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.

314 EDUCATIONAL SURVEY OF THE PHILIPPINES

As the Spaniards brought their institutions to the Islands when they
arrived in the sixteenth century, so the Americans brought theirs at the
opening of the twentieth. Beginning with the elementary school, which
is the basis of their system, they rapidly erected on Philippine soil an
educational structure not essentially different from that developed in the
United States. In 1902 the first high schools were organized, and the
experiment in public secondary education of the American type was
launched in the Philippines. In these first schools much of the work
was really preparatory to secondary instruction. At the outset the
first two years were often of intermediate grade and but a single year
of high school work was offered. But with the development of the
intermediate school the preparatory instruction was dropped, and as the
first entering class was promoted from year to year the four-year school
was gradually established. It should be pointed out, however, that
this process of growth, which has characterized the institution as a
whole in its evolution, is repeated in individual schools today. There
are now in the system one-year, two-year, and three-year schools which
are expected in time to become four-year schools.
The establishment of the public high school in the Philippines has
received the enthusiastic support of the population. From the very
first the people have shown great interest in the institution; parents have
made extraordinary sacrifices to send their children to it; and pupils
have been eager to attend. So great has been the interest in secondary
education that almost within the span of a score of years 86 schools
have been established and the registration has grown to approximately
50,000. Every province has its regular high school offering an academic curriculum and many have vocational schools of secondary grade.
Moreover, because of inadequate facilities, thousands of boys and girls
are turned away from these schools every year: and if permission
were granted, many municipalities would establish their own public
high schools.
This growth of public secondary education in the Philippines, not
unlike the expansion of secondary education in the United States during
the last quarter of the nineteenth century, should be regarded as one
of great social movements affecting Philippine society. In comparison with other and more spectacular tendencies, which receive the
attention of the press, this development of the public high school is of
profound significance. It is the object of this report, first, to attempt
a critical appraisal of the public high school as a social institution;
second, to make certain suggestions with regard to the general organization of secondary education in the Islands; and, third, to present
a more detailed and technical discussion of the curriculum, instruction,
and management of the secondary school. If an inordinate amount