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.

346 EDUCATIONAL SURVEY OF THE PHILIPPINES
academic schools. Also a few special schools should be established in
Manila, or possibly in certain other of the more populous communities of
the Islands.
In form such a program is not greatly different from that now in
operation. All of these types of schools are represented in the
educational system today. There are normal schools in Manila and
in the provinces. There are schools which are largely academic and
schools of agriculture, industry, and commerce. There is also a nautical school; and courses in household arts are offered in a number of
institutions. The School of Fine Arts at the University of the Philippines
is really a secondary school; and, since its student body is drawn largely
from the City of Manila, it should be separated from the University,
frankly recognized as a secondary school, and incorporated into the
city system. From this statement of the existing forms of secondary
schools in operation, it is obvious that the suggested changes require no
radical structural reorganization.
The great difference between the recommendation here and the
present program is one of emphasis. Since the great natural resource
of the Philippines is the soil, and since the country is predominantly
agricultural, a school adapted to the needs of rural life should be the
basic institution for secondary education. Such a school, rather than
the existing provincial high school, with its strong academic bias, should
be found eventually in every province. The other vocational schools
should reflect the growth of industry and commerce and should be as
numerous as the variety and complexity of the economic life require.
With the passage of time their number should increase, but for generations they should be numerically inferior to the agricultural schools.
The number of normal schools of secondary grade should be sufficient
to supply the demand for trained teachers. The academic high school,
at least in so far as numbers are concerned, should occupy a position
of inferiority and be regarded as a highly specialized form of secondary school.
The number and location of schools established should bear a close
relation to the needs. As we have already suggested, the basic secondary institution should be the rural or agricultural high school.
Eventually, every province should have at least one of these schools
and the larger, more populous, and more prosperous provinces should
have several. At present there are five provincial or regional normal
schools. This number should be greatly increased. While there is
no need now for a normal school in every province, there should be
from twenty to twenty-five schools so distributed as to insure adequate
attendance and to meet the regional demands for trained teachers. If