So important requirements of articles 16 and 17 of the organic royal decree of December 20, 1863, recommended by article 18 to this superior government and the authorities of its dependency shall be fulfilled with all exactness. From December 20 of the last year, 1868, no one who cannot prove in the terms expressed in article 17 that he can talk, read, and write Castilian, shall be appointed in the archipelago, not even for the most insignificant and material posts of the offices of state or of the villages (such as agents, fagot-gatherers, tax assessors, collectors, etc., etc.).
If these inducements, or those which their religious and social zeal inspire in the parish priests, do not produce the desired result, then is the time when the supervisors must have recourse to the gobernadorcillos for the imposition of the fines authorized by article 2 of school regulations.
IV
Admission into the schools
Both clear and simple are the prescribed regulations in regard to this point. The supervisors perfectly understand the duties which are delegated to them and the best method of fulfilling them.
Without ever losing sight of the fact that education is free for poor children, they shall also bear in mind that this same principle of charity, which the state proclaims and which is imposed as an obligation, counsels them not to allow the admission of children under the term “poor” whose parents can and ought to bear some sacrifice. It is important for the gobernadorcillos to understand that if at any time they unduly issue certificates of poverty according to the tenor of article 4 of the regulations, the parish priests shall refuse to approve them, and the consequent permission for the child to enter the school. And in case this abuse is again committed they will inform the provincial supervisor.
V
Propositions for improvements
The just initiative conceded in this matter to supervisors by the regulations, must not be used without moderation, since innovations in public instruction are of great consequence. One single error is enough to lose a generation. Fortunately, as has already been said, the fact that the functions of supervisors are entrusted to the reverend and learned parish priests is a guarantee for the state and the heads of families, that, in religion and ethics, the cardinal basis of all solid instruction, reforms of principle or method shall not be introduced arbitrarily. In regard to the equipment, of which the experience and development of the respective institutions continue to advise the supervisors, it is to be hoped that they will harmonize with the general profit, which does not always build upon the best, but on what is good and possible.
A fertile field is offered by the lamentable condition of primary letters; by the scarcity of buildings for schools and teachers; by the grievous disproportion among the children who can and who cannot read; and between those who go and those who do not go to school, etc. Some data collected by this superior government, in consequence of the circular of March 1, 1866, show the following picture which is recommended by its very nature to the study of supervisors, although its accuracy must be a matter of doubt on all points.