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.

ELEMENTARY EDUCATION

201

compulsory attendance. This makes no allowance for the unmeasured
factor of varying percentages of-children of school age in the different
populations. At the secondary level, the Philippine public schools
enroll about the same percentage as those of Japan, more than those of
Porto Rico, less than those of Hawaii, and only about a fourth as
many as the high schools of the United States.
TABLE 9.-COMPARATIVE PERCENTAGES OF THE POPULATION ENROLLED IN PUBLIC
SCHOOLS FOR THE PHILIPPINES AND OTHER COUNTRIES IN RECENT YEARS
ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS
Country Percent- Year Work covered
age
Philippines............... 9.41 1923 Voluntary primary school, Grades I to IV, followed
by voluntary intermediate school, Grades V to
VII, whole forming elementary school, Grades
I to VII.
United States (continental).. 17.88 1920 Compulsory elementary school, Grades I to VIII,
but letting children out when certain ages are
reached.
Hawaii................... 15.5 1920 Same.
Porto Rico................ 13.7 1920 Same.
Japan.................. 14.9 1920 Compulsory elementary school, Grades I to VI.
SECONDARY SCHOOLS
Philippines................ 0.43 15 24,Four years, Grades VIII to XI, voluntary..36 1923 I
United States (continental).. J 1.76 1920 Four years, Grades IX to XII, junior high school,
1 2.04 1922 f Grades VII and VIII, excluded, voluntary.
Hawaii...................76 1920 Same.
Porto Rico.................32 1920 Same.
Japan.....................53 1920 Three to five years, Grades VII to XI, voluntary.
NoTE.-Sources: Philippine Census and Bureau of Education Reports, Stateman's Yearbook for 1923, Bulletin of United States Bureau of Education, 1925, No. 16. Statistical
Survey of Education, 1919-20, and Bulletin of United States Bureau of Education, 1924,
No. 7, Statistics of Public High Schools, 1921-22.
THE DOMINATING INFLUENCE OF THE PRIMARY GRADES
One fact should dominate all discussion of the public-school organization which has been set up in the Philippine Islands: that organization
is essentially a primary-school system. Eighty-two per cent of the
children enrolled in all the schools of the Islands, elementary and secondary, are in the first four grades. Furthermore, the great majority of
primary children are in the early grades of this division of the system.
Sixty-five per cent of the pupils in the public schools are in the first and
second grades. In 1923, there were nearly 1,200,000 pupils in all the
schools; 570,000 of them were in the first two years. In Figures 14,
15, and 16, this situation is strikingly portrayed. The figures show the