Education in the Philippines during Spanish rule

Library of the University of Santo Tomás in Manila, 1887. Created at the request of the archbishop of Manila in 1610, it is the oldest existing university library in Asia. It even had its own printing press which had been imported from Europe.

During the Spanish Colonial Period of the Philippines (1565-1898), most of its territory underwent a deep cultural, religious and linguistic transformation from Asian cultural influences and Islamic and animist religions to Westernized values and Catholic Christian practices.

Spanish education played a major role in that transformation. The oldest universities, colleges, vocational schools and the first modern public education system in Asia were created during the colonial period, and by the time Spain was replaced by the United States as the colonial power, Filipinos were among the most educated subjects in all of Asia.

The early period

During the early years of Spanish colonization, education was mostly religion-oriented and controlled by the Roman Catholic Church. Spanish friars and missionaries educated the natives through religion with the aim of converting indigenous populations to the Catholic faith.

King Philip II's Leyes de Indias (Laws of the Indies) mandated Spanish authorities in the Philippines to educate the natives, to teach them how to read and write and to learn Spanish. However, the latter objective was well-nigh impossible given the realities of the time. The early friars learned the local languages and the Baybayin script to better communicate with the locals. Although by royal decree the friars were required to teach the Spanish language to the natives, they reasoned that it would be easier for them to learn the local languages first than trying to teach Spanish to all the population.

The Spanish missionaries established schools immediately on reaching the islands and wherever they penetrated, church and school went together. There was no Christian village without its school and all young people attended.

The Augustinians opened a school immediately upon arriving in Cebú in 1565. The Franciscans arrived in 1577, and they, too, immediately taught the people how to read and write, besides imparting to them important industrial and agricultural techniques. The Jesuits who arrived in 1581 also concentrated on teaching the young. When the Dominicans arrived in 1587, they did the same thing in their first mission in Bataan.

Within months of their arrival in Tigbauan which is located in the island of Panay, Pedro Chirino and Francisco Martín had established a school for Visayan boys in 1593 in which they taught not only the catechism but reading, writing, Spanish, and liturgical music. The Spaniards of Arévalo heard of the school and wanted Chirino to teach their boys too. Chirino at once put up a dormitory and school house (1593–1594) for the Spanish boys near his rectory. It was the first Jesuit boarding school to be established in the Philippines.

Cover of Doctrina Christiana

The Chinese language version of the Doctrina Christiana (Christian Doctrine) was the first book printed in the Philippines in about 1590 to 1592. A version in Spanish, and in Tagalog, in both Latin script and the commonly used Baybayin script of the Manila Tagalogs of the time was printed in 1593. The goal of the book was to propagate the Christian teachings around Manila. Eventually, the Baybayin script was replaced by the Roman alphabet, providing in this way the indigenous people with more leverage when dealing with the local Spanish colonial administrators.

In 1610 Tomas Pinpin a Filipino printer, writer and publisher, who is sometimes referred as the "Patriarch of Filipino Printing", wrote his famous Librong Pagaaralan nang mga Tagalog nang Wicang Castila, that was meant to help Filipinos learn the Spanish language. The prologue read:

"Let us therefore study, my country men, for although the art of learning is somewhat difficult, yet if we are persevering, we shall soon improve our knowledge. Other Tagalogs like us did not take a year to learn the Spanish language when using my book. This good result has given me satisfaction and encouraged me to print my work, so that all may derive some profit from it."

There were also Latin schools where that language was taught together with some Spanish, since it was a mandatory requirement for the study of philosophy, theology and jurisprudence in schools like the University of Santo Tomás, run by the Dominicans. The Philippine priests and lawyers of that time, with the exception of the sons and daughters of Spaniards, Principalías and Ladinos, knew Latin perfectly well because the educational system was wholly religious.

The friars also opened many medical and pharmaceutical schools. The study of pharmacy consisted of a preparatory course with subjects in natural history and general chemistry and five years of studies in subjects such as pharmaceutical operations at the school of pharmacy. At the end of this period, the degree of Bachiller en Farmacia was granted.

