Volume 46 — CHAPTER VII
Reading edition
Supervision and oversight
26. A commission composed of three women appointed by his Excellency, the superior civil governor, on recommendation of the ayuntamiento, one of whom shall be relieved annually, shall be created for the supervision of the school. The functions of this commission shall be those only of supervision and oversight. In consequence of that they must inform the superior authority of any fault which is noted with the fitting remarks for its correction.
Approved by his Excellency, the superior civil governor, Manila, February 15, 1864.
CIRCULAR OF THE SUPERIOR CIVIL GOVERNMENT GIVING RULES FOR THE GOOD DISCHARGE OF SCHOOL SUPERVISION
The duties imposed by articles 30–33 of the regulations approved by her Majesty, December 20, 1863, for the schools and teachers of primary instruction in this archipelago, both on this superior government and on the chiefs of the provinces and the reverend and learned parish priests, charging them in their respective spheres with the supervision of so important a service, cannot be easily fulfilled without a preceding conference between this directive center and its delegates in regard to the transcendental points of doctrine, and of detail which the supervisions are called upon to resolve.
The briefest enunciation of the supervisory functions is sufficient to make its seriousness understood. The local functions especially, which are exercised in their villages by the reverend and learned parish priests, enclose the future of education. These are:
1. To visit the schools as often as possible, and see that the regulations are observed.
2. To admonish the teachers who commit any fault, and suspend them in case they incur any excess, which in their judgment does not allow such teachers to longer continue in charge of the schools, advising the provincial supervisor thereof.
3. To promote attendance at the schools by the children.
4. To give the orders of admission into the schools in writing with expression as to whether the education is to be free or paid.
5. To propose, through the medium of the provincial supervisor, whatever is thought to be advisable for the encouragement or improvement of primary instruction.
6. To exercise the direction which is expressed in article 4, in regard to the teaching of the Christian doctrine and ethics.
On the fulfilment of these sovereign requirements depends the development and conservation of the improvements which are being introduced into the department. Without a supervision, exercised with assiduity and intelligence, one cannot imagine, and never will there exist without doubt, good schools or intelligent teachers. The happy fact of her Majesty entrusting that supervision to the reverend and learned parish priests, assures its good outcome and shows well the foresight and practical spirit which shine forth throughout the regulations.
So deep is this conviction in me, that I do not hesitate to direct myself under this date to their Excellencies, the most illustrious prelates and the reverend father provincials of the religious orders, petitioning them in harmony with the request; and charge that her Majesty directs to them in article 19 of the organic royal decree of December 20, 1863, that they incite the zeal of the parish priests for the exact observance of their duties in what relates to the supervision of instruction. Besides this you, as chief and supervisor of that province, will please charge upon them the study of chapter ii, título vi, of the regulations dictated for the Peninsula, July 20, 1859, as a text or legal precedent; and as doctrine the wise observations which the author of the Diccionario de educación y métodos de enseñanza [i.e., Dictionary of education, and methods of teaching] a very respectable authority in pedagogy, to whom the Peninsula owes in great measure the progress of its primary instruction. “Supervision,” it says, “is one of the most efficacious means for the improvement of schools, and the acceleration of its onward progress toward perfection, but only when it is done with intelligence, faith, and perseverance, and at the same time, benevolent severity. The more serious are its consequences, the more difficult is the mission of the supervisor, and the more rare the qualities with which he ought to be adorned.
“It is necessary for him who shall exercise this duty to know how to examine things in their most minute details. He must see them at the same time in their make-up in order to judge of the harmony or unity existing between the means and the ends to which they are directed. Obliged to see and observe by himself whatever passes in the schools, he must for that reason descend to the level of the least intelligent teachers, and of the most dull and stupid scholars.
“The self-love of some, the ignorance of others, and the indifference and coldness of the majority of persons with whom he will have to do, are obstacles which can only be destroyed by a zeal, a strength of indefatigable will, and a constancy which, instead of becoming weak, increases its power in proportion to the resistance which is offered to it.
