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.

480 EDUCATIONAL SURVEY OF THE PHILIPPINES

funds greatly restricts the organization and limits what may be accomplished. Beginning about 1915, the steady increase in the number of
pupils, culminating in 1918 in an increase of 20 per cent, intensified the
problem. During the same period the definite decrease in the number of
American teachers made its solution more difficult. In the earlier days
Americans readily supplied leadership; today they are too few in
number, the athletic services of those in the service are discouraged, and
the Filipino teachers are less interested and less well-trained in this phase
of education.
In establishing a country-wide program of physical education, the
use of regular grade teachers offered a better promise of success than
the employment of trained specialists. Moreover, at the beginning the
latter method was too expensive and the teachers were not available.
To guide the untrained teachers, handbooks and manuals have been used.
To evaluate this organization in the light of its present effectiveness
and to indicate how it might be improved are the present problems.
INITIATION AND DIRECTION OF THE PROGRAM.-The directions of
the Bureau for the conduct of physical education in the schools, as
given in the Athletic Handbook, Bulletin No. 40, were replaced on
March 5, 1919, by a syllabus, "Physical Education, a Manual for
Teachers." The foreword states that the book gives, "the essential
material for a systematized course in physical education for all Philippine public schools."
Under existing conditions, therefore, a manual is given to relatively
untrained teachers. This constitutes all that may reasonably be called
initiation of a program. Of central direction there is none. Complete
reliance is placed upon the uncoordinated, unguided efforts in the field
given by ten supervising teachers of hygiene and sanitation. Here is
an activity important enough to require in every school "not less than
two nor more than five minutes twice each school day" of relief exercises,
and "in every class, a physical-education period of not less than thirty
minutes, and in every intermediate class, a physical-education period of
not less than forty minutes... In every secondary class of boys, a
physical-education period of not less than sixty minutes each day...
In every secondary class of girls, a physical-education period of not less
than sixty minutes three times a week," and yet this activity is allowed
to proceed practically on the momentum generated by the manual.
What would be the natural result? Should one not expect to find
the teachers selecting for emphasis those activities which are easily led,
particularly those requiring little initiative, little planning, and little
physical effort? Should one not look for organization of the program
in the schools for show purposes and so-called disciplinary effects? To
what extent are the instructions of the manual followed?