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.

332 EDUCATIONAL SURVEY OF THE PHILIPPINES

number given for each year was swelled in almost equal measure
by repeaters from the classes that had gone before. Thus we may
place a good deal of confidence in these figures as measures of persistence. Of every 100 pupils of this entering class, but 59 remained
for the second year, 42 for the third, and 29 for the fourth. Undoubtedly yet fewer were present on the day of graduation. This
means that more than two-thirds of those who enter the high school
drop out before completing the course.
This problem is clearly a serious one. Since the course is organized
primarily for those who continue to the end, there is great educational
and economic loss in this excessive elimination. Certainly that large
group, over 40 per cent of the whole, which leaves before the second
year is well started, must derive but little benefit from their short stay
in the high school. The reasons for this condition are several. Poverty
and economic misfortune undoubtedly constitute a large factor in causing
pupils to leave school. But many leave because they do not possess
the ability required by the work of the school or because school curricula
and procedures fail to recognize their needs. If this great waste is
to be halted, the secondary school must be so organized as to take
into account the aptitudes, powers, and needs of those to be enrolled,
or frankly close its doors on those who are unable to meet its narrow
demands.
AFTER-SCHOOL CAREERS OF HIGH-SCHOOL PUPILS
We have seen whence high-school pupils come, who they are, and
how long they remain in the school. Before attempting a critical evaluation of the work of this institution, it will be well for us to find out
whither these pupils go after passing out of its doors. This is a problem of great significance, and the data which have been assembled
are rather meagre. Nevertheless, combined with observation and testimony from the field, they are sufficient to guide us in shaping the
broader and more fundamental policies.
For the purpose of helping in the solution of this problem two sets
of studies have been made. In the first place, facts regarding the
later careers of those leaving the high school before the completion
of the work of the second year were gathered from four provincial
high schools for the years 1921-22, 1922-23, and 1923-24. In the
second place, similar data for the class graduating in March, 1921, were
secured from five schools. We shall now examine the findings of the
first study.
In Table 35 are presented data regarding the present occupation