to the professors,
for they were always picked men, and in the university of Manila,
the present bishop of Oviedo, Señor Vigil, his Excellency, the lately
deceased Cardinal Ceferino, the archbishop of Manila, Father Nozaleda,
the illustrious Father Orias, and very many other Dominican fathers
who were the honor of their order, of their country, and of all the
monastic orders, shone pre-eminently for their learning. We recognize
more sufficiency in the European mestizo and the Sangley or Chinese
mestizo, than in the pure-blooded Indian; and the mestizos of those
races are the ones who distinguish themselves, some notably, as
authors, advocates, physicians, canons, and among other literary
professions, in which not one single pure-blooded Indian has been
found. What does this signify, if not that the deficiency exists in
the race, and not in the professors or in the books. [110]
When we have tried to demonstrate to them some abstract truth,
a mystery, a catholic dogma, some philosophical thesis, with the
greatest simplicity, clearness, and precision, we have observed
that the attention of the Indian, excited and sustained at the
beginning, gradually diminished, his eyes wandered, his distraction
was manifest. Giving another turn and another form to the exposition,
we have succeeded in awakening those sleepy or tired minds, but
always for only a few moments. By one example we obtain more than
by the most exact dissertations, and by the most clear explanations;
for their childish minds, their excessively acute sensibility needs
something palpable to bring some light to the darkness of their
understandings. We have observed that phenomenon also in the rude as
well as the instructed Indians who had learned to reason by logic,
and have cultivated the mind by study as far as their mental strengths
can go. It must be inferred then that the Filipino Indian is a grown-up
child. As a child he cannot go beyond the elemental in the sciences,
for his most limited understanding cannot mount in its flight to the
heights of the metaphysical. Examples, similes, and metaphors are the
indirect means to make him understand the intangible, the spiritual,
and the abstract. There can be no luminous philosophical dissertations,
or brilliant theories, or abstruse problems, but examples, many
examples to make him perceive the truth and the essence of things,
causing him to touch, feel, and perceive, with eyes, ears, touch,
and the other bodily senses.
There have not been lacking those who have attributed the incapacity
and insufficiency of the Indians to intellectual laziness which
corresponds to the laziness peculiar to an equatorial country,
where the burning rays of fiery sun enervates the physical and
intellectual forces. We neither affirm nor deny this, since it might
well happen that the Indians possess, like children, in the beginning
in potentiality intellectual faculties in their germ equal and even
superior to those of the white race, but we incline to the belief
that the Indian of pure blood can never reach in scientific culture
to the level of the European. If he ever attains anything in the
field of science, it must be because another blood inoculates in
his own blood the divine breath of wisdom, and then he will be able
to advance somewhat when the cross whitens his olive-colored face,
has lowered his prominent cheek-bones, and elevated his flat nose a
trifle. Until that time comes, the Indian will always be a grown-up
child, as simple, as ignorant, and as credulous as a child, but with
all the passions, vices, and defects of the adult.
"In regard to the nature and understanding of the Indians," says
Retana, "speaking in general, they are more clever than the American
Indians. [111] They readily learn any art, and with the same readiness
they imitate any work which is placed before them. They make fine
clerks and are employed in the accounting offices and other offices
in that duty. For, besides the fact that they write well, they are
excellent accountants, have capacity for directing a lawsuit, and very
sharp in getting the parties to the lawsuit all tangled up. There
are good stonemasons, and musicians among them. But in all these
things, they only reach a certain degree which they never surpass,
either because of laziness, or for the lack of intellect, which we must
suppose to be sufficiently limited. For they never invent anything, and
all is reduced to their skill of imitation. Those who give themselves
to the sciences never surpass a mediocrity in their comprehension.
"He who has had to do with the Indians of Filipinas can do no less
than assent to this truth. We find them more clever than ourselves
in learning any mechanical work, but more stupid in whatever depends
upon the understanding or on the imagination. In so brief a time do
they learn the trade of artists, musicians, embroiderers, cobblers,
tailors, and whatever is reduced to the mechanical, that they exercise
it fairly well in little time. If they are not satisfied with it,
they readily give it up and learn another trade. There are Indians
who have gone through all those trades, and they have filled them all
well. But not one of them has ever surpassed mediocrity. There has
never been an artisan who has invented any improvement in the trade
which he learned. They are most ingenious in imitating what they
see, but they never invent anything. If those men had the talents of
Europeans, why is it possible that one cannot find in three hundred
years one who has added anything to what was taught him?
"I can affirm of the Filipinos with whom I have lived for more than
sixteen years, that they are handy in every kind of mechanism which
is shown to them. They are capable of imitating the most curious
works, but they can invent nothing, for they lack imagination and
fancy, and are very obtuse in the abstract sciences because they
lack understanding.
"Some try to attribute this to the subordination in which the Spaniards
hold them. I will ask such people why does not that subordination
and submission prevent them from making any mechanical work with
a sufficient perfection? The soldiers learn the military exercise
quicker than do the Spaniards; the children learn to read readily;
most of them write an excellent hand. The girls easily imitate the
laces and embroideries of Europa. Why do they not imitate equally well
our philosophers, our mathematicians, and our poets? Why do they not
make any advance in painting, in music, and in the other sciences
which require imagination and understanding? [112] More than half
of the seculars of the Manila archbishopric are Indians. There are
some who have become alcaldes-mayor, officers in the royal army,
and advocates in the royal Audiencia. Why have none of them gone
beyond a very moderate mediocrity in the sciences to which they have
dedicated themselves? Just as among Europeans individuals are found
for all kinds of abstract sciences, it must be confessed that in the
same manner nations are found who, because of the climate in which
they have lived for a long series of generations, have contracted a
certain tangency of understanding which disposes them very little to
receive metaphysical and spiritual ideas." [113]
This gives us the key to the fatal results obtained in education
in Filipinas. Of the hundreds of students who matriculated annually
in the colleges, fifteen per cent did not succeed in obtaining the
degree of bachelor, and if those who gained a professional title
in the university scarcely reached ten per cent, and of them the
greater number were advocates without clients, and physicians
without patients, they, united with those who abandoned their
books and mutilated their career, were in the villages the greatest
calamity that befell the country. They all pompously called themselves
pilósopos for filósofos [i.e., philosophers], and they were no more
than ignorant and presuming fellows, pettifoggers, intriguers, and
lazy, haughty, and vain fellows, who neither could nor would work,
or aid their parents in work or trade, but could dress as those in
Manila, prink themselves out like women, censuring everything, even
the religious acts, in order that they might be esteemed sages. They
were, through their vices, a grievous weight to the parish priests;
by their laziness and viciousness, an insupportable burden to their
families; by their lewdness and intrigues the mine which furnished
suits to the lawyers, and for the disaffected and filibuster, as
they were almost all of them affiliated with freemasonry, a danger
to the government and to the nation. [114] All those evil students
learned all the evil of the capitals and laden with vices, evil ideas,
and morals, they were in the villages a scandal for the majority,
a snare for some, and mischievous for all.
"Those deserters from the university," says Escosura, "half instructed
with incomplete notions of the sciences which, belonging to the
superior education, require to be studied by persons of consideration
and social prestige, and above all to be upright, in order that they
may not be dangerous to the public safety; those deserters from the
university form, I repeat, a class in Filipinas, and are, above all,
insatiable leeches who devour the substance of the Indians, so many
other founts of lawsuits and quarrels among their fellowcitizens."
Perhaps I shall be asked at this point: "Why since you [religious]
see and know all this, why did your religious devote themselves to,
and encourage, education?" Because it is very difficult to separate
oneself from the influence of the time; for it is impossible to oppose
the conquering current of opinion, as the monastic orders of Filipinas
did not arrange means to free themselves from the pressure of the
government, and to reply to the unjust charge of having retrograded,
which those who did not know the country even on the map fulminated
against them; and lastly to avoid greater evils. The regular province
of the Augustinian fathers was the last to devote itself to superior
education among the Indians. When did it do that, and why? When Señor
Becerra was minister of the colonies in the years 1887 and 1888,
and that minister of sad memory planned an official institute in the
capital of Iloilo, the Augustinian fathers saw in the plan of the
minister a most grave danger for the country, and they went ahead
to ward it off. All we parish-priest regulars of Filipinas saw with
pain the advances which freemasonry was making in the country by means
of the abandoned advocates and physicians, unfit students, ambitious
caciques, wealthy fellows, ruined by their vices or by play--we know
the works of the spade against the foundation of Spanish domination
which were based on religion, prestige, and superiority of race. We
all recognized and experienced the apathy and indifference of the
authorities who were not ignorant of the frauds and plans of the
lodges; and there were even governors of the provinces who protected
them. And if to all that which we knew, recognized, and could not
remedy, we had consented that Señor Becerra establish in Iloilo an
institute of secondary education with professors who might have been
freemasons or atheists, the catastrophe would have been certain and
imminent, for such institute would be a seeding place for filibusters
and insurgents. In order to avoid that, the Augustinian order planned
and constructed at its own expense an edifice which it resolved to
dedicate as an institute. That could not be carried out, for the last
revolution of '98 came upon them before it was inaugurated.
More beneficial for the country, more in accordance with the monastic
traditions, more in harmony with the recommendations of our glorious
founder, which were practiced by our virtuous ancestors, would have
been the opening of schools of arts and crafts. In reality, although
the Spanish government established a few of those schools in Manila,
Pampanga, and Iloilo, it was so unseasonable that it was unable to
gather the fruits which were promised in their founded hopes. Such
is the scarcity of Indian artists and artisans, that of the former
there are a few sculptors, engravers, and painters, etc., but of the
latter, we can assert that almost all the trades are in the hands
of the Chinese, and only carpentry, cabinet-making, architecture,
masonry, and some other trades, are exercised by Indians, to whom
the parish-priest religious taught them because they needed them for
their works and constructions.
It is known that the ancient monks divided their time among prayer,
contemplation, study, and manual work. St. Anthony [115] and his
five thousand monks, as well as all those who afterward imitated the
monastic life or that of the desert, employed part of their day in
labor with their hands, weaving mats, making shoes, oars, boats, or
small skiffs, and other similar labors. Our father, St. Augustine,
desired his monks to also devote some hours of the day to manual
labor. Accordingly, our predecessors did it. It is true, that the
spirit of the respective epochs changed the character of the bodily
work, but the monastic corporations of Filipinas, which recognized
the incapacity of the Indian for science and deplored the pernicious
effects of science poorly digested by the natives, if they could not
do away with the action of the governments, the influence of opinion,
the pressure of the times, would have had to turn aside, by means
of their parish-priest religious, the tendency of the Indians to the
literary branches, and to have directed that tendency to those branches
of pure imitation, for which it is necessary to recognize, and we do
that gladly, that the Filipino Indian has exceptional abilities. At the
same time that the university was founded, and the colleges provided,
schools and workshops ought to have been established for the natives,
which would have obtained the preference in those narrow, dull, and
lazy minds, with greater benefits to the country and less harm to
all. All the monasteries founded by St. Basil the Great [116] had in
charge an elementary superior school, and another of arts and crafts
joined to it. That ought to be the model of the religious orders
in Filipinas, in spite of the governments of the mother country,
of the demands of opinion manifestly gone astray on this point,
and of the spirit of the epoch which could not have any influence in
that country, most especially by their constitution, nature, customs,
and government. Had the religious corporations, thoroughly permeated
with their Christian and civilizing mission, proceeded in that manner,
the contingent of sons with the three pointed design of the square
and apron, [117] who left the halls of the colleges and became the
petty leaders and chief revolutionists who betrayed the mother country
and were also the greatest enemies of those who had taught them the
little good that they knew, would not have been so numerous.