By the end of the 16^th century, several religious orders had established charity hospitals all over the archipelago and provided the bulk of this public service. These hospitals also became the setting for rudimentary scientific research work on pharmacy and medicine, focusing mostly on the problems of infections diseases. Several Spanish missionaries cataloged hundreds of Philippine plants with medicinal properties. The Manual de Medicinas Caseras...., written by Father Fernando de Santa María, first published in 1763, became so sought after that it was reprinted on several editions by 1885.

Colegio de Santa Potenciana was the first school and college for girls that opened in the Philippines, in 1589. It was followed by another school for women, Colegio de Santa Isabel, that opened in 1632. Other Schools and Colleges for girls were Santa Catalina, Santa Rosa, La Concordia, etc. Several religious congregations also established schools for orphaned girls who could not educate themselves.

Tertiary schools

In 1590, the Universidad de San Ignacio was founded in Manila by the Jesuits, initially as the Colegio-Seminario de San Ignacio. Pope Gregory XV made it a papal university in 1621 and King Philip IV named it a royal university in 1623. By the second half of the 19^th century, the university was incorporated as a mere College of Medicine and Pharmacy into the University of Santo Tomás.

University of San Carlos, arguably the oldest in Asia

The Universidad de San Carlos was founded in Cebú by the Jesuits on August 1, 1595, initially named as the Colegio de San Ildefonso. It closed down in 1769 as a result of the expulsion of the Jesuits from the Philippines and didn't open again until 1783.

On April 28, 1611, the Universidad de Santo Tomás was founded in Manila, initially named as the Colegio de Nuestra Señora del Santísimo Rosario and later renamed as Colegio de Santo Tomas. On November 20, 1645, Pope Innocent X elevated it to University. King Charles III of Spain bestowed the title “Royal” on 1785, and Pope Leo XIII “Pontifical” on 1902. Pope Pius XII designated it as La Real y Pontificia Universidad de Santo Tomás de Aquino Universidad Católica de Filipinas (The Catholic University of the Philippines), on 1947.

Fountain of Wisdom at the University of Santo Tomás

San Carlos and Santo Tomás maintain a friendly rivalry over the claim to be the oldest university in Asia, and even older than Harvard University, the first University established in the United States on 1636. Some historians have backed up Santo Tomás claim by pointing out that the original Colegio de San Ildefonso was closed in 1769 as a result of the expulsion of the Jesuits and that when it reopened on 1783 it was under a new name and ownership. University of San Carlos however sticks to its claim. On August 21, 1995, the university even celebrated its 400^th foundation day.

In 1640, the Universidad de San Felipe de Austria was established in Manila. It was the first public university created by the Spanish government in the Philippines. It closed down in 1643.

The Jesuits also founded the Colegio de San José (1601) and took over the management of a school that became the Escuela Municipal (1859, later renamed Ateneo Municipal de Manila in 1865, now the Ateneo de Manila University). The Dominicans on their part had the Colegio de San Juan de Letrán (1620) in Manila. All of them provided courses leading to different prestigious degrees, like the Bachiller en Artes, that by the 19^th century included science subjects such as physics, chemistry, natural history and mathematics. The University of Santo Tomás, for example, started by teaching theology, philosophy and humanities. During the 18^th century, the Faculty of Jurisprudence and Canonical Law was established.

In 1871, several schools of medicine and pharmacy were opened. From 1871 to 1883 Santo Tomás alone had 829 registrations of medical students, and from 1883 until 1898, 7965 medical students. By the end of the Spanish colonial rule in 1898. the university had granted the degree of Licenciado en Medicina to 359 graduates and 108 medical doctors. For the doctorate degree in medicine its provision was inspired in the same set of oppositions than those of universities in the metropolis, and at least an additional year of study was required at the Universidad Central de Madrid in Spain.

Secondary schools

Entrance to the Pharmacy and Medicine classrooms of the Colegio de San José

A Nautical School was created on January 1, 1820 which offered a four-year course of study (for the profession of pilot of merchant marine) that included subjects such as arithmetic, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, physics, hydrography, meteorology, navigation and pilotage. A School of Commercial Accounting and a School of French and English Languages were established in 1839.