So notable a synthesis of the honorable task charged upon the supervisors, and of the rules of deportment which must be presented, indicates at once the evolution which the requirements contained in article 32 of the regulations of December 20, 1863, will have to receive in practice. Nevertheless, this superior government will explain them to you, point by point, so that you may all be able to penetrate more and more into the delicate functions which you are going to perform.
I
Inspection of schools
The ocular supervision, to which the first part of these rules refer, is chiefly an act of policy and good internal system. The supervisor shall observe whether the school is clean and well taken care of, in order to inspire the children with ideas of order and personal neatness, which may have so great an influence on their future life; whether the interior regulations approved by her Majesty on the same date, and cited so often, are scrupulously observed; and whether the progress of the teaching is that prescribed by article 10. Such supervision must be frequent, at the least semi-annual, when, in accordance with article 5 of the school regulations, they give lessons in Christian doctrine and ethics to the children.
Lastly, if the supervisor is zealous, as is to be hoped, on the occasion of all inspections, in investigating thoroughly the progress of the children and the instruction of the teacher, he shall endeavor not to exact from either scholars or teacher things beyond their strength, and shall adjust his actions and words to the measure of good sense. He shall bear in mind that the result of his visit depends in that act on the impression which the supervisor produces on the teacher and on the children. In no case ought he to appear as a melancholy censor, or a too indulgent friend. His corrections must be mild when they are directed to the chief of the institution, in order that he may not become contemptuous in the eyes of his scholarship. If he merits an energetic correction, it shall be given with great reserve, bearing in mind that the second requirement of the above-mentioned article 32, places in his hand energetic means of action. In exchange, praises must be public, but not exaggerated, or told in such a manner that the teacher or the scholars shall grow arrogant. In a word, simplicity, prudence, and affability must rule these actions, the most transcendental of the supervisors’ function, for they can render sterile in a moment the cares of the government, the sacrifices of the villages, and the lofty interests of the present and future, which the education of children represents for the country and for the families.
II
Correction and suspension of teachers
This is the most delicate power which the regulations give to the supervisors. From the last paragraph preceding is inferred the frugality with which it ought to be used. Faults of religion, public or private morals, or of zeal in the fulfilment of one’s duties, will be the only things which authorize supervisors to initiate the governmental measure demanded by article 9 of the regulations for the discharge of teachers and assistants who have graduated from the normal school.
The abandonment of the Castilian language in the explanations or in the material ceremonies of the school, will also be considered as one of the most serious faults of the teacher, according to circumstances, in the tenor of law v, book i, título xiii, of Recopilación indiana, animated and reformed by the imposition of heavy penalties in the concluding requirements of chapters 25 and 26 of the Ordinances of good government of February 26, 1768, articles 5 of the regulations for normal school, and 3 for those of schools for primary instruction.
As it would scarcely be right that the authority of correcting and punishing be not accompanied by that of compensating, especially since the reverend and learned parish priests are authorized by the fifth clause of the above-cited article 32, to promote the progress or improvement of education, they will also be empowered to propose annually after the examinations justifiable recommendations for the granting of a prudent number of medals of civil merit to the teachers or assistants, who have most distinguished themselves. The supervisor, consulting with the commission of the department, shall remit the document with his report to this government, which, consulting in due time the superior commission, will grant or refuse the recompense within the maximum limit of two medals per province.
When extraordinary and excellent services are proved, the more honorable distinction may be obtained from the government of her Majesty. This shall all be without prejudice to the promotions and rewards of organic character, that is to say, those which are granted to teachers by articles 11 and 12 of their own regulations.
III
School attendance
Education is compulsory. This concluding requirement of the regulations exists in the laws of public instruction of almost all nations. Nevertheless, in its application, the governments pay attention to the social circumstances of the country. In our country parents incur a fine who do not send their children to school, the fine being from one-half to two reals, according to circumstances (art. 2, of school regulations).
Before having recourse to this coercive means, a zealous supervisor has other means of greater efficacy. The parish priest, venerated by his parishioners, ought to excite the consciences of the heads of the family, and make them comprehend their responsibility before God and men in depriving their children of education. If an instinctive duty counsels them to give their children bread, the duty to give them an education (the bread of the soul) is a sacred one, without which Christian man cannot live. The mothers of the family ought to be for the supervisor, under this point of view, the preferred object of their supplication, warnings, and tender and salutary counsels.