The cholera, which made ravages in the Filipino Archipelago in 1882,
left in the saddest orphanage many children of both sexes and of all
the races. They, abandoned, and without resources, wandered through
the streets begging public charity. The Spanish women, moved by the
disconsolate spectacle, which so many ragged and hungry children
offered, formed a society, from which a committee was chosen, which
went to the governor-general to beg for food and shelter for those
abandoned children. The governor summoned the provincials of the
monastic order, as being the natural protectors of the destitute, and
creators of the centers of education and learning in the country. He
petitioned them for support and aid. The father provincial of the
Augustinians, representing his order, took under charge of the
province of Santísimo Nombre de Jesús, the support, education, and
teaching of the abandoned and orphaned children. The Augustinian
fathers assigned for that purpose local sites provisionally in the
avenue of San Marcelino, where they gathered the children who were
wandering through the city of Manila, and gave them shelter in the
temporary barracks. But since the latter had no hygienic conditions,
and were not large enough, they transferred the children to the
lower parts of the convent of Guadalupe, which were spacious and well
ventilated. There they opened workshops of sculpture and ceramics,
painting, and modeling, and there they remained until the year 1892,
when the schools, workshops, and children were transferred to the
building of the new plant constructed for that purpose in the village
of Malabon. That place united all the desirable conditions of solidity,
decoration, size, and even elegance, which could be desired. There the
Augustinian fathers taught the orphans, in addition to their primary
letters, painting, designing, sculpture, and modeling, printing, and
binding, and indeed the printing plant was bought by the voluntary
donation of some religious, through the economies practiced in
the missions by dint of privations and of a life of poverty and
mortification. We know one of those religious, respectable for his
exemplary virtue, who gave for that purpose all his savings, consisting
of two thousand pesos. We feel that his humility has prohibited us from
placing his name here, so that he may be blessed by all who should hear
of a charity and liberality peculiar to the sons of a St. Augustine,
who gave even his death-bed to the poor, and suitable also to those
of Santo Tomás de Villanueva, father of the poor. That asylum of the
orphans, and of the unfortunates abandoned by its founders who had to
flee from the ingratitude of the revolutionists, was burned by the
shells which the Americans threw to dislodge the Indian rebels who
had made forts of it, and being looted afterward by pillaging Chinese
who took away even the paving-stones of the lower floor, a cargo of
which was surprised by the North American police in the Pasig River,
and returned to the Augustinian fathers--the only indemnity which
they have received up to date.
The Augustinian fathers also extended their charity to orphan
girls. For that purpose they caused sisters of their tertiary branch to
go from the Peninsula, who took charge of the education and instruction
of the children in the orphanage that was built in Mandaloya at the
expense of the said Augustinian fathers. More than three hundred
Indian mestizo and Spanish girls received a fine education there, so
much so that their work in embroidery, sewing, and the manufacture
of artificial flowers, took the prize in the expositions at Madrid
and Manila.
So excellent and fine was the education that the orphan girls received
in Mandaloya, that it was necessary to accede to the repeated requests
of influential families who begged that the Augustinian tertiary
mothers receive as pensioners the daughters of many Peninsulars and
Spanish mestizos.
EDUCATION SINCE AMERICAN OCCUPATION
It is the chief glory of American connection with the Philippines,
that no sooner was their easy conquest an assured fact, than attention
was directed toward the education of the peoples who thus came under
the control of the western democracy. In spite of the more than three
centuries of Spanish rule, although many measures had been dictated
by the government and by the religious orders, although the college of
San José, the Dominican university of Santo Tomás, the college of San
Juan de Letran, and various other institutions had flourished for the
greater or less part of Spanish domination, and especially, although
the active government measures, beginning with the memorable decree of
December 20, 1863, had induced a wider result in primary instruction,
the educational methods in force in the islands were antiquated,
often without result, and narrowing, and to a certain degree tended
to shackle rather than to free the mind. The best work was done by
the Jesuits who had adopted the most progressive methods used in the
islands during Spanish occupancy. The religious orders are not without
praise for having established, as early as they did, educational
institutions where some Filipinos could, to a certain extent, take
on the advantages of the occidental polish and education which Spain
had to offer. But it must be remembered that Spain itself has never,
since the early days when the great Salamanca University flourished
as one of the most advanced outposts of education in the world, been
renowned as a center of learning. Hence, it may be said, whatever the
cause for its deficiency, that Spain gave to the Philippines the best
that it had in the way of education; with the reservation that the
remoteness of the colony from the mother country gave opportunity for
neglect and carelessness on the part of both official and ecclesiastic,
and for the furthering of private or corporation ends, at the expense
of and detriment to the colony. Quite apparently, a country cannot give
to a colony what it does not itself possess. Had Spain possessed a more
modern and effective system of education, doubtless the same would
have been true in the Philippines. To determine the reason for the
backwardness of education in the islands, therefore, one must examine
the causes for its poor condition in Spain, and the two will be found
in great measure to be the same. The root of the matter will be found
in the close connection between Church and State--this connection
dating back in greatest measure to 1493, when the ecclesiastical
patronage of the Spanish monarch became a settled fact, and Church
and State were irrevocably bound together--and a misconception as to
where the educational function primarily resides--which we take to
be a function of government.
We cannot, in the short compass allowed, enter into the discussion
of the factors involved, the most important of which is the question
of the friar orders and the transference of their power in greater
proportion even than in Spain, into the Philippines. Suffice it to say
here that those who would blame the friar orders exclusively for the
backward state of the Philippines in education as in other things,
go astray; and the same is equally true of those who would excuse
them altogether. The same remark holds true of the government. Both
the religious orders, or even more broadly, the entire ecclesiastical
government, and the civil government, are to be reproached for the
deplorable condition of Philippine education.
It is the results of the pre-American education that allows the
following to be said: "The party which follows the intellectual
leadership of Leon Guerrero (director of El Renacimiento) is quietly
resisting what they call the 'Anglo-Saxonization' of their people
through the schools. These men are really Spanish at heart (the older,
mostly so in blood), and they have a Spanish-Latin feeling of hostility
to the very name of 'Anglo-Saxon.' They prefer Latin education and
educational methods, and Latin molds of civilization. Where they
go astray is in their assumption, entirely gratuitous, that they
really represent the Filipino people and Filipino ways of thought,
desires and aspirations which are to be 'squelched' by this new
campaign of instruction in English. Now, superficially, there are
little evidences to corroborate this view, as would be inevitable,
as the results of three centuries of tutelage according to Spanish
models. But the man who looks beneath the surface sees at once that
the Filipinos are not 'Latins' and were not 'Latinized,' and that
these intellectual Latins, floating at the top of Filipino society
are as mistaken as can be in assuming that they are representative
of their people. The truth is, the Filipinos, in the mass, are, as
regards the purposes of any real education, virgin material to work
upon. Not only has their national and social life not been cast over
in Latin molds, but Spanish influence was just sufficient, added to
their undeveloped state at the time of the conquest, so that there
are no 'Filipino molds' of civilization. They are really just ready
to be worked upon, and whatever fundamental elements of 'Filipino
nationality' there are latent, whatever inherent or acquired social
traits properly constituting a 'Filipino soul,' will come to the
front with this new opportunity." [118]
It is impossible to give a comprehensive résumé of American efforts
toward the education of the Filipinos. The captious critic will
emphasize the mistakes which have been made and which will be made
in the future, and it is yet perhaps too early to make a pronounced
statement as to the results; but this much may be said, and in no
spirit of American self-congratulation, namely, that the Filipino
is at present enjoying the greatest opportunity that has ever been
offered to him to acquire an education. The chief problem of the
Philippines has well been said to be that of education. [119] Chief
among future developments must be industrial education, which will
not only train rightly the great dexterity of the Filipino, but also
teach him the dignity of work with the hands, whatever his rank or
station, and thus help to fit him for, and hasten the time when he
shall enjoy greater self-government than he enjoys at present.
Below we give the direct available sources for a study of American
education in the Philippines, from which the student may be able
to study the question in its many phases. It is to be noted that
a study of the present-day education in the islands must always be
made hand-in-hand with that of the past. As might be expected, the
majority of such sources are government documents.
Public Laws and Resolutions passed by the United States Philippine
Commission (published by authority of the U. S. Philippine Commission,
Manila). The various volumes of these laws contain the following acts
concerned with education (number of act and date alone being given).
1900--3, Sept. 12; 4, Sept. 12; 11, Oct. 3; 15, Oct. 10; 32,
Oct. 24. 1901--69, Jan. 5 (accompanied later in vol. by arguments
of Dr. T. H. Pardo de Tavera and others against the rector of the
university of Santo Tomás, and the Roman Catholic Church, in regard
to the college of San José; and appearing also in Senate doc.,
no. 190, 56th Congress, 2d session); 74, Jan. 21; 93, Mar. 4;
97, Mar. 9; 110, Mar. 30; 129, May 16; 156, July 1; 163, July
13; 180, July 24; 201, Aug. 13; 222, Sept. 6; 228, Sept. 7; 239,
Sept. 25; 248, Oct. 2; 264, Oct. 14; 285, Oct. 29; 291, Nov. 2;
311, Dec. 4. 1902--330, Jan. 9; 339, Jan. 28; 373, Mar. 7; 407,
May 24; 415, June 9; 446, Aug. 15; 453, Oct. 8; 490, Oct. 27; 512,
Nov. 10; 514, Nov. 11; 524, Nov. 18; 532, Nov. 24; 563, Dec. 22;
565, Dec. 22. 1903--600, Jan. 27; 661, Mar. 5; 672, Mar. 7; 682,
Mar. 14; 686, Mar. 17; 734, April 8; 744, April 8; 795, July
23; 807, July 27; 810, July 30; 832, Aug. 12; 837, Aug. 24; 846,
Aug. 24; 854, Aug. 26; 858, Aug. 27; 880, Sept. 10; 904, Sept. 25;
917, Oct. 1; 919, Oct. 2; 997, Nov. 17; 1018, Dec. 2. 1904--1048,
Feb. 6; 1049, Feb. 11; 1057, Feb. 20; 1085, Mar. 10; 1133, Apr. 28;
1175, June 2; 1188, June 29; 1199, July 19; 1216, Aug. 17; 1225,
Aug. 31; 1231, Oct. 14; 1251, Nov. 25; 1275, Dec. 6. 1905--Jan. 12.
Of these the most important is act no. 74 (and its various amendments),
establishing a Department of Public Instruction in the Philippines,
and appropriating $40,000 for the organization and maintenance of a
normal and trade school in Manila, and $15,000 for the organization
and maintenance of an agricultural school in the island of Negros,
for the year 1901. Many of the acts are appropriations for various
purposes. In addition to the above, acts touching archives and
laboratories, as well as various other matters, may be considered as
having educational value.
