“158. The father ministers, in fulfilment of their duty, are obliged to procure, by all means and methods possible, and, if necessary, by means of royal justices, that all the villages, both capitals and visitas, shall have schools, and that all the boys attend them daily. If the natives of the visitas refuse or are unable to support schools, the boys of those visitas shall be obliged to go to the schools of the capitals, for in addition to the schools being so necessary as are attested by ecclesiastical and secular laws, the absence of schools occasions many spiritual and temporal losses, as is taught by experience. Among others, one is the vast ignorance suffered in much of what is necessary for confession in order that they may become Christians and live like rational people.
“In order to be able to conquer the difficulties which some generally find in maintaining schools, it is necessary for the father ministers to procure and solicit two things: one is that ministers be assigned with salaries suitable for their support; the other is that the children have primers or books for reading and paper for writing. When these two things cannot be obtained by other means than at the cost of the father ministers, they must not therefore excuse themselves from giving what is necessary for the said two things. For, besides the fact that they will be doing a great alms thereby, they will also obtain great relief in the teaching of the boys, and will avoid many spiritual and temporal losses of the villages, to which by their office they are obliged. And if the end cannot be obtained without the means, so also the schools cannot be obtained without any expense, or the teaching of youth without the schools, or the spiritual welfare of souls without the teaching, etc. For the same reasons respectively, endeavor shall be made to maintain schools for little girls, which shall be held in the houses of the teachers where they shall learn to read and pray, for which great prudence is necessary.”
Another very notable paragraph, in which are prescribed the days for school, attendance, method, subjects, etc., follows this paragraph which is worthy of the highest praise. That paragraph imposes the obligation on the children of great practical sense, that after “mass is finished (which they were to hear every day) they shall kiss the father’s hand. By this diligence the latter can ascertain those who do not attend, and force them to attend, etc.”
In order that one may see the rare unanimity existing among the religious corporations in a matter as transcendental as is that of education, it is very fitting to transcribe here some paragraphs of the instructions which the reverend father, Fray Manuel del Río, provincial at that time of the Dominicans, gave to his religious under date of August 31, 1739, which were printed in Manila in the same year, and which we have entitled Práctica del párroco dominicana [i.e., Practice of the Dominican parish priest] as the valuable copy which we possess has no title page. It reads as follows:
“The king, our sovereign, orders that there be schools in all the villages of the Indians in order to teach them reading, writing, and the doctrine. In those schools the ministers must work zealously and earnestly, as it is a thing which is of so great importance for the education and spiritual gain of their souls. Schools shall also be established in the visitas, especially if they are large or distant from the capital, and in those visitas which are furnished with no schoolteacher because they are small or near the capital, the lads shall be obliged to attend the school at the capital. All the lads, whether chief or timaoas, must attend the school, and they, and their parents or relatives must be obliged to do so, so that they may not be exempted from that attendance by any excuse or pretext, except the singers, who will be taught to read and write in the school of the cantors. For the more exact fulfilment of this, a list shall be made of those who ought to attend the school, and a copy of it shall be given to the said teacher. This shall be read frequently in the school, noting those who fail in order to punish them.
“In order to maintain said schools and the attendance of the lads therein without the excuses which some generally offer of not having primers, pens, or paper for writing, it is necessary for the minister to solicit the one who has those things for sale in the village, for those who can buy them. Those who find it impossible to do so shall be furnished by the minister with those articles by way of alms, and in that, besides the merit acquired by this virtue, he will gather the fruit of the welfare and the gain of their souls.
“Girls’ schools shall also be formed by causing them to go to the house of their teacher, so that they may learn to read and sew, and also learn the doctrine. But they shall not be obliged to attend church daily, as are the boys, but only on Saturday or any other day assigned for the reciting of the rosary and the examination in the doctrine.”
It is to be noted that both provincials, as well as their successors, imposed on their subjects the obligation to faithfully observe what is prescribed in the Práctica and respective instructions, which the ministers of the Lord fulfilled with especial solicitude and constancy, since only in this way could they gather the most copious fruits which we all admire.
The unity of thought and action which the religious corporations had in a matter so primordial as is teaching is also to be noted. Evidently it is to be inferred from those beautiful periods that the religious were trying to pay the teachers, having recourse even to the alcaldes when that was necessary; and when that could not be obtained they themselves paid the teacher the fruit of his labors as well as supplying also the children with everything necessary for their instruction, such as primers, books, papers, pens, etc. For that, no quota was put in the budget, since, as is seen, that most essential datum is not mentioned in the laws, ordinances, and royal decrees above given. It is also to be noted that, in the rules above cited, there is no mention of other than boys’ schools, but none for girls, while all were alike considered, both of those of the capital or villages and those of the barrios, with an equal vigilance by our missionaries, who from the first, established compulsory attendance as absolutely indispensable, in contradiction to the old laws, in which was noted the tendency to liberty or non-compulsion, as is inferred from the royal decree of November 5, 1782,[4] given for Charcas (Méjico) and extended to Filipinas confirmed by the law of June 11, 1815, which cites it in its two extremes.
In this way those humble religious worked out the laws as much as possible, although it cost them much, by rectifying what was not viable and by supplying the deficiencies of those laws, especially in the matters pertaining to the salaries of the teachers, and payment for school supplies, which, on account of the scarcity of funds from the treasury, the legislature was compelled to establish as is established in this last royal decree above cited: “That, for the salary of teachers, the products of foundations, where there shall be any, be applied in the first place, and for the others, the products of the property of the community, in accordance with the terms of the laws.” But since the foundations, in case there were any, existed only in the capitals, which were at the same time the episcopal residence, and the communal funds were in general exhausted, it was the same thing as determining that the parish priests would continue to pay the expenses from their poor living, or find some means which would give that so desired and difficult result. This penury of the treasury which was felt equally in España and in Filipinas obliged his Majesty to extend to these islands the royal decree of October 20, 1817, which reads as follows: