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

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