Reports of the Philippine Commission (Washington). Of chief value in
this publication are the annual reports of the Secretary of Public
Instruction, such reports beginning for the year 1902. It is to
be noted that these reports contain the following (we cite from
the Commission report for 1905, just issued): General report of
the secretary of Public Instruction; report of the superintendent
of Education; report of the chief of the Bureau of Architecture
and Construction of Public Buildings; report of the Public Printer;
report of the Bureau of Archives, Patents, Copyrights, etc.; report
of the acting librarian of the American circulating Library; report
of the editor of the Official Gazette. Special references in the
various reports are as follows:
1900--i, pp. 17-42; 1901--i, pp. 133-148, ii, pp. 511-575 (appendix
FF containing Fred W. Atkinson's report); 1902--first annual report
of the Secretary of Public Instruction, year ending Oct. 15, 1902,
ii, pp. 865-1049; 1903--second annual report of the Secretary
of Public Instruction, iii, pp. 667-985; 1900-1903--containing
various general reports for those years, and which occur in the
preceding volumes, pp. 121-129, 257-272, 399-434, and 685-721;
1904--third annual report, etc., iii, pp. 811-971; 1905--fourth
annual report, etc., ending June 30, 1905, iv, pp. 369-652.
In addition to the above much other educational matter will be found
scattered through the other volumes for each year. These volumes are
also published separately in the Reports of the War Department.
Reports of the Commissioner of Education (Washington). Several of
these reports contain matter on the Philippines, as follows:
1899-1900--ii, chap. xxix (in part), pp. 1595-1640, "Intellectual
attainments and education of the Filipinos" (contains some Spanish
data, act. 74, of the Philippine Commission, a bibliography,
and the Tagálog alphabet); 1901--ii, chap. xxix, pp. 1317-1440,
"Present educational movement in the Philippines," by Fred
W. Atkinson; 1902--ii, chap. i, pp. 2219-2271, "Education in
the Philippines;" 1903--chap. xlvi (in part), pp. 2385-2388,
"Education in the Philippines" (taken from report of David
P. Barrows for the year ending Sept. 30, 1903).
Bulletins of the Bureau of Education (Manila, 1904 and 1905),
as follows:
No. 1, Philippine Normal School prospectus for the year 1903-4,
(in both English and Spanish); no. 2, Course of study in vocal
music (for vacation normal institutes); no. 3, Philippine School of
Arts and Trades (1904-1905, in both English and Spanish); no. 4,
Philippine Nautical School (prospectus for the year 1904-1905,
in both English and Spanish); no. 5, Notes on the treatment
of Smallpox (for use of teachers); no. 6, Report of Industrial
Exhibits of the Philippine Schools (Louisiana Purchase Exposition);
no. 7, Courses of Instruction for the Public Schools of the
Philippine Islands; no. 8 (?); no. 9, List of Philippine Baptismal
Names; no. 10, Government in the United States (prepared for use
in the Philippine public schools); no. 11, Courses in mechanical
drawing, woodworking, and ironworking for provincial secondary
schools; no. 12, Advanced and postgraduate studies offered by the
Philippine Normal School (preparation for entrance to American
colleges and universities or to the university of the Philippines;
in English and Spanish).
Municipal Code (Manila, 1905). Contains matter on schools, teachers,
etc.
Census of the Philippine Islands (Washington, 1905), iii, pp. 638-669,
"[Education] under the Americans," by Prescott F. Jernegan, of
the Philippine Normal School (a short account through 1903). Also,
another division entitled, "Schools: schedule; summary of statistics;
classification; buildings; teachers; pupils; sources of revenue;
expenditures," pp. 670-694.
Bulletin of the Bureau of Labor. No. 58, May, 1905 (Washington,
1905), pp. 721-905, "Labor Conditions in the Philippines," by Victor
S. Clark. Much of this will be found to have a bearing on education.
Books on the Philippines
Atkinson, Fred W.: The Philippine Islands (Ginn and Co., 1905);
especially chap. xiv, pp. 373-412, "Education."
Freer, William B.: Philippine experiences of an American teacher
(New York, 1906).
LeRoy, James A.: Philippine Life in town and country (New York and
London, 1905); especially chap. vii, pp. 202-245, "Education and public
opinion." Most of this book has a bearing on educational matters.
Stuntz, Homer C.: The Philippines and the Far East (Cincinnati and
New York); especially chap. xii, pp. 185-215, "Educating a nation."
Willis, Henry Parker: Our Philippine problem (New York, 1905),
especially chap. x, pp. 226-246, "American education in the
Philippines." See a criticism of this book by James A. LeRoy, in
Political Science Quarterly, for June, 1906.
We shall bring this brief statement regarding American education in the
Philippines to a close with a short abstract of the recent address by
Dr. T. H. Pardo de Tavera, before the teachers assembled at Manila
in order to attend the Summer Institute, founded by the director
of Public Instruction, and inaugurated this year, and published in
the supplement of the issue of May 17, 1906, of El Renacimiento. His
point of view of true civilization and education is in the main that
they are the resultant of not one but of many factors, and that those
of one race may be debtors to another race and yet not lose their
identity. True progress does not consist in exclusiveness but in the
admittance of all that is good notwithstanding its source. By adopting
Anglo-Saxon civilization and education, Filipinos will not weaken,
but strengthen themselves. The viewpoint of a people may change,
and must change often in order that they may progress. To speak of
special mentalities is vague and misleading. On whatever side the
situation of the Philippines be considered, he says, whether political,
social, or economic, it is seen that "public instruction is the chief
factor, to which we should direct the most vigorous action of our
energies." Progress is the direct and necessary result of education,
and the Filipinos realizing this desire the extension of schools. It
has often been said that the Filipinos need an education in harmony
with their customs and traditions, in order that they may preserve
their peculiar manner of existence, or "that the conscience called
poetically 'the Filipino soul' might not be changed or disfigured." Let
those who criticize the American method of education, on the ground
that it is destroying the "Filipino soul" define that term, and name
the characteristic qualities belonging to it, which will disappear with
the new education; and let them propose a system of education. Some
wish to preserve the traditional education of Filipinos which is
conservative and exclusive. The teaching of Filipinos, since Spain is
a Catholic monarchy, where the divine origin of rulers is a tenet,
has always been dogmatic, and blind obedience is to be given to
the government. Such teaching produces a conservative and exclusive
society, which is opposed to change. The Filipinos desire a democratic
government, but their traditions and education form in them a mentality
quite opposed to democratic ideas. Consequently, they must first change
their mental viewpoint before they can become democratic. It must be
a work of peaceful evolution, through free instruction. Living as they
are now under a democratic form of government, Filipinos should adopt
a form of education in accordance with the ideals of democracy. The
two forces working in the formation of the character of individuals,
and hence peoples, are conservatism and the reforming force, the latter
of which means progress and constitutes education. Those peoples who
do not progress live under the laws of conservatism, inheritance, and
tradition. Those progress who have conquered inherited and traditional
traits by means of education. Some races are inferior to others, but
that inferiority is not necessarily permanent. Inferiority is purely
an historical cause, and inferior races are those that preserve their
national soul unchanged through the centuries. The Spanish race is not
inferior to the Anglo-Saxon, but its education is under a political
and religious dogmatism which has made of Spain a country with a
traditional and truly conservative soul. Italy has gone through and
is even now going through a period of regeneration. In Spain, men are
struggling for better education based on Anglo-Saxon principles. [120]
Before the Filipino revolution, many Filipinos were sent to Europe to
study without any fear of destroying the "Filipino soul;" but now that
the civilization that they went to seek has sought them, under the form
of Anglo-Saxon public instruction, there is a strange reaction. The
Franks and Gauls who submitted to Roman civilization have not lost
their peculiar identity. Had they not adopted the Roman civilization,
their condition would have been that of the Malays under British
domination, who are now inferior. Since they did adopt it they were
enabled to raise their coefficient of capacity. The Filipino mentality
has been already changed by Spanish education, the customs and life of
the two races having been quite distinct. Civilization is the result of
the contact of peoples by means of which the victories obtained in all
departments of intelligence and morality may be increased, perfected,
and transmitted from one to another. Anglo-Saxon education will not
cause the Filipinos to lose their desire for independence. The Filipino
revolution was started by men who received a Spanish education. The
entire Filipinist movement was guided by men educated in Europe and the
University, the latter of which was Spanish. They were broader men. The
Anglo-Saxon education cannot make submissive peoples. It is destined
to form individuals capable of thinking for themselves, and of working
according to their own impulses. Those civilizations that mark an epoch
in history were the result of other civilizations. The Anglo-Saxon
race today bear the torch of civilization formerly borne by the
Romans. The Anglo-Saxon civilization will extend, but not Anglo-Saxon
domination. The Japanese are an example of a race who have changed
their standpoint in regard to civilization. Filipino mentality is
composed of good and bad traits. Complete education must be arrived at
by conserving the good and eliminating the bad. Complete assimilation
cannot take place. The Filipino character cannot entirely change,
for the instruction in the schools is not sufficient to cause such
a radical change. Happiness does not consist in seeking easeful and
unresponsible repose, but in the struggle for existence that entails
work. Filipinos must learn that true progress comes through struggle
and a show of energy. The Filipinos are intelligent, easy to educate,
and prepared by their Spanish education of three centuries for the new
education now offered them. Education means advance. The greater means
of communication that are to be established will aid in the work by
destroying inequalities and composing differences. The various dialects
are a great barrier to Filipino homogeneity, and a common language
is needed. The Filipino people free and capable of self-government
will be formed by the American and Filipino teachers. "Filipino soul"
[121] is a poetical expression which reveals a poetical mentality in
those who use it. Such mentality is insufficient for the progress of
a people along the true path of modern civilization.
NOTES
[1] The following summary of events, sometimes in full translation
and sometimes abridged, is obtained from the histories of Concepción,
Zúñiga, and Montero y Vidal, the source of each paragraph being
indicated at the end.
[2] "As the latter [i.e., Bustamante] could not defend himself, and
it was for the interest of the religious orders and of the principal
citizens of Manila that the blame for what had occurred should recoil
upon Bustamante, they accumulated against him numberless charges--most
of them formulated by his assassins, by the officials who had defrauded
the exchequer, by those who were debtors to the treasury, and by all
who, instead of making amends for their offences in a military post,
had been replaced in their offices by Archbishop Cuesta" (Montero y
Vidal, Hist. de Filipinas, i, pp. 430-431).
[3] Sebastian de Totanes was a noted member of the Franciscan order in
the islands. He was born in the village of Totanes in Spain, in 1687,
and entered that order in 1706. After finishing his studies he gave
instruction in the Toledo convent for several years, departing thence
(1715) for the Filipinas missions, which he joined two years later. He
held various high offices in the order there, among them being that
of minister provincial (1738-41); he also administered the churches
in Sampaloc (1721-29), Lilio (1732-35), and Pagsanhan (1735-38). In
1746 he went to Europe as procurator of his order to Roma and Madrid,
and died at the latter city, on February 13, 1748. He left a grammar
and manual of the Tagálog language, which is regarded as one of the
beat works of its kind; it was published at Sampaloc in 1745. (See
Huerta's Estado.)
[4] "Although the archbishop had not, in strictness, any direct
connection with the assassination of the head of government of the
islands, his connivance with the seditious element, the fact that the
authority was entrusted to him, and his tolerance and lenity in the
investigation and punishment of the criminals, aroused against him the
wrath of the [home] government; and, in spite of his advanced age,
he was transferred to the bishopric of Mechoacan, in Nueva Espana"
(Montero y Vidal, Hist. de Filipinas, i, p. 432).
[5] "In order to curb these so bold and inhuman actions, it was
necessary that the squadrons should sail from Manila; for if they
should be permanently stationed at Samboangan the expenses would be
insupportable in so barren a region. If this establishment had been
fixed in Yloylo, a fertile and abundant land, and sufficiently near
to the Moros, the consumption of provisions on the voyages would
have been more endurable; while at the same time there might remain
in Samboangan a regular garrison of thirty-five men, and it would be
a landing-place sufficient for our vessels when on a cruise, which
from that port could go more quickly for any emergency. Moreover,
in Samboangan there is not an adequate number of boats, nor is there
in Yloylo--enormous sums being spent on the walls [of those forts]
alone, without their being able to hinder the passage of the Moros,
or prevent their infesting the provinces." (Concepción, Hist. de
Philipinas, x, pp. 184, 185.)
