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.

318 EDUCATIONAL SURVEY OF THE PHILIPPINES

The importance of this question is emphasized by comparative statistics on the mortality of the fathers of high-school pupils. A study
of the boys and girls in the high schools of four provinces and the City
of Manila showed that the fathers of 22.5 per cent were deceased. The
corresponding figure for children in the high schools of four American
cities was found to be but 8.6. An extraordinarily large proportion
of the secondary-school population in the Philippines are without this
support of the older generation.
Until a people evolves an efficient economic system and, through a
reduction of the birth and death rates, raises the ratio between those
above and those below fifteen years of age, it can ill afford to provide
formal educational opportunities to large numbers of persons who have
reached the age of economic productivity. Such a people should
make every effort to utilize to the full, for educational opportunities,
the age of relative nonproductivity, the age which nature has clearly
set aside for educational purposes, the age of childhood. If the high
school is to render the most economical service, the present practices
governing entrance and promotion in the elementary school should be
so modified as to secure, at least for the more systematic work'of secondary education, a pupil population ranging in age from thirteen or
fourteen to seventeen or eighteen years. The more extended years of
leisure for educational purposes can only be provided as the basic
problems of health and industry are solved.
PROPORTION OF CHILDREN IN HIGH SCHOOL
We have already observed that in September, 1924, there were
enrolled in the public high schools 47,419 pupils. If we assume that
all children fourteen to seventeen years of age are of high-school age,
there were at this same time, according to calculations based upon the
Census of 1918 and rates of increase from 1903 to 1918, approximately
848,000 children of high-school age in the Islands. If we disregard
the facts regarding overage discussed in preceding paragraphs, we may
say that 5.6 per cent of the children of appropriate age are in the
public high schools. But there were at the same time 19,406 pupils
in approved private secondary schools. If this figure be added to the
enrollment in public institutions, the total secondary-school population
of the Islands is found to be 66,825, or 7.9 per cent of the children
of high-school age.
While this percentage shows that the high-school population is highly
selected, it can be properly interpreted only through comparison with
corresponding figures for other countries. Here, however, because of
differences in the organization of school systems and the difficulty of
getting data for recent years, certain difficulties are encountered.