Philippine Education

Before, during, and after the Spanish Colonization

PRE-COLONIAL TIME

0Education activities existed among the inhabitants of the archipelago

0Proven theoretically and through historical accounts

Theoretical Proof

0Pursuing the principle that history of education in the story of mankind, the original Filipinos must have engaged in tribal education practices

0The earliest form of education was unconscious, spontaneous, and above all practical

Historical Accounts

0 First account made in a bishop’s letter to Spain regarding the Muslims (1588)

0 The existence of schooling like reading and writing related to the study of Koran

0 “there is no mention ever in the Spanish accounts of native schools anywhere else in the archipelago”

Islamization introduced new laws, novel ethical standards, and a new outlook in the meaning and direction of life.

0Jesuit priest Pedro Chirino wrote:

“All these islanders are much given to reading and writing, and there is hardly a man, much less a woman, who does not read and write the letters used in the island of Manila- which are entirely different from those of China, Japon, and India.”

SPANISH COLONIAL TIME

Doctrina Christiana- the basis for catholicism

Boy’s colleges and secondary schools for

both boys and girls were established but

were initially exclusive for sons and daughters of

Spaniards.

0 Colegio Maximo de San Ignacio (1589)

Later became a university in 1621 The earliest college exclusively for sons of

Spaniards established in the Philippines by the Society of Jesus

2 kinds of training: priesthood and general secondary

education

Curriculum: Latin, Philosophy, Canon and Civil Law, and

Rhetoric

0 Residential College of San Jose

opened with only thirteen students in 1601

College of San IdelfonsoThe sole secondary school outside of ManilaUniversity of San Carlos in Cebu

College of Immaculate Conception (Ateneo de Manila University)

Grew out of the Escuela Pia for poor boys in 1817 and was

founded by the Jesuits upon their return from expulsion in1859.

Subsequently converted in 1865 to Ateneo Municipal de Manila

0 Escuela Normal de Maestros de Manila

Administered by the Society of Jesus

The first normal school to train male teachers for

primary schools (decree of 1863)

0Colegio of Santa Potenciana (1959)

0Colegio Santa Isabel (1632)Originally founded for the benefit of orphan Spanish

girls

0 Exclusive colegios for the daughters of Upper-Class Spaniards were called beaterios, established for young girls called beatas who led a secluded life:

Beaterio de la Caompañia de Jesus in 1684 (Religious of the Virgin Mary)

Santa Catalina de Sena (1696) San Sebastian de Calumpang in 1719 ( Sta. Rita

College) Santa Rita de Pasig (1740) Santa Rosa (1750)

-two of these beateros were actually established to teach Spanish culture and values to young Filipinas and were founded by Filipino women

0Colegio de la Innuculada Concepcion Concordia in 1868 (Concordia College)

0Looban (1885) and Assumption (1892)supervised the Escuela Normal Superior de Maestras to prepare Filipino Women teachers for the primary schools.

0 Primary Schools:Ayuntamiento of Manila (Municipal Girl’s

School)

-transformed into a normal school for women teachers in girls’ schools four years later, under the Sisters of Charity

Educational Decree of 1863

A free compulsory publicly-supported system of primary schools came with Educational Decree of 1863, simultaneous with the establishment of a men’s normal school to prepare future school-masters.

A lot of problems, however, confronted the

educational system implemented by the

Spaniards in the Philippines.

Among those pointed out by Jose Rizal in his Noli Me Tangere were:

Absence of basic textbooksLack of school buildingsEmployment of corporal punishmentEmphasis on rote-learningHumiliation of students by teachersLack of opportunity for students to really develop themselves

Present TIME