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

185

the putting of reading matter about the physical and biological world
into the books of primary children becomes all the more evident when
we remind ouselves that 82 per cent of all the children are in the first
four grades. If senior high-school students alone are even partially
informed about scientific matters, we must remember that they total not
more than one per cent of the total school enrollment.
The dearth of information revealed by the test lends strength to
our plea for more content in primary and intermediate reading books.
Let reading books be made, to be read even in the third and fourth
grades, containing interesting discussions of health and hygiene, of the
body and its protection from disease, of the animal and plant world,
and of the operation of important mechanical devices. In short, the
members of the Commission are unanimous in condemning this gap in the
elementary curriculum and recommend that it be filled by the introduction of a large quantity of reading matter.
IX. How WELL INFORMED ARE FILIPINO CHILDREN CONCERNING
THE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS AND PROBLEMS IN
WHICH THEY LIVE?
A carefully designed test was given to secure an answer to this
question. The test was made from the original Stanford Test No. 7,
modified to fit the curriculum of the Philippine schools. In modifying
this test the members of the Commission did not allow themselves to go
outside the Philippine course of study. To make the conditions comparable to those which deal with scientific information they should have
done so. However, a measure of the instruction in history, geography,
and literature was desired hence the test was made from the curriculum
in use.
Chart X presents the results from Grade V to the freshman year of
the University. The situation is markedly better than that in regard
to scientific information. History is taught in the seventh grade; the
result is revealed in the test scores. Geography is taught in the fourth,
fifth, and sixth grades. Literature is taught in the elementary school.
The scores of pupils in the test show that something definite results from
the instruction. Children know by the end of the intermediate-school
period about half of the facts that are regarded as socially worth while
now appearing in their course of study.
How well informed they are as compared with American pupils we
cannot be certain. The curricula of the two countries are very different and the tests were correspondingly so. Nevertheless, we believe
that the Filipino test measures Filipino knowledge about as well as
the original test measured American knowledge. That belief has
led us to report for the purposes of general comparison the median