The goad of their own interests so powerful in the human heart ought also to be excited for this noble end. The law has considered them very carefully and it is fitting for the supervisor to unfold before the eyes of the parents so that their simple intelligence may well understand that not only ought they, but that it is profitable for them to send their children to school, for after the schools have been established for fifteen years in the village of their habitation those who cannot speak, read, or write Castilian:
Cannot be gobernadorcillos.
Nor lieutenants of justice.
Nor form part of the principalía; unless they enjoy that privilege because of heredity—a right which will continue to rapidly disappear, in proportion as the instruction develops, and as only those who possess an education become principales.
Lastly, after a school has been established in the village for thirty years, those who unite [in themselves] said circumstance can enjoy the enviable exemption of personal services.
Another more pressing thing must also be recalled to the attention of the parents daily and hourly if possible. Five years after the publication of the regulations, no one who cannot prove that he can talk, read, and write Castilian, can be appointed to any remunerative post in this archipelago.
So important requirements of articles 16 and 17 of the organic royal decree of December 20, 1863, recommended by article 18 to this superior government and the authorities of its dependency shall be fulfilled with all exactness. From December 20 of the last year, 1868, no one who cannot prove in the terms expressed in article 17 that he can talk, read, and write Castilian, shall be appointed in the archipelago, not even for the most insignificant and material posts of the offices of state or of the villages (such as agents, fagot-gatherers, tax assessors, collectors, etc., etc.).
If these inducements, or those which their religious and social zeal inspire in the parish priests, do not produce the desired result, then is the time when the supervisors must have recourse to the gobernadorcillos for the imposition of the fines authorized by article 2 of school regulations.
IV
Admission into the schools
Both clear and simple are the prescribed regulations in regard to this point. The supervisors perfectly understand the duties which are delegated to them and the best method of fulfilling them.
Without ever losing sight of the fact that education is free for poor children, they shall also bear in mind that this same principle of charity, which the state proclaims and which is imposed as an obligation, counsels them not to allow the admission of children under the term “poor” whose parents can and ought to bear some sacrifice. It is important for the gobernadorcillos to understand that if at any time they unduly issue certificates of poverty according to the tenor of article 4 of the regulations, the parish priests shall refuse to approve them, and the consequent permission for the child to enter the school. And in case this abuse is again committed they will inform the provincial supervisor.
V
Propositions for improvements
The just initiative conceded in this matter to supervisors by the regulations, must not be used without moderation, since innovations in public instruction are of great consequence. One single error is enough to lose a generation. Fortunately, as has already been said, the fact that the functions of supervisors are entrusted to the reverend and learned parish priests is a guarantee for the state and the heads of families, that, in religion and ethics, the cardinal basis of all solid instruction, reforms of principle or method shall not be introduced arbitrarily. In regard to the equipment, of which the experience and development of the respective institutions continue to advise the supervisors, it is to be hoped that they will harmonize with the general profit, which does not always build upon the best, but on what is good and possible.
A fertile field is offered by the lamentable condition of primary letters; by the scarcity of buildings for schools and teachers; by the grievous disproportion among the children who can and who cannot read; and between those who go and those who do not go to school, etc. Some data collected by this superior government, in consequence of the circular of March 1, 1866, show the following picture which is recommended by its very nature to the study of supervisors, although its accuracy must be a matter of doubt on all points.
Report of primary education of these islands with relation to the data of approximate accuracy which were sent to this superior civil government by the chiefs of the provinces and districts herein expressed, in observance of the circular of March 1, 1866.
