city of Manila, and until 1863 no attempt whatever was made to put rudimentary instruction within the reach of the great mass of the school population. In 1863 Spain recognized the urgent necessity of giving greater educational opportunities to the people of the islands, and by royal decree made provision for the development and perfection of a proper system of primary instruction. The decree declared that the want of an organized system of primary instruction had not only prevented the acquisition of the Spanish tongue by the people, but had perpetuated among them an ignorance which was a stumbling block in the way of their advancement and a barrier to their proper appreciation of the beneficent intentions of the Government and its constituted authorities. It, therefore, directed the organization of a normal school in the city of Manila, and the creation of at least one primary school for boys and one for girls in every pueblo in the islands. Primary schools were placed under the inspection of a commission composed of the civil governor, the archbishop of Manila and 7 members, and the attendance of children between the ages of 7 and 13 was made compulsory.

The course of studies prescribed for primary schools was as follows: (1) Christian doctrine, notions of morality, and sacred history; (2) reading; (3) writing; (4) Spanish; (5) arithmetic, comprising whole numbers, common fractions, decimals, denominations, and notions of the metric system; (6) geography and Spanish history; (7) notions of agriculture; (8) urbanity; (9) vocal music. Geography, Spanish history, and agriculture were omitted from the course in girls' schools.

The scheme of primary instruction provided by Spain was adequate for the purpose of furnishing a fairly good measure of preliminary education, but the want of proper administration by the local authorities, the lack of interest in primary studies not directly related to the moral training and religious instruction of the pupil, the ridiculously small salaries paid to teachers, the selection of instructors incapable of teaching Spanish and more in need of instruction than capable of imparting it, and the distance of the barrios and villages from the larger centers of population where the primary schools were usually located, all united to bring at least partial failure when complete success should have been the result of the well-intended efforts of the Government. In 1886, twenty-three years after the issuance of the royal decree directing the organization of the system of primary instruction, 1,052 primary schools for boys and 1,091 for girls had been established, an average of a little more than one school for each sex per pueblo. The enrollment was somewhere in the neighborhood of 200,000, but the attendance did not average more than 40 or 50 pupils to the school. Christian doctrine, reading, writing, some historical geography, addition, subtraction, and multiplication usually marked the limits of primary instruction.

PUBLIC INSTRUCTION SINCE AMERICAN OCCUPATION.

When the treaty of Paris made it certain that the sovereignty of the islands would be transferred from Spain to the United States, almost the first work undertaken by the military in their exercise of civil authority was to reestablish the schools which the insurrection against Spain and the war between Spain and the United States had practically closed throughout the Archipelago. This work was in thorough accord

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with the policy of attraction marked out by President McKinley, and was offered to the Filipino people as the first earnest of the good intentions of the United States and of the serious purpose of the administration to benefit and advance the inhabitants of the possessions acquired as the result of the conflict with their former sovereign. Even after the insurrection broke out against the United States the plan of giving to the Filipino children the advantage of free public instruction was never abandoned, but was adhered to wherever circumstances permitted and conditions were at all favorable to the building up of a school. Of course, instruction in time of such great public disturbance was necessarily imperfect and desultory, yet it served the purpose in many localities of bridging the way to the hearts of parents and operated as a restraining influence to prevent them from becoming active participants in a movement with which many of them undoubtedly syınpathized. The American soldier, acting in the rôle of an instructor of a people in arms against his country, was an object lesson which, while it did not serve to convince the insurgents of the error of their ways, at least caused many of the better element among them to soberly inquire of themselves whether, after all, the United States might not have the welfare and well-being of the Filipino people very much at heart.

With the advent of civil government came the creation of a system of public instruction, and to Professor Moses and Doctor Atkinson, men skilled in the work, is due the great credit of giving to the islands an educational organization which, all prophecies to the contrary, has met with a success beyond expectation. After a careful canvass of the entire situation and after satisfying themselves that there was an earnest desire to acquire a knowledge of English, Professor Moses and Doctor Atkinson cut loose from all established traditions and made English the language of the schools. Men and women trained in the profession of teaching were brought from the United States and without understanding a word of Spanish or of the local dialects they set to work to impart information in an unknown tongue. At first blush the prophets of failure would seem to have had some ground for their prognostications, yet experience proved to a demonstration, that to teach in a language unknown to the pupils was not only not an impossible task, but that nothing more was required for that purpose than an intelligent return to first principles and the systematic use of methods employed by all mankind in giving or acquiring information under similar conditions. The fact that the pupils did not understand the instructor and that the instructor did not understand the pupils may have retarded general instruction for a little while, but it more than compensated for that disadvantage by making English the dominant and controlling study of the curriculum. Object lessons, frequent repetitions, and constant use of English in the school room quickly gave to the children a working vocabulary, and after that the students themselves, moved by the pride of newly acquired knowledge, smoothed the path to free communication between teacher and pupil.

