The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume 45, 1736 / 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

by Unknown

SCHOOLS OF PRIMARY LETTERS

The primary school, the most interesting among all peoples, and more yet among backward peoples, was found in our time in an incipient condition, if one considers it as the government desires it, and as a great number of royal decrees resolved. Primary instruction in Castilian was alone known in Manila and some suburbs of the capital, but in the dialects of the country there existed boys’ schools in all the villages, and in the majority of them, also schools for girls. It is a fact that such schools did not count on more elements than the pay assigned by the government for the teachers,[4] and the parish priests together with the provincial chiefs had to decide on the means for the construction and conservation of the edifices and furnishings, the former paying in addition their salaries to the teachers of the girls, or paying them from the funds of the churches according to the wealth of each one.

This system gave the consequent result of there not being any suitable directors for complete primary instruction. But in reading, writing, and religion, in the majority of the villages of the archipelago, there was found a greater number proportionally than in España, for the missionaries always considered that education as the first element of civilization and adhesion of those inhabitants to the crown of Castilla.

The government tried to improve and make general that education, but in the Spanish language.[5] For that purpose the assembly appointed in 1861 made some regulations, taking as its base the creation of a normal school, which has had realization, and according to Señor Barrantes, in the above-cited work, it seems that instruction has improved somewhat in what relates to the Spanish.

The question of whether the parish priests or missionaries have opposed those rules is of little importance to us. As in all disputable cases there are partisans who favor and those who oppose—not the advantage which the generalization of the Spanish language might be, for all people recognize and admit this hypothesis, but only the results which the generalization of the Spanish language would produce, reckoning on the slight capacity of the natives to utilize the good that they might read in the idiom of Cervantes, and bearing in mind the political make-up of that country and the evil effects which would be produced by the daily publications which would arrive [from España], and which are incapable of enlightening the little but submissive intelligence of those inhabitants, yet always sufficient to excite the passions of men who would easily confuse rights with individual duties, giving a worse result than that which the history of our ancient colonies registers.

As we do not know of this department in the present circumstances more than that which the above-cited work brings to light, we shall limit ourselves to calling the attention of the government so that it may introduce in that department all the improvements possible, extending the normal school, which gives very slight results for a people of five millions, and proving whether this normal school, organized with a mixture of the language of the country and of the Spanish and by creating one school in each group of provinces belonging to the same language, would give a more positive result in regard to instruction, and one even more efficacious for the propagation of the Spanish by printing works in two columns in the two languages.[6]

What the archipelago lacks are men and women teachers to give instruction in the primary schools. Industrial teachers, professorships for foremen and assistants for public works and master masons would produce a great result in that country. Lastly, let all the generals bear in mind what the various ancient decrees rule to the effect that a charge shall be made to them in their residencias for their neglect in public instruction.

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[1] Edmond Plauchut, writing in Revue des Deux Mondes for 1877, xx, p. 910, says: “The history of superior instruction, like that of primary, is only the dry relation of a furious struggle between two religious orders, that of the friars, and that of the Jesuits.” [↑]

[2] The Embriologia sagrada (Manila, 1856), by Gregorio Sanz. [↑]

[3] The first number of this fortnightly paper appeared in Manila, in March, 1859, and its last issue, December 15, 1860. It is but rarely found complete. Retana praises it highly. See Politica de España en Filipinas, iii, pp. 103–105. [↑]

[4] Schools exist in all the villages. The teacher is paid by the government, and usually receives two dollars [i.e., pesos] per month without either lodging or board. In large villages, the pay is as high as three and one-half dollars, but he must pay an assistant out of that. The schools are under the supervision of the parish priests. Reading and writing are taught, the instruction being in Spanish. The teacher is properly required to teach his scholars Spanish, but he himself does not know it. On the other hand, the Spanish officials do not understand the native languages. The priests, moreover, have no inclination to alter these conditions, which are very useful for their influence. Almost the only Indians who know Spanish are those who have been in the service of Europeans. A sort of devotional primer is read in the native speech (Bicol) at first, and later the Christian doctrine. The reading book is called Casayayan. On an average, half of the children attend school, usually from the seventh to the tenth year. They learn to read somewhat, and some learn also a little of writing, but they forget it soon. Only those who later enter service as clerks write easily, and most of them have a good hand. Some pastors do not allow boys and girls to attend the same school, in which case they also pay a special schoolmistress at the rate of one dollar per month. The Indians learn to reckon with great difficulty. They generally rake shells or stones to help them, which they heap up and then count. See Jagor’s Reisen in den Philippinen (Berlin, 1873), pp. 128, 129. [↑]

[5] “The Spanish government was really anxious that all Filipinos should speak the Spanish language, as it is understood that the use of a common language is the manner of forming a national spirit and sentiment, the only thing that can preserve and unite in constant friendship people of different races. Nevertheless, the monastic orders were always decidedly opposed to the Spanish language being spoken in Philippine territory, because their interests would have been greatly injured if such language had become general throughout the archipelago, as from that time they would have ceased to be the intermediaries between the people and the authorities and would no longer be required by either, which would reduce their great influence with both parties.... As a consequence of all this the Spanish language did not become general, and due to the diversity of dialects in the country and the lack of books in these dialects, education went along a hard and difficult path. Some officials of the Spanish government assisted the friars in this work.” See Tomás del Rosario’s article in Census of Philippines, iii, p. 594. For the friar side of this question, see the statements of Fathers Navarro and Zamora, which will appear in the appendix to our VOL. XLVI. [↑]

[6] See appendix to VOL. XLVI for the regulations of the government normal school. [↑]