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

353

ABANDONMENT OF TRADITIONS OF SECONDARY EDUCATION
In the organization of these schools there should be no disposition to
follow administrative and instructional practices developed in the conventional secondary schools of academic tradition. In fact the introduction of such practices should be regarded with suspicion. The
purposes of the two types of institutions are so fundamentally different,
that what is good in the one may very well be bad in the other. In each
case procedures must be adjusted to the particular ends which are to be
achieved. It is especially necessary in the organization of the rural
high school to keep this caution in mind, because the academic school
is the established institution and it carries all the prestige which attaches
to an institution long associated with the privileged class. There is a
grave temptation for the vocational school to borrow practices from the
academic, but little temptation for the latter to borrow from the former.
The rural school must not be enamoured of the respectability which
clothes the procedures of the conventional secondary school. Many a
new institution has thus been lured away from its task.
The length of the courses offered and the period of time covered by
the school year should in each case reflect the needs of the industry
and the conditions governing the attendance of the prospective school
population. There is certainly no reason why these schools should be
four year schools. There has been a tendency to make their courses
of this length, because the American system of education, which was
brought into the Islands, had developed a four-year secondary schooL
Apparently there has been no careful study of social needs to find out
how long the course should be. It seems probable that most of
these schools should include less than four years of work. The Commission is of the opinion that, as a rule, two and three-year schools
would be more advisable than the conventional type.
The length of the school year and the period included therein should
also be adjusted to the conditions surrounding the schools. In some
instances a shorter school year than at present should be adopted. Or
possibly, in order to keep the school plant in practically continuous
operation, different groups of pupils should be brought into the schools
for different portions of the year. At certain seasons, the boys might
be enrolled, while at other times the doors of the school would be
opened to the girls. In every case the school year should reflect the
life conditions of the people rather than the convenience of administrative officers. It should have regard for the needs of the pupils rather
than the exigencies of record keeping.
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