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

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.