Provinces or districts Number of villages Number of souls School attendance Number of schools possible Buildings for
Boys Girls Boys Girls Schools Teachers
Abra 8 23,140 876 569 10 10
Albay 30 210,954 4,385 3,079 22
Antique 19 88,243 1,930 1,663 21 21 16
Bataán 12 45,177 1,005 704 16 16 10
Batanes (Isla) 7 8,639 632 336 6 6 2
Batangas 20 279,930 3,340 80 85 33 1
Benguet 27 11,587 29 1 1
Bontoc 7,000
Bohol 31 192,734 15,736 17,948 31 31 31
Bulacan 23 241,698 6,485 2,162 47 55 17
Burias 2 1,800 78 102 2 2 2 2
Cagayan 19 63,059 4,093 5,451 22 22 14
Camarines Sur 33 95,630 1,176 6 36
Camarines Norte 9 26,499 480 9 9 8
Capiz 31 191,818 5,072 4,436 35 28
Cavite 6 65,225 2,045 713 16 16 16 1
Cebú 45 314,517 6,734 4,414 45
Calamianes 5 13,851 718 298 6 6 6
Cottabato 7 3,913 128 70 3 3
Corregidor (Isla) 1 550 39 43
Davao 2 937 107 81 1
Ilocos Sur 23 163,758 4,603 1,993 20 22 23
Ilocos Norte 15 135,868 2,440 1,056 30 30 20
Iloilo 39 375,500 7,960 6,193 67 64 39
Infanta 3 7,250 558 3 2
Isla de Negros 41 144,594 1,829 1,776 30 24 29
Isabela de Basilan 1 439 1 1
Isabela de Luzón 10 29,674 3,199 2,820 16 16 9
Laguna 28 129,064 4,689 1,438
Lepanto 48 8,851 4 4
Leite 40 154,530 5,107 3,156 89 40
Manila 29 275,218 1,940 903 25 13
Marianas (Islas) 8 6,308 511 440 10 6 6
Masbate y Ticao 9 11,716 425 425 56 56 9
Mindoro 17 45,630 2,426 6
Misamis 22 67,285 5,684 5,684 20 20 19
Marong 12 49,859 934 558 12 12 9
Nueva Ecija 18 80,463 2,561 1,408 36 34 16 8
Nueva Vizcaya 6 12,091 1,481 1,764 6 6 6
Pampanga 28 188,694 1,580 517 52 52 21
Pangasinan 29 171,503 13,228 11,685 40 40 23
Porac 1 6,950 60 35 2 2 1
Principe 3 2,080 239 174 6 6
Romblón 5 21,992 2,594 2,319 6 5
Samar 35 138,799 2,585 36 36 35
Surigao 30 29,158 2,522 1,686 30 30 30
Tayabas 17 94,509 3,211 624 14
Unión 12 91,089 6,333 5,525 26 26 12
Zambales 21 72,506 1,080 832 21 21 20
Zamboanga 3 8,982 231 100 2 1
Total 900 430,316 136,108 91,608 840 783 650 61
To study and remove the causes of that lamentable statistics; to cause all the children who ought to attend the schools; to promote the development of neglected institutions and the rebuilding of those destroyed; to establish schools in villages which have none; to persuade the justices to protect them, and the heads of families to visit them: beautiful and never-failing task for a supervisor of primary instruction! A thousand times more beautiful and more fertile, if a father of souls exercises it with his ardent charitable spirit, with his wide experience in the moral needs of the villages!
The fathers are also petitioned and requested to earnestly study and prepare for the installation of the Sunday schools, or the schools for adults established by article 29 of the regulations. In regard to that article, by the tenor of the same, this government shall confer with the superior commission of primary instruction, when the local supervisors, having been established and working in the proper manner, the danger of such innovation complicating their labors, disappears.
VI
DECREE OF THE GENERAL GOVERNMENT APPROVING, WITH THE CHARACTER OF ad interim, THE REGULATIONS FOR THE NORMAL SCHOOL FOR WOMEN TEACHERS OF PRIMARY EDUCATION IN THE DIOCESE OF NUEVA-CACERES
Manila, June 19, 1875. In consequence of the provision of article 20 of the decree of this general government dated the ninth of the current month and at the recommendation of the General Division of Civil Administration, I have ordered the approval ad interim of the subjoined regulations for the normal school for women teachers in the diocese of Nueva-Cáceres.
Let it be communicated, published, and brought to the notice of the government of his Majesty for his approval.
Malcampo