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.

530 EDUCATIONAL SURVEY OF THE PHILIPPINES

cannot offer salaries which will attract persons of high ability. If real
leadership is to be exercised by the general office, the persons occupying the positions must be of unusual ability and prestige. The present salary schedule for the higher positions of the central office cannot
now compete with field salaries.
Furthermore, the salaries of the most important central-office positions
are markedly lower in purchasing power than the corresponding salaries
of 1914. The salaries of ten central-office positions which were included in both the 1914 and 1924 organizations were compared with
the very moderate allowance of counting the purchasing power of one
peso in 1914 equal to that of 1.5 pesos in 1924. On this basis the ten
1924 salaries were found to be from 27 to 50 per cent lower than the
corresponding 1914 salaries. Under such conditions it is absolutely
impossible to build up and maintain a central-office staff of able
administrators.
UNDER SUCH CONDITIONS, WHAT ARE THE CHIEF CHARACTERISTICS
OF SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION IN THE PHILIPPINES?
The foregoing pages have established clearly that the Philippine
schools are being directed by a central administration that is hampered
by legal restrictions, by lack of control of professional policies and
programs, and by inadequate financial support. The influence of the
latter difficulty is revealed especially in the lack of professional leadership in the central office. These conditions of course determine the
character of the guidance that the schools are getting.
SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION IS DOMINATED BY CLERICAL ROUTINE
AND ACCURATE ACCOUNTING AND BY AN ABSENCE OF PROFESSIONAL
LEADERSHIP.-The central administrative staff of a school system is
commissioned to carry on three major functions. To it is entrusted, first,
the custodianship of property and the disbursement of educational funds;
second, the inspection of the work of the administrative and teaching
officers under its general control; third, the planning of instructional
programs, the wise selection and assignment of the teaching staff and the
guidance and constant inspection of teachers in service. Of these three,
the third is by far the most crucial to the development of fine schools in
the Philippines. It is true that each of the others is a necessary function
of administration especially in a system which is carried on as an
executive branch of the central government.
It is the judgment of the Commission that whereas the Bureau of
Education has accounted for property and disbursed funds with meticulous regard for accuracy and has inspected schools with fair approximation to what its financial capacity would permit it has very
greatly failed to fulfill its obligations of professional leadership. Let us