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.

350 EDUCATIONAL SURVEY OF THE PHILIPPINES

NEW TYPE OF SCHOOL NEEDED
There is need for a new type of high school; but there is greater
need for a new orientation with regard to the whole problem of secondary education. Under present conditions, through leadership in the
Bureau of Education, through the training of teachers, through the
organization of the course of study, through the spirit permeating
the entire educational structure, through a social tradition evolved in
the course of centuries, an academic bias is given to all the work of the
school. From the earliest grades the child is stimulated to look away
from the barrio to the municipality and from the municipality to the
city. In this situation little can be accomplished by drawing up agricultural curricula and purchasing school farms. Only as the materials
of instruction in the elementary schools are selected with a view towards
making rural life attractive and significant, will there be created that
new attitude towards common things which will fill the ranks of the
pupil population attending the rural high school.
On the secondary level steps should be taken at once to make the
rural school the basic secondary institution in the Islands. Eventually
there should be organized a rural high school in each province. In
this school the great majority of intermediate-school graduates, who
continue their education, should enroll. While such a program may
seem extravagant, with a less ambitious one the Filipino people should
not be content. That such a program cannot be put into operation
in a day is obvious. Its full realization will require years. But the
thing that is immediately possible and most desirable is a radical change
in policy. All the forces of educational leadership available should
be brought to bear upon the task of bringing the resources of the
school into the service of improving the life of the rural community. If
in this way the general direction in which the secondary school has
been moving is altered, the desired port will be reached in due season.
The great object of the rural high school should be to serve as a
social and educational center for the development of the potentialities
resident in the rural culture and the rural population. All other aims
should be subordinated to this one. Through this institution the best
thought and finest aspiration of which the Filipino people are capable
should be brought to play upon the problems of rural life. To the
achievement of this purpose many old and venerable educational traditions must be sacrificed. From the rural high school in each community
should flow a continuous stream of young men and women equipped
with a technique to make the soil more productive and imbued with a
zeal to face the tasks of the common life and to make significant the