[6] This account does not agree with the historical sketch given
by N. M. Saleeby in his Studies in Moro History, Law, and Religion
(Manila, 1905) pp. 57-59; but this is not surprising, as Concepción
probably had but inaccurate and second-hand information regarding
the rulers of Joló and Mindanao. According to Saleeby, Manamir,
a great-grandson of Dipatwan Qudrat (the Corralat of the Spanish
writers), was declared sultan after the death of his father Barahaman;
but the government was usurped by his uncle Kuda, and civil war
followed, which must have lasted more than thirty years. Kuda was
finally murdered by some Sulus whom he had invited to aid him against
Manamir, who therefore obtained the ascendency for a time. But
the Sulus fomented discord between Manamir and his brother Anwar,
which brought on even worse hostilities and murders, weakening both
sides. Manamir was assassinated by his nephew Malinug, and his sons
Pakir Mawlana and Pakaru-d-Din were obliged to leave Magindanao, and
retired to Tamontaka; and the larger part of the towns of Magindanao
and Slangan were destroyed by fire. Sultan Anwar died at Batawa and
Malinug assumed the sultanate after his father's death, and kept up the
fight. "After a tedious, desultory war, Malinug fled up the Pulangi
to Bwayan. Pakir Mawlana then got possession of all the lands about
Magindanao, and peace was made soon after. Malinug died a natural
death, and some time later his two sons visited Pakir Mawlana." This
account is cited from Capt. Thomas Forrest's Voyage to New Guinea
and the Moluccas (London, 1779), a voyage made in 1774-76; Forrest
obtained his information directly from Pakir Mawlana himself. That
ruler, however, could not have been the one mentioned in the text;
Mawlana is apparently an official or a hereditary title.
From Forrest's original account (pp. 201-206) we take the following
items in regard to the above events: "The following short account
of the history of Magindano, is drawn from original records, in the
possession of Fakymolano, elder brother to Paharadine the present
Sultan, and father to Kybad Zachariel, the present Rajah Moodo; they
are wrote in the Magindano tongue, and Arabic character. I took it
down from Fakymolano's own mouth, who dictated in Malay.
"Before the arrival of Serif Alli, the first Mahometan prince who
came from Mecca to Magindano, the latter had kings of her own. For the
towns of Magindano, Selangan, Catibtuan, and Semayanan had, or assumed,
the right of taking from the banks of the Dano, that portion of earth,
on which the sovereigns were to be consecrated. The towns of Malampyan
and Lusuden, are said to have been the first who joined Serif Alli:
the other four soon acceded. Serif married a daughter of the last
king of the royal line, and on this marriage founded his title to
the crown. About the time that Kabansuan son of Serif Alli reigned,
a person named Budiman, was Pangaran (a title much used in Sumatra,
and inferior to Sultan or Rajah) of Sooloo. Budiman had a grandson,
who became his successor; his name was Bonsoo, and he was related to
the family that governed at Borneo: which family came also from Mecca,
and the head of it was brother to Serif Alli. Bonsoo had two children;
a daughter, Potely, by a wife; and a son, Bakliol, by a sandle or
concubine. Bakliol, the bastard, robbed his sister Potely (a name
which signifies princess) of her right, threw off his dependence on
Magindano, and assumed the title of Sultan, his fathers having been
only Pangarans of Sooloo. [Potely's daughter, Panianamby, married
Kudarat (the Corralat of Spanish writers), who was succeeded by his
son Tidoly; the latter had two sons, Abdaraman and Kuddy. Abdaraman
was succeeded by his son Seid Moffat]; but, being an infant, Kuddy
his uncle usurped the government, and went to Semoy, carrying with him
the effects of the deceased Sultan. Thence he invited the Sooloos to
support him against the lawful heir. [They, however, treacherously
slew Kuddy, and plundered his camp, seizing therein many pieces of
heavy cannon. Seid Moffat's party then obtained control, but the
country was torn by dissensions and civil war. Finally, Seid Moffat
was assassinated by his nephew Molenu, but left two sons, Fakymolano
and Paharadine; they were obliged to leave Magindano, which town and
Selangan were nearly destroyed by fire, and the country was laid
waste. After several years of petty war, Molenu was driven up the
Palangy to Boyan.] Fakymolano then got possession of all the lands
about Magindano, and peace was made soon after, about thirty years
ago. Molenu died a natural death, leaving by concubines, two sons,
Topang and Uku, also a natural daughter Myong. Fakymolano had about
this time given up the Sultanship to his younger brother Paharadine,
on condition that Kybad Zachariel, his own son, should be elected
Rajah Moodo. Topang and Uku, for some time after the peace, visited
Fakymolano and his son; but afterwards, on Paharadine's marriage with
Myong, their sister, they grew shy, as the Sultan took them greatly
into his favour. Topang had from his father large possessions, which
made him formidable to Rajah Moodo; he was also closely connected
with the Sooloos, and had married Gulaludines, daughter of Bantillan,
once Sultan of Sooloo. By this time Rajah Moodo had got himself
well fortified at Coto-Intang, which is within musket shot of the
Sultan's palace, and within cannon shot of the strong wooden castle
of Topang; both of which lie on the south side of the Pelangy. The
Sultan Paharadine has no children by his consort Myong; but had by a
concubine, a son named Chartow, now arrived at maturity. Whether Myong,
who is said to have entirely governed the Sultan, favoured Chartow, or
her elder brother Topang, is uncertain; but she was believed the cause
of the coolness that prevailed between the Sultan and Rajah Moodo;
who, though duly elected, and acknowledged lawful successor, yet,
when I came to Magindano, in May, 1775, had not visited his uncle for
above a year. Fakymolano, Rajah Moodo's father, lived at that time,
just without the gate of his son's fort." Some of the allusions in
this account need explanation, which is partly obtained elsewhere
in Forrest's pages. "The town, that goes properly by the name of
Magindano, consists at present, of scarce more than twenty houses. They
stand close to, and just above where a little creek, about eighteen
foot broad, runs perpendicular into the Pelangy, from a small lake
about one mile distant, and about half a mile in circumference. This
small lake is called the Dano; the creek I have just mentioned, is the
Rawass (or river) Magindano; and from the banks of the lake or Dano,
a little earth is taken, upon which the Raiah Moodo (that is young
king) must stand when he is consecrated Sultan. The Rajah Moodo is
elected by the states, and succeeds the Sultan; similar to the king
of the Romans succeeding the emperors of Germany. A Watamama (that is,
male child) is also elected, who becomes Rajah Moodo, when Rajah Moodo
becomes Sultan." "The town of Selangan may be said to make one town
with Magindano, as communicating with it by several bridges over the
Rawass; it extends about one mile down the south side of the Pelangy,
forming a decent street for one-half of the distance. In the lower part
the town extends about half a mile, in several irregular streets;
where many Chinese reside. In the town of Selangan altogether,
may be about two hundred houses; below the Sultan's palace, about
twenty yards, is a brick and mortar foundation remaining of a Spanish
chapel." The spelling of proper names in Forrest's remarks is more
or less phonetic and Anglicized; the reader may compare them with
the accurate spelling furnished above by Dr. Saleeby. In VOL. XLI of
this series (pp. 280, 281) will be seen a map of the valley of the
Pulangui River, with the towns on its banks and its tributaries; the
original is in the British Museum, and is evidently the basis for two
maps which Forrest published in his Voyage (at p. 200). (Cf. these,
and the map of the Rio Grande in U. S. Gazetteer, p. 662.) The date
given in VOL. XLI was furnished at the Museum as approximately correct;
but Mawlana's map was given to Forrest in 1775, and the latter says
(p. 186) that it was deposited in the British Museum. The sultan of
Mindanao ceded to the English, at Forrest's request, the island of
Bunwoot, now called Bonga; it forms the shelter to Polloc harbor. The
town of Mindanao or Magindano was at or near the site of the present
Cotabato--"population, 3,000. The Chinese control the commerce of the
place." (U. S. Gazetteer, p. 475.) Forrest says (p. 185): "The Chinese
settled at Magindano are not permitted to trade higher [up the river]
than Boyan; the Mindanoers being jealous of their superior abilities
in trade."
[7] The pay of native auxiliaries from Bohol was (in 1733)
reckoned at a monthly wage for each man of "thirty gantas of rice,
four silver reals, a span [mano] of tobacco, and one chinanta of
salt." (Concepción, Hist. de Philipinas, x, p. 311.)
"The Indian's largest unit of weight is a chinanta, which they divide
into 10 cates of the province, which are 20 of standard weight [de
romana]; the cate contains 8 taels of the province, which are 16
of standard weight." (Encina and Bermejo's Arte Cebuano, Tambobong,
1894, p. 159.)
[8] The governor sent orders to the alcaldes-mayor that "all the
rancherías or visitas close to the coast should be compulsorily united,
either to the larger villages or to each other, so that even the
smallest village should exceed, if possible, five hundred tributes--in
consequence of which measure all should fortify themselves, as the
lay of the land should permit.... All these measures were at that time
admirable, and would have been thoroughly effective if the inclusion
of the smaller villages in the larger ones, or their consolidation,
had been carried out more energetically by those whose duty it
was. For this undertaking, and to stir up the negligent and careless,
the armadas were more necessary than for opposing and restraining the
Moros; they gave but little attention to the latter, and still less
to the former, and everything was left in the same necessity, and
the same condition, [as before]." (Concepción, Hist. de Philipinas,
x, pp. 364, 368.)
[9] A royal order of November 19, 1815, provided for charity schools
in the convents of friars and nuns, for primary education, to give
instruction in the Christian doctrine, in good morals, and in the
first letters to the children of the poor, from the age of ten to
twelve. (Barrantes, Instrucción primaria, p. 77.)
[10] Vicente Barrantes, from whom these extracts are taken, was for
some years secretary to the governor-general at Manila. See Report
of Commissioner of Education, 1902, ii, p. 2219.
[11] Fred W. Atkinson, formerly general superintendent of public
instruction in the Philippines, says: "The early work of the Jesuits
in training the Filipinos was commendable, and along right lines in
furnishing a common school education. It would have been productive
of permanently good results if this order had not been supplanted by
the local padres, under whose direction the common branches suffered
through lack of attention." See Report of Commissioner of Education,
1900-1901, ii, p. 1317.
[12] July 27, 1863, several copies of the plan of public instruction
approved for the island of Cuba on the fifteenth of the same month
were sent by royal order to the governor of the Philippines, with the
object of having the proper measure drawn up, and the advisable plan
proposed to the ministry, in regard to the application of said plan
to those islands. By decree of October 6, Echagüe created a board of
reform of the plan of studies, in order to meet the requirements of
the preceding royal order. See Montero y Vidal, iii, p. 403.
[13] See a summary of Barrantes's book in Report of Commissioner of
Education, 1902, ii, pp. 2219-2224.
[14] "Before this date public schools were hardly known in the
Philippines, and instruction was confined solely to the children of
parents able to pay for it." See Census of Philippines, iii, p. 576.
