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.

BOARD OF EDUCATIONAL SURVEY REPORT

types of machinery for fitting the school to the varying capacities of
individual children. They have become necessary appurtenances of
schools because modern education is "mass-education."
In the Philippines it is clear that respect for administrative machinery
has prevented those in charge from adequately fitting the schools to the
children. Arbitrary "passing" standards have been maintained, and
final examinations have been permitted to play an undue part in promotion. They are examinations, furthermore, which emphasize fact
learning and routine and which correspondingly minimize the more
fundamental outcomes of school instruction. In Chapter I the subject of
the final examinations is considered and their abolition is recommended.
One of the fundamental causes of "failure" of pupils lies in the lack
of adaptation of the curriculum to the needs and abilities of individual
pupils. The chief problem of the elementary school is to organize a
course of instruction which is adapted to the living conditions of Filipinos
and which is graded and arranged to fit the stages of growth of
Filipiao children typical of the respective school grades. For two pertinent reasons the present elementary curriculum must be radically modified. First, it is so completely designed for very young children that it
is not adapted to the mature, adolescent, and preadolescent pupils who
crowd the primary and intermediate grades. Second, the present course
reflects American culture rather than that of the Philippines. There
is needed a curriculum of readings and activities dealing with the whole
range of Filipino life and it& relation to that of other peoples; a
curriculum furthermore which is graded to fit the abilities and interests
of Filipino children. The basic problems are to provide a curriculum
which will gradually mature as the children mature, and to set up
administrative machinery which will keep the enrollment of children
"up the grades" in close step with their growth in intellectual ability
and attainment. Nothing short of systematic, scientific study of curriculum construction and of school administration will accomplish this
result. To make such scientific studies the departmental organization
of the general office must be materially augmented by the creation of
positions with real professional functions and staffed by specialists
trained in modern methods of administration.
The elementary-school principal occupies a position of focal importance in Philippine schools. Especially is this true because teachers are
relatively untrained and because 95 per cent of the school population
is crowded into the first seven grades. The principal is a great potential
force for guidance and growth. The need for supervision and guidance
of teachers is so fundamental that the Bureau of Education should spare
no effort to make the principalship a position of real professional leadership. At present it is not such. It is a teaching and clerical position,