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.

26 EDUCATIONAL SURVEY OF THE PHILIPPINES

In discussing this problem of the language of instruction, it must be
realized that there is no absolutely satisfactory solution. No one of
the possible alternatives could be adopted against which serious and
unanswerable objections could not be brought. The problem is to find
for the present the most serviceable solution and the one open to the
fewest objections.
It is also to be recognized that there is no evidence at hand to answer
some of the questions connected with this problem of the language
of instruction. That these questions cannot be solved by opinion cannot
be too strongly emphasized. Only after years of experimentation and
scientific investigation by competent men under exacting standards can
they be answered. The Board has not attempted and does not attempt
definitively to settle this problem.
What is meant by a common language should be kept clearly in mind.
There is no anticipation and no desire to replace the native dialects as a
common medium of communication among the masses of the people.
This can only come about as a natural process through the course of time.
By a common language is meant a language for common intercourse
in business, professional, intellectual, political, and cultural affairs. This
language will be a medium of communication between all the educated
members of the dialect groups, a source from which to draw the culture
materials of a common world civilization and a means of communication
with the world at large. Not only because of the multiplicity of the
dialects and the lack of a common medium of communication, but
because of the meagerness of culture material and of world-wide
contacts, such a medium is required. Without this there is no possibility
of building up a stable group or a national culture.
Everyone who has lived or studied in Europe has knowledge of the
differences which exist in Germany, Italy, or France and in most other
European countries between the local dialects of the peasants and the
culture language of the educated. So great are these differences that
the members of one class frequently cannot understand those of the other.
Through the development of the use of English as the common
medium, a similar situation is possible here in the Philippines.
Two other considerations lead to the conclusion that English should
be maintained as the language of instruction.
In the first place, the introduction of the dialects as the language of
instruction would be a divisive influence. Wherever the question of
the possible universal use of a dialect has been raised unless the suggested
dialect was the local one, the suggestion has been pronounced impossible.
So impossible is it in fact that there seemed to be few questions more
provocative of both social and political antagonism. Any action upon