In many of the pueblos, not to say many of the provinces, after five years of American occupation, there is more English spoken than Spanish, and this, in my humble opinion, is the most hopeful sign of a speedy and general understanding by the Filipinos of the real purposes of the American Government and of their rights, duties, and liberties under the rule of their new sovereign. Lack of a common

language was one of the fruitful sources of trouble for Spain; it was one of the principal causes which precipitated the insurrection against our own country, and it is the one obstacle to-day to a complete understanding of our motives and purposes in the islands. If, therefore, the bureau of education accomplishes nothing more than to make English the tongue commonly spoken and commonly used by the people of the archipelago, it will more than have justified its existence and all the expense it has incurred.

ORGANIZATION.

The islands are divided into 35 school divisions under the immediate charge of as many division superintendents, who are responsible to the general superintendent at Manila for the public schools in their respective jurisdictions. As a general rule each province constitutes a school division. In some school divisions, however, such as Albay and Sorsogon, Cagayan and Isabela, Ilocos Sur and Abra, Iloilo and Antique, and Pampanga and Bataan, two provinces have been united for the purpose of constituting a division. In all, 681 municipal and 384 barrio primary schools have been established. As a rule, American teachers are assigned to duty in the municipalities of the greatest importance in the division, and native teachers to barrios and municipalities of lesser consequence.

In addition to the primary schools, a nautical school for the preparatory training of mariners, a trade school for instruction in useful trades and mechanical arts, a normal school for the proper training and instruction of native teachers, and 38 secondary schools have been organized. The normal school has an attendance of 323, the nautical school 113, the trade school 119, and the secondary schools 6,340. Twenty-five of the graduates of the nautical school are employed as captains and mates on steamers and sailing vessels engaged in the coastwise trade, and receive salaries ranging from $60 to $275 a year and found, together with a promise of advancement.as they obtain more practical experience. Besides the instruction given in the trade school in various useful trades, special instruction in every branch of the printer's and allied trades is given to apprentices in the bureau of public printing, and practical training in fine carpentry, staining, polishing, cabinet work, and wood carving is given in the forestry bureau. Neither the bureau of public printing nor the forestry bureau is under the control of the bureau of education, yet the work accomplished by them in training students as craftsmen and artisans should receive mention in this place as a portion of the work of instruction promoted and carried on by the insular government. In many of the secondary schools industrial work of various kinds is made a feature and, while no great progress has up to this time been made in that direction, it is felt that with proper organization and suitable appliances and equipment this kind of educational work will meet with the hearty response of the youth of the country, especially in the case of useful trades where deftness, delicacy of touch, and faithful imitation are required.

THE TEACHING FORCE.

The teaching force in the islands is made up of 691 American and 2,496 native teachers. The total number of American teachers at the

beginning of the last school year was in the neighborhood of 926, but owing to resignations, sickness, expiration of term of service, and other causes this number at the end of the school year suffered a net reduction of 203, which has been increased at the date of writing this report by an additional loss of 32. All the American and about 150 of the native teachers are paid out of insular funds. Native teachers. not on the insular pay rolls are paid by the municipalities, except such as are paid by the provinces while on duty in the provincial schools. The appropriation bill for the first half of the present fiscal year fixed the salaries of teachers payable out of insular funds as follows:

Secondary teachers.-Seven at $1,800 each; 27 at $1,500 each; 2 at $1,400 each; 1 at $1,380; 13 at $1,350 each; 3 at $1,320 each; 2 at $1,300 each; 15 at $1,200 each; 1 at $900

Elementary teachers.-Thirty at $1,500 each; 14 at $1,400 each; 7 at $1,380 each; 27 at $1,350 each; 20 at $1,320 each; 34 at $1,300 each; 2 at $1,275 each; 1 at $1,256, 3 at $1,250 each; 333 at $1,200 each; 16 at $1,140 each; 22 at $1,100 each; 19 at $1,080 each; 3 at $1,020 each; 211 at $1,000 each; 101 at $900 each; 1 at $780; 2 at $750 each; 3 at $720 each; 21 at $600 each; 20 at $480 each; 40 at $360 each; 40 at $300 each; 30 at $240 each. Special teachers.—One at $2,000, teacher of botany; 1 at $2,000, teacher of drawing and art; 1 at $2,000, teacher at trade school; 1 at $1,500, in charge of nautical school; 3 at $1,200 each, teachers at nautical school; 1 at $650, teacher at nautical school.

