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 301

to establish presupposed teachers with technical skill. Persons with
such skill were not available. The alternative was to use untrained
teachers and to compensate for their deficient preparation by minutely
directing and closely supervising their
work.
The result was the development of a COMPARISON
OfNUMbEROF O
supervisory machinery notable for the,I0 LIPiNO AMERICA
effectiveness of its organization, and the SUPERVIORS
1917-1923 /
preparation of instructions to teachers in 4______1
which an attempt was made to anticipate
and to provide for every school-room __
situation. a/
The development of such detailed t____.
instructions and such elaborate supervi- o:
sion creates a situation in which there is ___
a strong tendency for supervisors to give,,
their major attention to checking up on
the faithfulness of teachers in carrying
out instructions. In other words, there a /
is a natural tendency for supervision to | -
degenerate into inspection.
Too much credit cannot be given to
the supervisors, district and divisional,.
for the helpful nature of their work in "
the face of the pressure which would
tend to make them mere inspectors.
And it must be remembered that this
helpful work has been done in addi- SO
tion to very heavy administrative duties
which are outlined in the chapter on '
administration.
THE SUPERVISORY STAFF.-The
growth of the supervisory staff is shown
in Fig. 18. The sharp upturn after __,_ -- --
1918 marks the rapid increase in ele- \ J
mentary schools as the result of the
Thirty-million-peso Act, and the corresponding increase in the number of c ~,e.,[ I!, It1 t, l 1Z n M
district and division supervisors. This YA ---
rapid expansion in the number of schools Fia. 18
to be supervised took place with no special anticipatory or accompanying preparation of the necessary supervisory personnel.