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.

20 EDUCATIONAL SURVEY OF THE PHILIPPINES

Figures 5 and 6 should be taken together. The first shows the
growth in the number of primary and intermediate schools from 1903
and 1904 to the close of the year 1923; the second portrays the
increase in the number of school buildings of the different types from
1912 to 1923. These curves follow the enrollment curves. Increased
registration ordinarily means an increase in the number of schools and
school buildings. Aside from the general picture of the growth of the
system which these figures present, the one point to be observed here
is the rapid increase in the number of school buildings since 1918.
There is evidence here, as at other points, that the expansion of the
system during recent years has outrun resources. Too large a proportion of the children brought into the schools have been housed in
temporary buildings. While the issue between the permanent and semipermanent building has not been decided, little other than bare necessity
can be urged in favor of the temporary structure.
One final figure showing the growth of the system should be presented
here. This is the figure picturing the growth in school costs, Figure 7.
Here is a graphic representation of the growth of current expenses for
public education from 1903 to 1923. Although facts for total costs
would have been preferable, reliable data for the earlier years are
not available. However, since current expenses ordinarily constitute
from eighty to ninety per cent of the total cost of education, this figure
conveys a fairly satisfactory impression of the material resources of
the people which have gone into the schools. The current expenses
have increased from less than four million pesos in 1903 to almost
twenty-one million in 1923. This is a very large increase, yet the
reader should not forget that during this period there was a considerable
depreciation in the value of the peso.
The one fact in this figure which merits great emphasis is the phenomenal growth of current expenditures on education since 1918: This
is directly traceable to the provision of the Thirty-million-peso Act
which on a scale of annually increasing appropriation distributed this
sum over a period of five years. Reference to the earlier figures, particularly to the figures on enrollment, teachers, and buildings, clearly
reveals that this increase in school revenues was employed, not to
improve the quality of the work already being done, but rather to
carry the same grade of education to larger numbers of children. That
these two needs were not recognized and provided for is to be regretted.
Evidence to be presented later in the report shows the defective nature of
certain phases of school work. There is constant need for more funds,
but a portion of these funds should always be devoted to improving the
quality of the instruction offered.
One other point merits attention. The appropriations from the