The full number of teachers, however, for which provision was made by the appropriation bill was not engaged, and the amount appropriated will be considerably more than the salary expense actually incurred. The annual salaries of native teachers paid by the municipalities range from $180 to $360 Mexican currency. For work in the provincial schools the provinces pay native teachers monthly salaries of $50 to $75 Mexican currency. Native teachers on the insular pay rolls receive from $240 to $750 gold annually.

Many American teachers have complained that the salaries paid are insufficient, taking into consideration their service in a tropical climate, the cost of living, and the inconveniences, not to say hardships, suffered by them in meeting conditions entirely different from those to which they were accustomed at home. My own opinion is that the salaries paid are not inadequate, and that, giving full weight to all the burdens imposed on teachers by their new environment, the compensation received by them more than favorably compares with that allowed in many of the States of the Union where the climate is certainly no better than that of the Philippines.

It is noted, however, that as most of the teachers adjust themselves to their surroundings and make acquaintances among the people they develop an active interest in their work, which reduces the difficulties of new conditions to proper proportions, and the disposition to complain of their compensation is not so pronounced.

Some dissatisfaction was also created by the impression which had gained a foothold among the American teachers that their transportation to the United States on separation from the service would be provided by the Government. Some insisted that representations to that effect had been made to them prior to their departure from the United States, and the free use of the transport service by the insular government for the benefit of teachers confirmed in most of them the idea that the Government was in duty bound to furnish them with the means of returning to the homes from which they were taken. In view of all the circumstances it was thought wise to furnish transportation to San Francisco to all teachers leaving the service at the

end of the last school year, and as the civil government was no longer able to avail itself of the army transport service the sum of $15,000 was appropriated to meet the necessary expense. Since then a law has been passed giving to all civil employees free transportation to San Francisco on separation after three years of faithful service, and it is thought that future misunderstandings on this account will not

occur.

Experience has demonstrated, at least to my satisfaction, that the present plan which gives to the division superintendent the power to employ native teachers and to fix their salaries, and no authority whatever to oblige municipalities to make the necessary appropriation or to pay the salaries fixed, is a mistake and must be changed sooner or later. American teachers were made a charge on the insular treasury, for the reason that the salaries of such teachers were beyond the financial ability of the municipalities, or even of provinces, to pay. It was believed, however, that the payment of native teachers was not beyond the ability of provincial and local governments, and that at least that responsibility should be imposed upon them if for no other purpose than to give them a strong financial interest in the success of the schools. The event has shown, however, that while it may be safely said that 90 per cent of the municipalities take a deep and abiding interest in education, their lively sympathy does not always go to the extent of providing the necessary means to pay the expenses. In some municipalities the failure to pay the monthly stipend of native instructors was due to lack of funds to pay anyone, but in others the disposition seemed to be to meet every municipal obligation except that incurred to teachers. The school fund, in my opinion, should be expended only on the approval of the division superintendent, and in no event should other calls be honored on the fund unless there is sufficient money actually on hand to meet the salary demands for the year. In the interest of retaining many good Filipino teachers, and as an incentive to others to endure the existing conditions in the hope of future promotion, the insular government made provision for the payment of the salaries of 150 native teachers out of insular funds, and this number will be increased by the end of the calendar year to 200.

ATTENDANCE.

In the months of September, October, November, and December of last year there was a very notable diminution in the attendance on the public schools. This was caused, to a great extent by the prevalence of cholera and smallpox and the almost countless misfortunes and discouragements which assailed the whole body of the people after six years of war and public disturbance. To some extent the decrease in attendance was also due to the fact that the novelty of the American schools had worn off, and that there was a suspicion that the schools were to be used as an insidious means of undermining and destroying in the child its belief in the religion to which the parents adhered. Moreover, many of the teachers were entirely new to the work, and confronted at the beginning of their labors with the great difficulty of making themselves understood. Their flagging interest and discouragement, often manifested by open impatience, immediately resulted in apathy on the part of the students and consequent loss of attendance. At the beginning of the present school year, however, the cholera