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

65

Members of the Commission have examined many of the reports of
supervisors, district and provincial, as well as those of the general office.
They are all agreed that such reports are so concerned with the minutiae of conformity to external regulations that the real professional or
supervisory value has almost disappeared. The inevitable result of this
situation is that supervision has not only generated into inspection, but
inspection degenerates into espionage.
PROMOTIONAL AND SUPERVISORY STAFF.-The general remedy for
all of these defects which the Commission recommends is simple. In
their judgment, there should be a larger staff of supervisors in the
central office. They should be long retained in supervisory positions
and given time enough to become thoroughly familiar with their special
problems. Within their special fields they should know more than the
division superintendents. This knowledge should be not only of their
special subjects as worked out in the Philippine system; they should
have a knowledge of achievement in other countries as well. They
should be leaders familiar with recent educational thought and experience. One difficulty is that the administrative and supervisory staff
have been so submerged in the details of their own problems that they
know little of what has been going on in the United States and in Europe
during recent years. The general office has practically no field supervisory staff except in the academic field; even here the size of the
staff is so small that it can do little but inspection work.
We believe that this economy in the general office, forced by the
limitation of funds, has gone too far. Elsewhere attention is called to
the fact that the financial support given to the Central Bureau is now
actually less than in 1913. A much larger supervisory staff is needed.
When this is provided the inspectorial work and the formal report work
can be greatly curtailed; and with the revision of the Service Manual
and with an adequate supervisory staff, much greater freedom can be
given to the administrator in the field in carrying out the general regulations and in maintaining the standards set up by the central administration. Certainly with this greater personal contact between the central
office and the field achieved much greater professional interests can be
developed. With such development much of the dissatisfaction which
now undoubtedly exists, will tend to disappear. If at the same time,
better training for teachers is offered and insisted upon, much more effective and less formal teaching can be secured; and many of the criticism
now so prevalent will be answered. In fact, without this fundamental
readjustment many of the recommendations found throughout this report
cannot be executed. With it, the freedom which a few of the division
superintendents now find more or less by ignoring the common regulations can be achieved by all.
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