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 71

system. So far as the element of salary enters into the problem, it
should be remembered that, while the Filipino personnel can be secured
on the basis of competing economic opportunities in the Philippines, the
American personnel must be selected and retained on the basis of
American salaries.) At present the two cannot be placed on the same
basis. Although this situation may have some appearance of injustice
and cause some dissatisfaction among the Filipinos, the latter should
clearly understand the differences in the two situations. It is not a
case of equal pay for equal work. That the American teacher can do
a kind of work different from that done by the Filipino teacher, or he
would not be in the system must be assumed. If he cannot do a
different kind of work he should not be employed. It is not a case of
payment for a job or for a position, but for specialized service. In the
case of Hawaii, under conditions comparable with those in the Islands
the policy is followed of paying salaries to American teachers on the
salary schedule common in the United States and of allowing such
teachers to go and come as they wish. Only their initial transportatien
charges to the Islands are paid. In the present year, when thee
hundred teachers were needed, requests were sent out through the usual
teachers' employment channels and more than 2,000 applications were
received. Under such conditions a selection of well-qualified teachers
could be made. In contrast with this situation, to obtain teachers properly qualified for the Philippine service is difficult. While the minimum
salary schedule of the Filipino teachers needs to be raised, a higher
salary schedule for the American teachers who remain in the system is
also required. But there are other factors in the situation that are
more important than that of financial compensation.
In the first place, few of the American teachers are specifically trained
for the type of work to which they are assigned. Statistical inquiries
reveal that only 13 per cent of those who are teaching in the high
school have been trained for the type of work which they are doing.
This is the situation in the face of the fact that the teaching of English,
specially to prospective Filipino teachers, is the most important problem
in the system. Cases have been encountered of teachers trained in
agriculture and selected for the purpose of teaching agriculture who are
now teaching in the high school. At the same time the school for
which they were selected is languishing for lack of properly trained
teachers of agriculture. If such cases were isolated, this single one
would not have been significant. Unhappily similar instances are numerous. Besides causing dissatisfaction among the pupils and discontent
among the teachers, in this particular instance undesirable administrative
situations arose. The remedy lies within the system itself and should
be applied by those in authority. Teachers with specific training