[15] In the decree of the superior government, of May 7, 1871, occurs
the following interesting description of conditions of the schools in
the Philippines: "There are at present an infinite number of villages
without schools; there are entire provinces without edifices where
schools can be located; there are also many schools, or rather all
the schools of the archipelago, with the exception of a few in the
capital, which do not possess the material equipment for education
and teaching; the children have to sit on the ground, and remain
there for hours and hours, packed together as if they were not what
they are; books are not given to them; they have no writing desks;
they are not given pens, ink, or books. Those schools do not merit
the name of such; they are not schools, sad it is to say so: they
are pernicious collections of children, where since they do not gain
anything morally or intellectually, they lose much, and most of all in
their good physical development; in fine those schools are an expense,
and show no result." The same decree states the need of economic and
administrative reforms in the Philippines, and the need of "roads,
canals, ports, postal communications, both inside and outside the
archipelago, telegraphs, professional institutions of superior
instruction, an active life without fetters for industry, trade,
and agriculture;" but all this must be for the greatest use of the
greatest number, and all monopoly must be avoided. "To obtain it human
means offer no other mean more energetic, more prompt, and powerful,
than the creation and organization of the village school, and its
supervision, and its location and erection in the most healthful
and convenient place, clean, neat, and modestly furnished, so that
it may attract the glances of all," and may thus be of the greatest
good. See Grifol y Aliaga, pp. 218, 219.
[16] The parish priests of the Philippines were called "reverend"
or "devout" according as they were regulars or native seculars. See
Barrantes's Instrucción primaria, p. 10.
[17] See the titles of these orders from 1863 to 1894, post.
[18] The Spanish government evinced a great interest "in giving the
Filipinos a primary education commensurate with the standing of a
civilized nation; but the intentions of the government were frustrated
by ... the religious orders." The "great error of the Spanish nation"
consisted "in placing in the hands of a few institutions [the religious
orders] the future of her colonies in the extreme east, institutions
which did not exist in their native country, and which sought only
the private interests of the corporation or order to which they
belonged. This entire plan of public instruction lived in the minds
of the Spanish legislators, but was never put into practice." Tomás
G. del Rosario, in Census of Philippines, iii, p. 582.
[19] By 1894 there were 2,143 public schools in the Philippines, and
173 sets of provisions regulating them, or tending to the intellectual
development of the people. These laws were only superficial. See
Tomás G. del Rosario, Census of Philippines, iii, p. 593.
[20] The central treasury of ways and means (Grifol y Aliaga, p. 3,
note 2) having been suppressed, the expenses of this institution
are at present [1894] defrayed as a charge on chapter 1, art. 1. of
the budget of the local funds of the central treasury. In the budget
of 1893-94, the appropriation of 10,450 pesos was set aside in the
following manner:
pesos
1 director, 800
6 professors, each 600 pesos, 4,800
1 drawing teacher, 600
1 vocal music teacher, 480
1 gymnastic teacher, 400
3 assistants, each 400 pesos, 1,200
15 resident pupils, each 120 pesos, for only three months, 450
Wages of the attendants and servants of the school, 600
For office expenses, conservation, and innovation of
furniture, and other effects, 1,120
------
Total, 10,450
[21] The last classification made of the schools of this archipelago
was that approved by superior decree, February 27, 1893, which was
published in the Manila Gaceta, May 10 following. (Grifol y Aliaga,
p. 4, note 5.)
[22] "What contributed greatly, also, to the general backwardness
of primary instruction was the small salary paid teachers, as it was
impossible for them to live on what was paid them.... The small salary
paralyzed any good will and ambition to work." T. G. del Rosario in
Census of Philippines, iii, p. 595. See also, ante, p. 80, note 20.
[23] Commonly called directorcillos (Grifol y Aliaga, p. 5, note 2).
[24] The principalia was formed of those natives who have occupied
petty government posts in the islands. See VOL. XVII, p. 331.
[25] It is to be understood that the office of superior civil governor
is equivalent to the present office of governor general (Grifol y
Aliaga, p. 6, note 3).
[26] This superior commission, appointed by superior decree of March
15, 1864, was suppressed by another decree of the superior civil
government, February 23, 1871, in accordance with order no. 1183,
of the ministry of the colonies, of December 5, 1870, by which was
created the ad interim Superior Board of Public Instruction (Grifol
y Aliaga, p. 6, note 4).
[27] Now judge of first instance (Grifol y Aliaga, p. 6, note 5).
[28] Now manager or subdelegate of the public treasury.
[29] See Wm. B. Freer's Philippine Experiences of an American Teacher,
chapter viii, pp. 97-109, for an account of methods used in normal
instruction after American occupation.
[30] Those pupils styled throughout this translation "regular" or in
Spanish de numero, are those appointed directly by the government,
the "de numero" (of the number) indicating that a certain number were
thus appointed. The supernumerary (literally, "above the number")
resident pupils are all others.
[31] The clothing recommended by a sub-commission of the superior
commission of primary instruction, November 24, 1864, (Grifol y Aliaga,
p. 20), for regular and supernumerary resident pupils of the Manila
normal school, was as follows:
Estimated price
pesos fuertes centavos
2 pairs of white pantaloons, 3 0
2 pairs of colored pantaloons, 3 0
2 white jackets, 2 0
1 coat of black alpaca, 2 50
2 black ribbons for the neck, 0 25
1 black cap, with the initials E. N. in silver,
according to model, 2 0
2 pairs of shoes, 2 0
1 pair of chinelas [i.e., heelless slipper], 0 50
10 white shirts, 10 0
2 colored shirts, 1 50
12 pocket handkerchiefs, 1 0
12 pairs of socks, 1 0
4 pairs of underdrawers, 1 25
1 mat, 0 50
1 pillow, 0 75
4 pillow-cases, 0 75
4 sheets, 6 0
2 bed covers, 2 0
Clothesbrush, comb, scissors, etc., 1 0
---------
Total 40 0
[32] i.e., All-Souls' day.
[33] The three days preceding Lent.
[34] The United States government continued this school, and gave
it the support ($8,880, Mexican) formerly furnished by the Spanish
government. See Report of Philippine Commission, 1900, i, p. 36.
[35] May 21, 1840, Governor Lardizábal communicated to the Audiencia a
royal order of October 4, 1839, in regard to the necessary conditions
to be observed for the introduction and circulation of books in
the islands, the previous designation of those deserving censure,
given by his Majesty's fiscal, a censor being later appointed by the
government, and another by the archbishop, the fiscal again reviewing
the qualification and the censure; and if "it should result that
there was sufficient grounds to prohibit the circulation of any work,
because it contains principles, maxims, and doctrines contrary to the
rights of the legitimate throne, or to the religion of the State, the
book is not only to be taken back, but shipped back immediately." In
case of dispute between the two censors, the fiscal was to decide
(royal order, November 19, 1840). See Montero y Vidal, iii, pp. 29, 30.
[36] The important circular of the superior civil government of
August 30, 1867 (concerning school attendance), treats of the manner
of exercise of the supervision of the schools by the parish priests
and provincial chiefs. Various other acts of legislation refer to
the same matter. (Grifol y Aliaga, p. 118, note 1.)
[37] The first two books mentioned are: the Catecismo de la doctrina
cristiana, by Gaspar Astete, which has passed through many Spanish
editions; and the Catéchisme historique, by Claude Fleury, which
has passed through many different editions in many languages. José
Francisco de Iturzaeta has published several works on educational
subjects.
[38] James A. LeRoy (Philippine Life, p. 203) says of the textbooks
used in the Philippines: "After 1863, and up to the American conquest,
the catechism remained the chief feature of daily work in the primary
schools, often relegating all else to an insignificant place--much
depending upon the preparation, at best a scanty one, of the teacher. A
badly printed little 150 page textbook, prescribed by the government
for the schools, was reader, writer, speller, arithmetic, geography,
history of Spain and the world (Spain overshadowing), Spanish grammar
(quite commonly not taught, because the teacher knew little or
nothing of it), and handbook of religious and moral precepts (many
pages). This book, moreover, shows how pitifully inadequate was the
Filipino child's schooling at the very best; for often not even this
textbook was employed, perhaps because the teacher was not prepared
to use it."
[39] The Philippine school report for 1892, entitled "Report of the
children's schools for both sexes, at present in these islands,
classified in accordance with the orders of his Excellency,
the governor-general, in his decree of July 29, 1892," gives the
following data. The schools are classified by grades, i.e., into
schools of entrada, ascenso, and finishing schools of the second and
first rank; and the order in charge of each village or province is
also given. We condense from this report (a manuscript belonging to
Rev. T. C. Middleton, O.S.A.), the number of schools in the various
provinces, and the order or orders in charge of the same.
Augustinians
Province No. of Schools
Abra, 28
Antique, 57
Bontoc, 8
Ilocos Norte, 30
Lepanto, 20
Quiangan, 2
Tiagan, 9
Union, 35
Augustinians and Franciscans
Bulacan, 68
Augustinians and seculars
Cebú, 120
Capiz, 65
Ilocos Sur, 61
Iloilo, 95
Pampanga, 54
Augustinians, Franciscans, and seculars
Batangas, 46
Nueva Ecija, 49
Augustinians and Dominicans
Tarlac, 34
Augustinians and all other orders
Manila, 84
Franciscans
Albay, 88
Burias, 4
Camarines Norte, 20
Camarines Sur, 68
Isla del Corregidor, 3
Infanta, 4
Franciscans and Dominicans
Bataan, 36
Nueva Vizcaya, 16
Franciscans and Recollects
Misamis, 74
Leite, 89
Principe, 5
Samar, 76
Surigao, 59
Tayabas, 45
Recollects
Bohol, 94
Cavite, 50
Cottabato, 6
Calamianes, 10
Isla de Negros, occidental, 56
Isla de Negros, oriental, 34
Isabela de Basilan (?) 2
Masbate and Ticao, 23
Mindoro, 44
Paragua, 6
Romblon, 33
Zambales, 48
Recollects and Capuchins
Carolinas, orientales, 4
Carolinas, occidentales, 3
Recollects and Dominicans
Morong, 30
Recollects and seculars
Zamboanga, 15
Dominicans
Cagayan, 39
Islas Batanes, 14
Isabela de Luzón, 33
Laguna, 56
Pangasinan, 62
Jesuits
Davao, 11
Dapitan, 12
Capuchins
Marianas, 4
[40] LeRoy, ut supra, pp. 203-204, says: "The advance in primary
instruction from 1863 to 1896 was altogether notable, though the
figures revealing it are largely superficial, after all, in their
significance. The number of school buildings increased in the villages
from seven hundred to twenty-one hundred, but the number of pupils
did not reach two hundred thousand, in all probability, as against
one hundred and thirty-five thousand in 1866."
[41] Notwithstanding this admirable prescription, Tomás G. del Rosario,
writing in Census of Philippines, iii, p. 595, says concerning
the sanitary qualities of the Philippine schools: "The necessary
sanitation was not observed in the schools, either to preserve the
health of the children or for personal cleanliness, an important
purpose of every educational system. Many of the schools were in
the filthiest condition. They had no water-closets nor play-grounds,
and no instruction was given in physical culture or in social matters."
[42] According to article 25 of the penal code in force in these
islands, corporal punishments, in addition to that of death, are
perpetual chains, perpetual imprisonment, perpetual exile, perpetual
banishment, temporal chains, temporal exile, temporal banishment,
imprisonment at hard labor, lesser imprisonment, confinement, absolute
perpetual and temporal disqualification, and absolute and special
perpetual and temporal disqualification for any public charge, right
of active or passive suffrage, profession, or trade. (Grifol y Aliaga,
p. 123, note 2.)
