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.

GENERAL ADMINISTRATION

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Without attempting to determine the exact truth from these conflicting
reports, it is nevertheless possible to point out two elements that have
important bearings on the problem. The first is the expense involved
in a transfer. The second is the length of stay of a superintendent in
a province.
When a superintendent is transferred, he is allowed transportation
~ for 1,500 kilograms of personal belongings. The railroads, however,
have the right to measure this by volume and call it 1.5 cubic meters
if it is to their advantage. The result is that a superintendent often
has to pay for any effects over a volume equal to that of a box one and
one-seventh of a meter each way. This is a cubical content no bigger
than that of the desk at which he worked in the old place. To expect
any superintendent to pack his household effects and books into a box
of that size, is preposterous. He cannot take his things except by
paying extra. If he sells, he sells at a big loss. This personal-effects
allowance needs to be increased a great deal. Again, when he is
transferred, he has transportation only for himself. All the other members of his family go at his expense so that a man is penalized for
having a family and the more children he has, the greater the penalty
in transportation expenses. It is true that a superintendent is often
transferred to a promotion. But since the average length of stay in
a division is only two years, and often only one, it is a delusion to say
his promotion offsets his extra moving expenses when he will not stay
in the province long enough to catch up on the deficit caused by moving. In 37 per cent of the transfers of superintendents from 1913 to
1924, the transferred man received no increase in salary and of course
made the usual financial sacrifice on moving in addition. Provisions
similar to those made for officers in the Constabulary and other lines
of Government services should be made for officers in the Bureau of
Education.
Table 62 summarizes the data on the length of time superintendents
have stayed in their divisions during the last twelve years. To be
perfectly fair only the superintendents whose terms clearly began and
ended in this period were taken. Every man serving one year for a
superintendent who went on leave to the States was eliminated.
From this table it can be seen that the average and middle term
for both Americans and Filipino superintendents has been two years.
Moreover, nearly half of the superintendents, both Americans and Filipinos, have been in their divisions only one year. It is impossible for any
division to secure good school work with any such frequent change of
its chief official. When a superintendent stays in a division only one
year, as did nearly half of the division superintendents serving full terms