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.

SECONDARY EDUCATION

335

and university. Moreover, an examination of facts not presented in
the table shows that a considerable number who are not studying now
did attend higher schools immediately after finishing their secondary
education. The percentage of such students is actually found to be
58.8. The tendency towards teaching is also shown by the facts
given in the table. Almost a third of the graduates are engaged in
this occupation.
A more intensive study of the graduates of two provincial high
schools, Pampanga and Pangasinan, shows a similar situation. For
the former school facts were secured regarding present occupation from
207 of the 305 members of the graduating classes from 1912 to 1921,
inclusive; for the latter corresponding facts were secured from the 104
graduates of the last five years. In the case of the Pampanga High
School 41.5 per cent are teaching, 18.8 per cent are engaged in other
forms of professional service, 15.4 per cent are employed in clerical
occupations, 15 per cent are studying, and but 3.4 per cent are farming.
Of the graduates of the Masbate High School 56 per cent are studying
and 28 per cent are teaching. Less than 4 per cent are engaged in
agriculture.
This interest in teaching is of course highly commendable, provided
the young men and women involved are not exploiting the schools for
personal ends; but the most severe condemnation must be passed on
any system which permits graduates of the academic course in the
high school to enter the calling without additional professional training. At present the high school, in so far as its graduates are
concerned, does two things. It prepares for college and it is a teachertraining institution. Whether it performs the first of these functions
satisfactorily or not is a question we shall not attempt to answer here;
but that it makes no conscious effort to perform its second great function
merits the most adverse criticism.
Studies of the plans of high-school seniors further reveal the strength
of this tradition towards study and teaching. Near the close of this
last school year the seniors in the Cebu High School were asked by
the principal about their plans for the following year. According to
their statements 51 per cent were going to teach. Only one individual
out of a class of 147 gave farming as his intended career. Similar
investigations in Tayabas, Camarines Sur, and elsewhere furnish corroborative evidence. Of course, these plans with regard to the future
reported by high-school pupils should not be taken too seriously. Many
of them are undoubtedly merely wishes that will never be fulfilled, but
they are nevertheless of genuine value in revealing the tradition which
permeates the secondary school.