[43] The provisions (Grifol y Aliaga, p. 123, note 3) in force in
regard to the salaries of teachers and assistants is that of the
superior decree of July 29, 1892, which prescribes the following
monthly salaries:
Boys' schools Pesos
Término schoolteachers of the first grade, 40
Término schoolteachers of the second grade, 30
Ascenso schoolteachers, 22
Entrada schoolteachers, 17
Assistants of the first class, 13
Assistants of the second class, 8
Girls' schools
Término schoolteachers, 26
Ascenso schoolteachers, 20
Entrada schoolteachers, 15
Assistants of the first class, 12
Assistants of the second class, 8
[44] The superior decree of August 11, 1892, conceded annual allowances
to men and women teachers who had taught for fifteen years, and had a
good record. By the decree of July 20, 1894, traveling expenses were
advanced to them. (Grifol y Aliaga, p. 124, note 3.)
[45] The post of assistants of the first class belongs only to boys'
término schools of the first and second class, and in those of girls
to término and ascenso schools. Schools of other grades belong to
assistants of the second class. Substitute assistants, namely, those
who have no certificate, are entitled only to the monthly pay of four
pesos. (Grifol y Aliaga, p. 124, note 4.)
[46] Article 4 of the superior decree of May 7, 1871, rules that
the teaching in the schools for adults shall last eight months per
year, and be given at night, employing two hours every Monday,
Thursday, and Saturday of each week. For the increased work,
an amount of pay equal to what they received during the day was
assigned to the teachers. This decree, as is evident, took away the
dominical character given to the adult schools by these regulations
of December 20, 1863. Notwithstanding the benefit of the increase of
a fourth part of the pay to which teachers are entitled for the adult
schools, very few such schools exist. In the budgets in force now,
the figures for the payment of salaries for the teaching of adults
only reach the sum of 573 pesos distributed among the provinces of
Abra, Cebú, and Pampanga, in the proportion of 318, 210, and 45 pesos,
respectively. (Grifol y Aliaga, p. 126, note 1.)
[47] This Superior Council of Primary Instruction was suppressed by
decree of the superior government, February 23, 1871, in accordance
with order no. 1183, of the ministry of the colonies, December 5,
1870, by which was created the ad interim Superior Board of Public
Instruction, in the manner prescribed by this article and article
15 of the royal decree of August 16, 1876, approved by royal order,
June 5 of the following year. (Grifol y Aliaga, p. 126, note 2.)
[48] Article 12, of the royal decree of May 19, 1893, relative to the
municipal regulation of the villages of Luzón and Visayas, prescribes
among the duties of the municipal captain that of "supervisor of the
offices, schools, and municipal services." On account of this some have
doubted whether the supervision of the schools was taken away from
the parish priests to give it to the municipal captains. That doubt
has been resolved by paragraph 4 of the provisional regulations of the
said royal decree approved by decree of the general government December
9, 1893, for in said paragraph it is stated clearly and distinctly:
"Without prejudice to the supervision in instruction which belongs
to the parish priest, according to the regulations of 1863, whose
powers are not altered in any way, the municipal tribunal shall
constantly exercise a watch over primary instruction, etc." In our
opinion, the above-mentioned doubt has no call for existence, since
the above-mentioned article 12 of the royal decree of May 19, 1893,
refers, as one can see by its own words, to the municipal schools,
and those which are established in the villages of the archipelago
cannot have that character attributed to them, since their expenses
are not met by the municipal tribunals, nor does the appointment
of the staff belong to them, but both are in charge of the central
management. We believe, consequently, that the municipal captains have
not even the secondary or supplementary supervision over the present
schools of the archipelago, which is given them by paragraph 4 of
the provisional regulations of December 9, 1893. (Grifol y Aliaga,
pp. 126, 127, note 5.)
[49] José de Calasanz, or as he is sometimes called, Joseph de
Calasanzio, was born at Peralta, Cataluña, in 1556, and became
a well-known ecclesiastic. On the occasion of a visit to Rome in
1592, touched with compassion at the neglected condition of the
poor children, he renounced his ecclesiastical honors in Spain and
devoted himself to the work of teaching in Rome. There he founded the
Congregation of the Piaristes, consisting of regular clerics, about
1,600, whose object was the charitable education of poor children. The
congregation was approved in 1617 by Paul V, who permitted members to
take the simple vows and adopt their own rules. In 1621 Gregory XV gave
them the title of "Regular clerics of the poor, under the protection
of the Mother of God, for charitable schools." The work soon spread to
the rest of Italy, and to Germany and Poland. The mother house is at
Rome. Its founder, who died in 1648, and was canonized in 1767, refused
to accept the honors of bishop or cardinal. See Grande Encyclopédie.
[50] Article 9 of the decree of the General Division of Civil
Administration, of February 4, 1889, prescribes that on Sunday after
mass the boys shall assemble at the school for an hour, so that the
religious or parish priest may give them the religious teaching that
he deems advisable (Grifol y Aliaga, p. 131, note 1).
[51] In 1868, the studies for the normal school for female teachers
were given in this school. The report on the education of girls
presented by the friars at the exposition at Madrid in 1887 speaks
as follows of it: "While strictly speaking there is no other normal
school for female teachers than that of Nueva Cáceres, we believe,
nevertheless, that this name can be given to the municipal school
for girls of this capital, which is the only institution for young
women supported from public funds--that is, from the funds of the
municipality of Manila. It is true that schoolmistresses can, and
actually do, graduate from any girls' school of this capital, and even
from any private school, as, according to the law in force to secure
this title, the passing of the regular examination is sufficient;
but we believe that the only institution of this character in Manila
which deserves the title of teachers' school is the municipal school,
and we therefore include in the same chapter this school and that
of Santa Isabel of Nueva Cáceres." See Census of Philippines, iii,
pp. 615, 616.
[52] In the Madrid periodical Nuestro Tiempo of November 25, 1905
(pp. 317-331), is an article by Eduardo Sanz y Escartin, of the Royal
Academy of Moral and Political Sciences, entitled "La instrucción
pública en España" ("Public instruction in Spain"), which gives a good
résumé of the condition and needs of education in Spain at present.
[53] The Gaceta de Manila is the continuation of the Boletín oficial
de Filipinas, [Official Bulletin of Filipinas] which changed its name
in accordance with a royal order of May 18, 1860. The first issue of
the paper under the new name appeared Tuesday, February 26, 1861, and
by a royal order of September 26 following, it was prescribed that all
the villages of the archipelago should subscribe for the paper. By a
decree issued in February 1861, it was declared that "all the official
orders published in the Gaceta de Manila, whatever their origin,
are to be regarded as official and authentic text." The Boletín was
first issued in 1852, being the continuation of the Diario de Manila,
first published at the end of 1848. See Montero y Vidal, iii, pp. 306,
307; and Politica de España en Filipinas, iii, pp. 94, 95.
[54] General Gándara paid special attention to primary education,
and very important measures are due to him in the years 1867 and
1868. He was ably seconded by the secretary of the superior government,
Vicente Barrantes. See Montero y Vidal, iii, p. 491.
[55] Of the girls' school of Nueva-Cáceres, Tomás G. del Rosario says
(Census of Philippines, iii, p. 616): "This school was founded by the
bishop of that diocese, Fray Francisco Gainza, who inaugurated the
studies on April 13, 1868, as a primary school for girls. On June 18,
1871, the studies of the normal school for women were taught there,
as they were in that of Manila, by a decree of the government of King
Amadeo, of Savoy. On May 26, 1873, the government of the Spanish
republic decreed that each of the towns of that ecclesiastical
province should hereafter make allowance for a similar number of
young girls desirous of obtaining the title of teacher. Up to 1887,
177 girls had obtained certificates as teachers from this educational
institution. The sisters of charity are in charge of the institution
and of the education of the girls. This educational institution
combined the characteristics of a school of primary instruction,
a college for the education of boarding pupils, and a school for
teachers, or normal school."
[56] By decision of his Excellency the governor general, November 18,
1889, this article was revised to the effect that girls could enter
the normal school for women teachers in Nueva Cáceres from the age
of fourteen, although those with the teachers' certificate could
not teach until they reached the age of twenty, according to the
regulations. However, those older than sixteen and less than twenty
who hold teachers' certificates may have the charge of schools, with
the character of ad interim, so long as there are not other teachers
with all the legal conditions required; and they are confirmed in
these posts when they reach the age of twenty, according to the royal
decree of November 24, 1893. (Grifol y Aliaga, p. 45, note 1.)
[57] This article (see. Grifol y Aliaga, p. 244) is as follows:
"The issuing of teachers' certificates of primary instruction, both
normal and substitutes, their appointments to discharge the duties of
the public schools, prescribe promotions, licenses, and other things
connected with these functionaries, are in charge of the director
[general of Civil Administration]."
[58] Now the civil governor of Ambos Camarines (Grifol y Aliaga,
p. 50, note 2).
[59] This article (Grifol y Aliaga, pp. 401, 402) is as follows: "On
the receipt of this circular, you shall have a meeting called of the
persons who shall compose that provincial commission, in accordance
with the above-cited art. 15 [of the royal decree of December 20,
1863]. Therein shall be read the annexed regulations which shall be
cited, and those of this circular; and that provincial supervisory
commission shall be declared as installed."
[60] Of the position of woman in the Philippines and its cause, LeRoy
says (Philippine Life, pp. 49, 50), although perhaps a trifle too
strongly, as woman in the Philippines seems always to have enjoyed
a certain amount of freedom, as compared to her sisters in other
oriental countries: "The position of woman in the Philippines is not
that typical of the Orient. If we may not say that the Philippines
are not at all oriental in this respect, at any rate it is perfectly
safe to say that in no other part of the Orient have women relatively
so much freedom or do they play so large a part in the control of the
family or in social and even industrial affairs. It is a common remark
that Filipino women, both of the privileged and of the lower classes,
are possessed of more character, and often too of more enterprise,
than the men. There seems every reason for ascribing this relative
improvement in the position of woman in the Philippines as compared
with surrounding countries in the Orient to the influence of the
Christian religion and the position which they have assumed under
the teaching of the Church and the directorship of the friars."
[61] Prueba de curso: the examination which is held at the end of
each scholastic year or term, in the months of May and June, or (if
it could not be held at that time, or if the student fails to pass)
in the month of September of the new term. It must be taken by every
pupil in order that he may matriculate the following term.--Francisco
Giner de los Rios, of Madrid, of the Free Institution of Teaching.
[62] Grado de revalida is the aggregate of exercises and examinations
which must be taken by students (in spite of having been examined
every year) on the completion of any course (for example that of
elementary or superior schoolmaster or mistress), in order to obtain
the certificate or diploma of their degree. There are many degrees:
doctor, licentiate, bachelor, primary schoolmaster, etc.--Francisco
Giner de los Rios.
[63] Inscripción: the entering of a student in the school
register. This word is also used in general for any record of a name,
person, or thing, in a list or register.--Francisco Giner de los Rios.
[64] Encerado: a square of oilskin, used as a slate or blackboard. See
New Velázquez Dictionary.
[65] Cedulas de inscripción are the documents which are given to
the students, certifying that they have been registered in the
matriculation books.--Francisco Giner de los Rios.
[66] Literally, "Paper of payment to the State." This is a kind of
stamped paper with its stamp authorized by the State, whose price
varies according as the stamp represents the value of an impost which
is collected in judicial and many other affairs. In the centers of
State teaching, the fees which are to be paid by the students for
their matriculation are not paid in money, but by presenting a special
paper which is bought in certain shops.--Francisco Ginder de los Rios.
