EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS AND CONDITIONS
Public instruction; condition of the sciences of letters and arts
At the head of the public instruction in the Philippines, one finds the university of Manila, called La Real y Pontificia Universidad de Santo Tomas [i.e., the royal and pontifical university of Santo Tomás]. Its foundation as a college goes back to the first year of the seventeenth century. Its first benefactors were Archbishop Benavides of Manila, and Bishop Soria of Nueva Segovia. Both of them made it a gift of their library, and, in addition, the first one gave it 1,000 pesos and the second 1,800. In 1619, the house was entrusted to the religious of the Order of St. Dominic. The following year the courses of public instruction were opened there. Finally, on November 27, 1623, King Felipe IV took it under his special protection. In the year 1645, the same monarch obtained a bull from Pope Innocent X, which erected the college of Santo Tomás of Manila into a university. The statutes governing that institution today were not drawn up until a long time after, that is to say, in the year 1781. Instruction there is entrusted to the doctors, licentiates, and masters (maestros). At the present time there are 21, both doctors and licentiates, and no masters. Latin, logic, physics, metaphysics, ethics, canon law, and theology are taught there. In addition to that, some time afterward there was founded a chair of Roman law and one of Spanish law. The number of students who attend that university is now 581, namely, sixty-one collegiates, fifteen capistas, who are maintained at the expense of the college, and 505 day students.[1] The costume of the collegiates is a long robe of green silk with black, sleeves, a beca, a kind of red scarf folded in two parts and crossing over the breast and drawn up behind the shoulders, a black collar with a white border and a cap like that worn by the law advocates of Spain.
If the university of Manila is the chief institution of public instruction, it is not the most ancient. From June 8, 1585, the king had ordered the foundation of a college, in which the sons of the Spanish inhabitants of the archipelago might be reared in the love of virtue and letters under the direction of the fathers of the Society of Jesus. But it was only in 1601 that that order could be carried out by the institution of the college of San José. The first collegiates numbered 13, but that number was soon raised to 20, all of whom were the sons or the near relatives of the first authorities of the country. Pope Gregory XV granted that college the right of conferring degrees of philosophy and theology. The funds of that institution are drawn from several estates, which have been conceded to it at different times. They are sufficient to provide for the maintenance of the vice-rector and of the masters, in the annual pay which is granted to them, as well as to the rector, and for the maintenance of 22 free pupils. Some pay students are also admitted there at the rate of 50 piastres [i.e., pesos] per year. Philosophy, rhetoric, and Latin are taught there. Upon the suppression of the Society of Jesus, that college was closed until 1777. The costume of the students is a red gown with black sleeves and a black cap.
The college of San Juan de Letran commenced by being a primary school, founded in 1630 at the expense of a charitable man, whose name, Juan Gerónimo Guerrero, deserves to pass to posterity. He consecrated himself to gathering together in that institution young orphan boys, and to teaching them reading, writing, and the Christian doctrine. He was also able, thanks to the abundant alms which the inhabitants of Manila put into his hands, to provide for the maintenance and clothing of all those children. Before dying that kind-hearted man took the habit of St. Dominic, and entrusted the pious foundation which he had undertaken into the hands of that order. The latter erected it into a college, for which it obtained the protection of the king and some funds for its support. By means of a sum of 600 piastres which the alcalde of Pangasinan is charged to give annually to a Dominican who collects it, that college supports gratuitously 25 orphan boys. It also admits an unlimited number of boarders, both Indians and mestizos, who pay 50 piastres per year. It finally receives under the name of sacristans, porters, librarians, etc., several young students who do not pay anything. The total number of those who receive education in that college under different titles is today 239 persons. Their costume is blue with black sleeves. A maltese cross is placed at the right on their beca.
The charity school (escuela pia) of Manila was established in 1817 under the direction of a special assembly composed of distinguished inhabitants, in the number of which there was a member of the chapter of the cathedral, and one of the tribunal of commerce. The inhabitants who had assembled supplied the funds which were to serve for the maintenance of that useful establishment. But those funds having been used in trade according to custom they had the same fortune that so many other considerable sums and charitable foundations of that capital have had, namely, they were lost because of the revolution of Mexico. The assembly, being dissolved on account of lack of funds, the city took the charity school under its charge. Reading, writing, Christian doctrine, Spanish grammar, and slate arithmetic, are taught there. The pupils must be Spaniards; the sons of well-to-do parents pay 2 piastres per month; those who are less well-to-do, 1 piastre; and the poor pay nothing. In order to be admitted there a ticket from the president of the dissolved assembly was sufficient. At present the regidor is charged in his turn with the management of the establishment which delivers the ticket. The number of pupils at the present time is 50, of whom 26 receive instruction free.
In pursuance of reiterated instances from the tribunal of commerce a marine school was opened in Manila in 1820, by royal authorization. Arithmetic, the elements of geometry, rectilinear, and spherical trigonometry, cosmography, and piloting, besides practical geometry applied to the making of hydrographical maps and plans, with the manner of designing them, were taught there. The whole, conformed to the course of study for the navy, was composed, according to the order of the king, by the chief of the royal fleet, Don Gabriel Ciscar. The expenses of the institution are supplied by the funds called avería. The tribunal of commerce decides as to the admission of pupils and those who distinguish themselves on graduating to become captains of trading ships, making the voyage to China and India, and even going as far as America and to Europa. This proves that, whatever the Spaniards say of it, the young men of Manila are as susceptible to instruction as those of the mother country. In fact, there is no doubt that if the studies of this school were more solid and less theoretical, most remarkable persons would be seen to graduate from it.
Finally, in 1840, a commercial school has been established, which is held in the rooms of the tribunal [of commerce]. Bookkeeping, commercial correspondence, and the living languages are taught there free of charge. By a choice quite extraordinary, a marked preference is given to the French language, although that language is one that is spoken the least in that part of the world; since unfortunately our relations there are very few, as we have no longer any need to go there after sugar.
Very well equipped libraries exist in all the convents, and those of the university and of the colleges offer resources to the students who receive their education in those establishments.