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.

62 EDUCATIONAL SURVEY OF THE PHILIPPINES

work now prepared for foreign markets. Only after the local market
for baskets, mats, hats, and similar articles has been supplied should
the school resort to the production of articles for distant markets.
Industrial products of the school should come up to commercial standards and the pupils should be trained as producers. Because of the
wealth of raw materials found in the Philippines and because of the
undeveloped industrial conditions, the Government should have a department to encourage local handicrafts and children should be trained in
the schools to produce commercially valuable articles. Such a government department should have a sales agency that will take the products
of the school as well as those of local handicrafts valuable in a general
market. But in attaching such a department to the school system and
allowing it to influence the character and amount of industrial work in
the schools as it must do in order to be successful the educational
value of the school industrial work is greatly impaired. The unpopularity of this procedure is now jeopardizing the entire industrial program in
the minds of the people.
ADMINISTRATION
CENTRALIZED CONTROL.-The development of the Philippine educational system in its twenty-five years of existence has been a great
achievement. This is the judgment of all observers. While these
achievements cannot be attributed entirely to successful administration,
yet this factor has been important. The cooperation of a rapidly growing body of devoted teachers has been just as essential; so also has
been the whole-hearted support of the people and of the political officials
enthusiastic in the cause of education. But the factor here discussed
is that of administration. That administrative success has been largely
due to a highly centralized control will also be generally admitted.
This centralized character was given to the administrative system at its
establishment because of the absence of educational traditions of a
democratic character and because of the further fact that governmental
traditions as well as current practices were also largely of a centralized
character.
Elsewhere in this report have been noted some of the changes in the
situation that have gradually come about. The most important of these
are: (1) The great expansion of the number of pupils and teachers;
(2) the decrease of the number of trained administrators of long experience; and (3) the change in the social and political sentiment, world
wide as well as local, which in most other people has brought in recent
years fundamental changes in educational procedure.
Accompanying these changes, there has been little improvement in the
technical preparation of teachers, most of whom are without adequate
preparation.