[67] Hoja de estudios: the document on which are entered the studies
which a student has had, and in which he has been examined, with
their official value.--Francisco Giner de los Rios.
[68] Cedula personal: an official document declaring the name,
occupation, domicile, etc., of the bearer, and serving for
identification. See New Velázquez Dictionary.
[69] Matrícula de honor: a reward obtained by the best students of
each class, by virtue of the term examinations. By this reward they are
registered free in the matriculation of the following year.--Francisco
Giner de los Rios.
[70] St. Stanislas Kostka (or Kotska) was born of a noble Polish
family in 1550. While pursuing his studies at Vienna (1563-66),
in the Jesuit college, his predilection to the religious life was
clearly manifest, but since the provincial would not receive him
there without the consent of his parents, he ran away, and tried to
gain admission to the Jesuit order in Dilingen, Germany. To avoid
the pursuit of his parents he was sent to Rome, where he was received
into the order by St. Francis Borja in 1567. Naturally of a delicate
constitution, the extreme bodily mortifications which he practiced in
his youthful enthusiasm undermined his health, and he died August 14,
1568, at the age of eighteen. See Baring Gould's Lives of the Saints
(London, 1898), xiii, pp. 322-325.
[71] i.e., the decree of the government, ordering "let it be done."
[72] Governor Izquierdo [1871-73] paid considerable attention to
primary education, in which he was aided by José Patricio Clemente,
secretary of the superior government. See Montero y Vidal, iii, p. 621.
[73] The Ensayo de gramática Hispano-Tagala (Manila, 1878) by the
Recollect, Fray Toribio Minguella de la Merced. Retana says of this
book (Biblioteca filipina, p. 149): "In my opinion the method of this
book is the most suitable for study by Spaniards, who do not haze
any knowledge of Latin, studied after the ancient method." Minguella
published in 1886, Methodo práctico para que los niños y niñas de las
provincias Tagalas aprendan á hablar castellano (Practical method for
boys and girls to learn to talk Castilian). This latter book received
a reward in public contest.
[74] The author of this book is Castor Aguilera y Porta.
[75] Its author is Ramón Irureta Goyena.
[76] By Benito Francia.
[77] This law is dated Nov. 27, 1623, q.v., VOL. XX, pp. 260, 261.
[78] In 1867 the college of San Juan de Letran was declared a college
of secondary education. See Montero y Vidal, iii, p. 485.
[79] This college was considered as the Institute of the university
(note on MS.).
[80] The pupils of the schools directed by nuns are girls.
[81] Throughout the first portion of this document, by "pupils"
must be understood "girls."
[82] See this decree in VOL. XLV, pp. 184-186, where it is dated June
20, 1686.
[83] Tomás G. del Rosario, cited often in these notes, says (Census
of Philippines, iii, pp. 594, 595): "A decree of the general
government, issued October 6, 1885, provided for a competition to
be followed by prizes for the best grammars written in Visayan,
Cebuano, Ilocano, Bícol, Pangasinán, and Pampango, there being one
already in Tagálog. Naturally these grammars, which were written in
different dialects and taught in the public schools, made it more
difficult (and that was the object) for the Spanish language to become
general. Matters reached such a stage that teachers were punished
and threatened with deportation, and some were actually deported,
for teaching Spanish."
Speaking on the same subject, LeRoy ("Friars in Philippines," in
Political Science Quarterly, for December, 1903, p. 673) says: "In
proclaiming the law of 1893 [the Maura law], Governor-general Blanco
instructed the municipal councils to employ 'the most practical means
for the diffusion of the Spanish language.' The common assertion
that the friars did teach the natives Spanish is contradicted by
these provisions and by the numerous decrees from 1585 on; those who
frankly admit that they did not spread Spanish, and who hold that it
is impracticable to make the natives accept either Spanish or English,
have a fair argument to present."
[84] See this decree in VOL. XLV, pp. 184-186.
[85] This is given by Barrantes, Instrucción primaria, pp. 69-71.
[86] For this and following citations of the regulations, see ante.
[87] Speaking of the legislation of 1863, LeRoy (Philippine Life,
pp. 202, 203) says: "Most significant of all, local school boards of
a civil and lay character were ordered established, a feature of the
decree which had not by any means been realized when the municipal
reform of 1893 was decreed, and which that reform itself did not
accomplish. Theoretically, the friars were left in supervision only
of religious instruction in the public schools; practically, in four
towns out of five, they managed everything about the schools to suit
their own will, down almost to the last hours of Spanish rule."
[88] The Tagálog insurrection broke out prematurely through betrayal
of the plot in August, 1896.
[89] Patricio de la Escosura, formerly minister and ambassador in
Berlin, member of the Royal Spanish Academy, went to the Philippines
about 1863, as royal commissary. His Memoria is important and worth
consultation for the history of the islands. It has a prologue by
Cañamaque. The first chapter on the teaching of Spanish argues that
Spanish be taught the Filipinos. Chapter viii is on the creation of
a school of physicians and surgeons. The various chapters of this
book, although written as letters to the President of the Council
of Ministers, in 1863, were not published until 1882. See Pardo de
Tavera's Biblioteca filipina.
[90] See VOL. XVII, p. 333. The Cuadrilleros occupied in a certain
sense, the position occupied now by the constabulary.
[91] The author of this book was Manuel del Rio, who went to the
Philippines in 1713, where he labored many years in various villages
of Pangasinán. He was procurator-general of his order, definitor,
and provincial; and was bishop-elect of Nueva Segovia at his death. A
fuller title of his book is as follows: "Instrucciones morales y
religiosas para el govierno, direccion, y acierto en la practica
de nuestros ministerios. Que deben observar todos los religiosos de
esta nuestra Provincia de el Santo Rossario de Philipinas del Orden
de Predicadores." See Peréz and Güemes's Adiciones y continuacion
(Manila, 1905), p. 114.
[92] The opening of the Suez Canal, as much probably as any other
factor promulgated modern ideas in the Philippines, because of the
vastly shorter route thus brought about between them and the mother
country.
[93] The above citation is from Daniel Grifol y Aliaga's prologue to
his book La instrucción primaria en Filipinas (note by Zamora, p. 235).
[94] Fray Hilarion Diez, O.S.A., who was consecrated archbishop
of Manila, October 21, 1827. His death occurred May 7, 1829. See
Ferrando's Historia, vi, pp. cliii, cliv.
[95] Zamora, speaking in his chapter ix of the intervention of the
friar, and discussing in general the accusations against the religious
orders, says (pp. 408-452): "The Spaniards in admiration of the sanity
of life, of the austerity and purity of the morals of the religious;
thankful for their good offices as intermediaries among themselves in
their disputes, and among the Indians during rebellions; convinced of
the efficacy of their word, and of their intervention in all things;
of the necessity of their active and diligent coöperation for the
conservation and consolidation of the colony: began to respect,
venerate, and recognize in them spontaneously, a certain right to
intervene in their affairs, to settle their differences, submit to
their judgment their quarrels, and respect their decisions with more
submission and conformity than would proceed from the legitimately
constituted authority. The governors themselves could not leave the
religious out of account in all that they undertook." The Indian
learned to distinguish, says Zamora, between the peaceful and helpful
friar, who sought only his welfare, and the often brutal and harsh
encomendero. "Not otherwise was the origin of the prestige of the
religious among Indians and Spaniards;" and the lapse of time furthered
it. The governors made use of the friars as ambassadors, counsellors,
and in other capacities connected with the government. "The religious
were the ones who formed the villages and made a record of their
parishioners on the tribute and citizen list." As the friars were the
only ones who understood the native dialects and the natives were
ignorant of Spanish, the authorities were forced to work through
the former, and consequently, the friars had the right of "visé" of
the tribute and citizen lists. They became the presiding officers
of all local boards, and so had all the power. In the provinces
the dwelling of the parish priest was open to strangers who lodged
there as in a hotel. The envy and maliciousness of certain people,
however, conspired to take away the power of the parish priest, a
reform that was rather agreeable than otherwise to him, as it left
him more time for his ministry; but he deplored it as it seemed to
threaten the country at no distant future. "The vigilant, noble, and
disinterested intervention of the parish priests in all matters was the
chief and necessary wheel of the gubernatorial, administrative, and
judicial mechanism, in their multiple and complicated attributes and
duties. That was exercised with regularity, until, in the last years of
Spanish dominion in that country, the impelling force restrained the
impulse." The fruit of the "reform" was the contempt of the natives
for the Spaniards. "If the religious orders were the cause for the
loss of these islands, they were so unconsciously and ignorantly,
or consciously and maliciously." Zamora argues that they were not
in any way the cause for the loss of the country. "The religious
communities knew that the ruin of the country was their own ruin,
the end of the Spanish domination, the end even of their existence in
Filipinas." "On three bases rested the Spanish domination in Filipinas
with its institutions and organisations: religion; the prestige of the
parish-priest regulars; and the superiority of race in so great accord
with Spanish nobility." To freemasonry was due the destruction of the
high ideal of religion, and also the idea of the superiority of race;
and to freemasonry is due, then, the loss of the colony. The friars
have not committed the abuses with which they have been credited, and
were not the cause of the revolution. They were always the upholders
of Spanish sovereignty, and protected the natives.
[96] The municipal reform of 1893, the "Maura law," in conferring
a considerable degree of local autonomy on Philippine towns, made
the newly created municipal councils also school boards. It was a
further step in taking from the padre the power to "visé" and supervise
everything done, small and great, in a town. In promulgating the law,
Governor-general Blanco (popular with the Filipinos for his liberal
measures) took pains to explain that the priest's school-inspecting
powers, so far as religious teaching went, were to be the same
as ever. As a matter of fact, this reform of Minister Maura, sent
forth amid much accompaniment of proclamas in Spain and the islands,
was virtually made a dead-letter under succeeding governors. Its
non-enforcement, except in a few towns, was one of the complaints
of the insurgents in 1896. See LeRoy "Friars in the Philippines,"
in Political Science Quarterly for December, 1903, pp. 672, 673.
[97] Victor S. Clark (Bulletin of the Bureau of Labor, no. 58, May,
1905; Labor Conditions in the Philippines), says (p. 854): "Practically
all the Christian population of Mindanao spoke Spanish in 1883, which
indicates that the statistics probably did not cover the remoter Jesuit
mission stations among the Moros. In that year about 21 per cent of
the total population reported for the islands could read, but less
than 5-1/2 per cent could speak Spanish. In other words, 75 per cent
of the persons able to read could do so only in the Malay dialects."
[98] Estadismo, chapter xiv (Retana's ed.; note by Zamora).
[99] Zúñiga (Estadismo, Retana's ed., i, pp. 299, 300), says of
the natives of Tondo province: "The language of these Indians is
somewhat corrupted, because a great number of Spanish words have been
introduced. That is the only benefit which they have derived from
living near Manila, since there are very few who know Spanish. In the
suburbs themselves, as well as in Binondo and Santa Cruz, the Tagálog
language is spoken. The Spaniards cast the blame on the religious for
the Indians not knowing the Spanish language. But let them examine
the villages of the seculars, and they will find whether they know
more than those of the regular curacies. We cannot succeed in getting
them to learn the doctrine, and it is wished that we teach them the
Spanish language. There are some Spaniards who believe that we are
opposed to them learning it, but this calumny was clearly destroyed in
the time of Señor Anda, when it was ordered that no one could become a
gobernadorcillo unless he knew Spanish; and it was necessary in almost
all the villages to take the servants of the fathers. Now even, if
there is any Indian who knows Spanish in the villages, it is because
he has served some religious or some Spaniard in Manila. I know very
well the method of introducing the Spanish language into Filipinas;
but since I know that my plan will not be observed, I shall say only
that hitherto, certain absurd means which would not have been used
among barbarians, have been taken."
