The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898; Volume 46, 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

by Unknown

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.”[44]

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],[45] 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.