A survey of the educational system of the Philippine islands by the Board of educational survey, created under acts 3162 and 3196 of the Philippine Legislature.

MEASUREMENT OF INSTRUCTION

171

This figure is quoted from a study written by Mr. H. O. Field and
published in the Philippines Free Press for June 17, 1922. Mr. Field
was at the time Chief Examiner of the Bureau of Civil Service. His
records therefore can be taken with confidence in their accuracy. Mr.
Field reports for 1921 the number taking and the per cent failing
the English tests in the examinations for junior teachers, clerical,
senior stenographer, and the second-grade and promotional first-grade
examinations.
JUNIOR TEACHERS EXAMINATION
Number Number Per cent
examined failed failing
English composition. 566 565 99
TEACHE'RS EXAMINATION
Thesis............. 172 168 97
CLERICAL EXAMINATION
Letter writing..... 169 164 97
SENIOR STENOGRAPHER
Letter writing....... 33 27 82
SECOND GRADE
Letter writing...... 135 132 98
PROMOTIONAL FIRST GRADE
Letter writing....... 59 58 98:~ ---~l5I 5I

Summing these all up he shows that the greatest difficulty lies in
English composition and letter writing. Out of 1,134 candidates in
those two subjects, 1,114 or 98 per cent failed.
In sharp contrast to these results in language are those in arithmetic,
spelling, penmanship, etc. The percentage of failure in arithmetic
corresponding to those for composition in the above table are: 41, 55,
58, 85, 65, 63. In spelling they are 77, 22, 35, 54. For penmanship, 6, 7. These percentages of failure correspond very well to those
of results of taking the examinations of the United States Civil Service
Commission. Furthermore, the difference between the language results
and the results for the other subjects checks very well the smaller percentage of failure in the Civil Service examinations.