[100] Estadismo, appendix A (note by Zamora). This citation is from
vol. ii, pp. 59*, *60.
[101] The issue of June 5, 1891 (note by Zamora).
[102] An expression used in ridicule, like the English folderols. It
might be translated "utter nonsense."
[103] The Spanish for this invitation is as follows: "El día diecinueve
de su mañana y del presente plenilunio tendrá lugar la misa de mi vara
en esta Iglesia de mi cargo que Dios gratuitamente me ha concedido
esta carga honorosa. Invito á Vd. tanto como á mi casa que desde
luego se llenará el vacio acendrado de mi corazón en su asistencia
hasta resonar mi última hora en el relox del Eterno." Some of the
words are taken in the wrong acceptation.
[104] This letter is given by Retana in his edition of Zúñiga's
Estadismo, ii, pp. *60-63*.
[105] Literally, "I ordain and command"--the form of opening often
used in decrees, edicts, etc.
[106] This last paragraph is not a part of Retana's letter to Becerra,
but it is taken from Retana's words following the letter in his
edition of the Estadismo, ii, pp. 63*, *64.
[107] The friars virtually controlled secondary and higher instruction
in the islands until they were lost to Spain in 1898. The reaction that
followed the liberal measures (some of them practical, some foolish) of
1863 to 1870 really strengthened the hold of the friars upon superior
education (though one must take into account the competition from the
Jesuits in Manila with which the disturbed Dominicans had to deal in
increased degree each year). See LeRoy's Philippine Life, p. 205.
[108] "The friars maintained control of secondary and higher
instruction till the islands were lost to Spain in 1898. A
reaction from the liberal policy of 1863 to 1868 was stimulated
by the appearance of a radical party in the Philippines, and by
an insurrectionary movement at Cavite, in 1872. The friar party
declared these to be the natural consequences of 'reform' and when
the government changed, as it soon did, the projects of educational
reorganization were speedily nullified." James A. LeRoy in Political
Science Quarterly, December, 1903, pp. 673, 674.
[109] i.e., "Take and read."
[110] The comments of Victor S. Clark, in his Labor Conditions in
the Philippines (Bulletin no. 58, of Bureau of Labor), in regard to
Filipino workmen, are interesting, and show a somewhat different side
than that presented by Zamora.
Zamora has left out of account the Filipino patriot, Dr. José Rizal,
who was executed by order of the Spanish government, December 30,
1896. Rizal was a pure-blooded Tagálog, and attained highest rank
in the Orient as an eye specialist. In addition he was a poet, a
sculptor, and a novelist of more than average ability, a wonderful
linguist, a widely-read man, and a clear thinker. He studied in the
Ateneo Municipal and in Santo Tomás. The two following selections,
the first from his novel Noli me tangere, often called the "Filipino
bible," and the second from El Filibusterismo (both taken from LeRoy's
Philippine Life in town and country, pp. 210-213, and 207, 208) are
interesting criticisms of the education of the friars. The first is
the reflections of the village philosopher, the second apropos of
the teaching of physics in the University of Santo Tomás.
"The country is not the same today as it was twenty years ago.... If
you do not see it, it is because you have not seen the former state,
have not studied the effect of the immigration of Europeans,
of the entrance of new books, and of the going of the young
men to study in Europe. It is true that the Royal and Pontifical
University of St. Thomas still exists, with its most wise cloister,
and certain intelligences still busy themselves in formulating the
distinctions and threshing out to the final issue the subtleties of
scholasticism. But where will you now find that metaphysical youth of
our times, with an archaic education, who tortured his brain and died
in full pursuit of sophistries in some remote part of the provinces,
without ever having succeeded in understanding the attributes of
being, or settling the question of essence and existence, concepts
so lofty that they made us forget what was essential in life, our
own existence and individuality? Look at the youth of today. Full
of enthusiasm at the view of wider horizons, it studies History,
Mathematics, Geography, Literature, Physical Science, Languages,
all subjects that in our time we heard of with horror as though they
were heresies; the greatest freethinker of my time declared all these
things inferior to the classifications of Aristotle and the laws of
the syllogism. Man has finally comprehended that he is man; he refuses
to give himself over to the analysis of his God, to the penetration
of the imperceptible, into what he has not seen, and to give laws to
the phantasms of his brain; man comprehends that his inheritance is
the vast world, dominion over which is within his reach; weary of a
task that is useless and presumptuous, he lowers his gaze to earth,
and examines his own surroundings.... The experimental sciences
have already given their firstfruits; it needs Only time to perfect
them. The lawyers of today are being trained in the new teachings of
legal philosophy; some begin to shine in the midst of the shadows which
surround our courts of justice, and point to a change in the course
of affairs.... Look you: the press itself, however backward it might
wish to be, is taking a step forward against its will. The Dominicans
themselves do not escape this law, but are imitating the Jesuits,
their implacable enemies; they give fiestas in their cloisters, erect
little theatres, write poesies, because, as they are not devoid of
intelligence in spite of believing in the fifteenth century, they
comprehend that the Jesuits are right and will continue yet to play
a part in the future of the young peoples that they have educated.
"But are the Jesuits the companions of Progress? Why, then, are they
opposed in Europe?"
"I will answer you like an old scholastic.... One may accompany the
course of Progress in three ways, ahead of her, side by side with her,
and behind her. The first are those who guide the course of Progress;
the second are those who are borne along by her; the last are dragged
along, and among them are the Jesuits. Well would they like to direct
her course, but, as they see her in the possession of full strength
and having other tendencies, they capitulate, preferring to follow
rather than be smothered or be left in the middle of the road without
light. Well now, we in the Philippines are traveling along at least
three centuries behind the car of Progress; we are barely commencing
to emerge from the Middle Ages. Hence, the Jesuits, reactionary in
Europe, when seen from our point of view represent Progress; the
Philippines owe to them their dawning system of instruction, and to
them the Natural Sciences, the soul of the nineteenth century, as it
has been indebted to the Dominicans for Scholasticism, already dead
in spite of Leo XIII--no Pope can revive what common sense has judged
and condemned.... The strife is on between the past, which cleaves
and clings with curses to the waning feudal castle, and the future,
whose song of triumph may be faintly heard off in the distant but
splendorous glories of a dawn that is coming, bringing the message
of Good-News from other countries."
"The walls were entirely bare; not a drawing, nor an engraving, nor
even any kind of a representation of an instrument of physics. On
occasions there would be lowered from heaven an instrumentlet to
be shown from afar to the class, like the Holy of Holies to the
prostrate faithful: 'Look at me, but don't touch me.' From time
to time, some complacent professor came, a day of the year was
assigned for visiting the mysterious 'cabinet,' and admiring from
afar the enigmatic apparatus arranged inside the cases. Then no one
could complain; that day there were seen much brass, much glass,
many tubes, disks, wheels, bells, etc. And the show stopped there,
and the Philippines were not turned upside down. For the rest, the
students are convinced that these instruments were not bought for them;
merry fools would the friars be! The 'cabinet' was made to be shown
to foreigners and to high officials from Spain, that, on seeing it,
they may nod in approbation, while their guide smiles as if saying:
'You have been thinking you were going to find a lot of backward monks,
eh? Well, we are at the height of the century; we have a cabinet!'
"And the foreigners and high officials, obsequiously entertained,
afterward wrote in their voyages or reports: 'The Royal and Pontifical
University of St. Thomas, of Manila, in charge of the illustrious
Dominicans, possesses a magnificent cabinet of physics for the
instruction of youth.... There annually take this course some two
hundred and fifty students; but, be it on account of the apathy,
indolence, scanty capacity of the natives, or through any other cause
whatsoever, ethnological or unperceivable, up to date there has not
developed a Lavoisier, a Secchi, or a Tyndall, even in miniature,
from the Philippine-Malay race!'"
[111] See p. 801 of Victor S. Clark's article in Bulletin no. 58,
ut supra, for a comparison between the Filipino and the Central and
South American Indians.
[112] Retana's praises of Rizal, a full-blooded Tagálog, in all these
lines, as seen in his Vida y escritos del Dr. José Rizal, a series
just concluded (October, 1906), in the Madrid review, Nuestro Tiempo,
are the best answer to his own question.
[113] See Retana's Estadismo, appendix A (note by Zamora).
[114] According to Eduardo Navarro, O.S.A., the first freemason
lodge established in the Philippines was the one called Luz Filipina,
about 1860, which was established in Cavite under the Gran Oriente
Lusitano. It was in immediate correspondence with the Portuguese
lodges of Macao and Hongkong. Shortly after another lodge was created
in Zamboanga of Peninsulars and creoles resident in Mindanao. Some
time after 1868, must have occurred the creation of another lodge
composed of foreigners and dependents of the lodge of Hongkong, of
the Scottish rite. Into this lodge were admitted some Peninsulars
and Filipinos. Shortly after this many other lodges were created
under the Grañ Oriente de España. See Navarro's Asuntos filipinos
(Madrid, 1897), pp. 221-277. Manuel Sastron (Insurrección en Filipinas,
Madrid, 1901, p. 41), who represents the friar standpoint, says: "We
believe and affirm in good faith, that, in our opinion, the origin,
the primitive cellule of the insurrection of 1896 in Filipinas, is to
be found in masonry." The masonic movement was by 1890 widespread in
the islands. See also Sawyer's Inhabitants of Philippines, pp. 79-83.
[115] St. Anthony the Great, who was an Egyptian, born A.D. 356. His
day is January 17. See Baring Gould's Lives of the Saints, i,
pp. 249-272.
[116] St. Basil the Great was a native of Cappadocian Cæsarea. His
death occurred A.D. 379. His day is celebrated on June 14, except
by the Greeks who keep January 1 in his memory. See Baring Gould's
Lives of the Saints, vi, pp. 192-202.
[117] Referring to the Katipunan, or Kataas-taasan Kagalang-gálang
Katipunan Nang Mañga Anac Nang Bayan, "Sovereign Worshipful Association
of the Sons of the Country." This society, of which it is yet too
early to have definite and detailed information, was due in the main to
Andrés Bonifacio, a warehouse keeper in the employ of Fressel and Co.,
of Manila, who became its third president, although primarily founded
by Marcelo Hilario del Pilar. This society enrolled in its ranks the
common people among the Tagálogs. It is more than likely that the plan
of the organization was copied from the masonic lodges, but the analogy
stops here. The Katipunan was not masonry. See Sastron's Insurrección,
pp. 51-59; Sawyer's Inhabitants, pp. 82, 83; and The Katipunan
(Manila, 1902), purporting to be by one Francis St. Clair, although
it is claimed by some to have been written by or for the friars.
[118] In a letter from James A. LeRoy, of June 27, 1906.
[119] J. A. LeRoy: Philippine Life.
[120] Chief among these men may be cited Francisco Giner de los Rios,
of the Madrid University, who has established the Free Institution of
Teaching in Madrid for the training of teachers. He follows principally
American methods. Both Church and State have opposed him, but he has
persevered and his institution has had good results.
[121] Apropos of the "Filipino soul," James A. LeRoy says, in the
letter cited, ante, note 118, "No Filipino on earth, if pinned down,
could tell what the 'Filipino soul' is today, as Tavera hints."
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