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.

538 EDUCATIONAL SURVEY OF THE PHILIPPINES

signed to strategic positions. The Survey Commission has been greatly
impressed by the differences which exist between provinces in the general efficiency of the schools. These differences are surprising because
the centralized organization tends to reduce such differences. They
were found to be due in large measure to differences among the men
in charge of the various divisions, to the personal qualities of the division superintendents. The program of the bureau in securing and assigning administrators to the field is, therefore, of great importance.
SELECTION
Administrative officials are selected in accordance with the following
principles:
First. No administrator is chosen except from the field itself. This
tends to produce a good spirit in the field because a man who has
shown his efficiency in one position can hope to rise to a higher one with
a better salary. In the American states a different policy might be
pursued. There progressive state superintendents deliberately encourage
the importation of capable school administrators direct from the other
states. That policy is less easily possible in the Philippines. Capable
administrators of long experience will not come for the salaries offered.
Furthermore, conditions in the Philippines are so different from those
of the States that it would be difficult for a school administrator from
the United States to adjust himself to the novel conditions in anything
less than one or two years. Naturally, administrators of proved ability
from the United States will not go through a period of apprenticeship
for administrative work in the Philippines. The Bureau then is forced
back upon a policy of securing its higher personnel from those already
in the field.
This policy has seriously handicapped the administration in respect
to the professional aspects of its work. The system has been compelled
to draw too largely upon its own experience in formulating policies
and in developing technical procedures. The results of study and research in the field of education which have so influenced school practice
in the United States during the last twenty-five years have not been
made available for the modification of school procedure in the Philippines. They would have been made available had some plan been
found by which a technical staff in the Bureau of Education would
have added the benefit of the newly-developed technical knowledge to
the experience of men old in the system.
Second. No man is given an administrative position until he has
first served as a teacher. This insures that in his work as administrator
he will know the teaching side of the school work. Instruction is the
nub of school work. Administration exists only to insure that the