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.

I

UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES

643

that some students receive adequate attention and one member of the
Commission saw excellent individual work performed. But that does
not affect the general situation.
These two divisions of the University are far removed from the
campus of the University and are housed in rented buildings. The
Commission has gathered the impression that little interest is taken by
the administrative authorities of the University in the affairs of these
two schools and very little supervision exercised over them. If the University is to retain control of these two schools they should be completely
reorganized and put upon a collegiate basis. But the Commission
questions the wisdom of retaining these institutions as divisions of the
University. The great majority of their students are of high-school age
and attaintments or less. The public-school system maintains agricultural and trade high schools. There is no reason why it should not
maintain one high school of music and the fine arts. Moreover, according to Table 127 on geographical distribution of students, three-quarters
of the students in the School of Fine Arts and nearly two-thirds of those
in the Conservatory of Music are residents of Manila, and the great majority of the remainder in both schools are residents of the provinces in the
immediate neighborhood of the capital. It seems to the Commission to
be a reasonable proposition that if these schools are to be maintained at
public expense the City of Manila should share directly in it. The
Commission believes, however, that just as the public-school system was
established primarily to advance the intellectual and material interests
of the Filipino people, so a government department of fine arts should
be established to advance their spiritual welfare. In that case these
two schools would find their natural habitat and the University might
have a small School of Music and Fine Arts of university grade in cooperation with the new department.
THE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY.-No single part of an institution of
learning is so essential as a library. "To provide advanced instruction
in literature, philosophy, the sciences and arts, and to give professional
training," the aim of the University of the Philippines, as given in its
charter, makes an adequate library imperative. But the weakest division of the University is unquestionably the library and that the language in the catalog referring to it conceals the true condition of things
is to be regretted. One has only to compare it with the libraries of
institutions with about the same number of students to discover its
pitiable inadequacy.