The Don Honorio Ventura College of Arts and Trades (DHVCAT) in Bacolor, Pampanga is said to be the oldest official vocational school in Asia. Augustinian Friar Juan Zita and civic leader Don Felino Gil established the vocational school on November 4, 1861. Other important vocational schools established were the Escuela de Contaduría, Academia de Pintura y Dibujo and the seminaries of Manila, Nueva Segovia, Cebú, Jaro and Nueva Cáceres.

The Manila School of Agriculture was created in 1887, although it was unable to open its doors until July 1889. Its mission was to provide theoretical and practical education by agricultural engineers to skilled farmers and overseers, and to promote agricultural development by means of observation, experiment and investigation. It included subjects such as mathematics, physics, chemistry, natural history, agriculture, topography, linear and topography drawing. Agricultural schools and monitoring stations, run by professors who were agricultural engineers, were also established in Isabela, Ilocos, Albay, Cebú, Iloílo, Leyte and parts of Mindanao.

The Real Sociedad Economica de los Amigos del Pais de Filipinas (Royal Economic Society of Friends of the Philippines) was first introduced in the islands in 1780, and offered local and foreign scholarships to Filipinos, professorships and financed trips of scientists from Spain to the Philippines. Throughout the nineteenth century the Society established an academy of design, financed the publication of scientific and technical literature, and granted awards to successful experiments and inventions that improved agriculture and industry.

The Observatorio Meteorológico del Ateneo Municipal de Manila (Manila Observatory) was founded in 1865 by the Jesuits after an article they published in the newspaper Diario de Manila, describing typhoon observations made on September 1865, attracted the attention of many readers who publicly requested for the observations to be continued. The Spanish government made the observatory the official institution for weather forecasting in the Philippines in 1884, and in 1885 it started its time service. Its seismology section was set up in 1887, while astronomical studies began in 1899. The Observatory published typhoon and climatological observations and studies, including the first typhoon warnings, a service that was highly appreciated by the business community, specially those involved in merchant shipping.

Modern public system of education

Modern public school education was introduced in Spain only in 1857 and certainly not in any other colony of any other European power in Asia. The concept of mass education was relatively new, an offshoot of the 18^th century Age of Enlightenment.

Free access to modern public education by all Filipinos was made possible through the enactment of the Education Decree of December 20, 1863 by Queen Isabella II. Primary instruction was made free and the teaching of Spanish was compulsory. This was ten years before Japan had a compulsory form of free modern public education and forty years before the American government started an English-based public school system in the Philippines. The royal decree provided for a complete educational system which would consist of primary, secondary and tertiary levels, finally making officially available to Filipinos valuable training for leadership after three centuries of colonization.

The Education Decree of 1863 provided for the establishment of at least two free primary schools, one for boys and another for girls, in each town under the responsibility of the municipal government. It also commended the creation of a free public normal school to train men as teachers, supervised by the Jesuits. One of these schools was the Escuela Normal Elemental, which, in 1896 became the Escuela Normal Superior de Maestros de Manila (Manila Ordinary School for Schoolmistresses). The Spanish government established a school for midwives in 1879, and Escuela Normal Superior de Maestras (Superior Normal School) for female teachers in 1892. By the 1890s, free public secondary schools were opening outside of Manila, including 10 normal schools for women.

The range of subjects being taught were very advanced, as can be seen from the Syllabus of Education in the Municipal Atheneum of Manila, that included Algebra, Agriculture, Arithmetic, Chemistry, Commerce, English, French, Geography, Geometry, Greek, History, Latin, Mechanics, Natural History, Painting, Philosophy, Physics, Rhetoric and Poetry, Spanish Classics, Spanish Composition, Topography, and Trigonometry. Among the subjects being taught to girls, as reflected in the curriculum of the Colegio de Santa Isabel, were Arithmetic, Drawing, Dress-cutting, French, Geology, Geography, Geometry, History of Spain, Music, Needlework, Philippine History, Physics, Reading, Sacred History and Spanish Grammar.

Contrary to what the Propaganda of the Spanish–American War tried to depict, the Spanish public system of education was open to all the natives, regardless of race, gender or financial resources. The Black Legend propagation, black propaganda and yellow journalism were rampant in the last two decades of Spanish Colonial Period and throughout the American Colonial Period. Manuel L. Quezon, on his speech for the Philippine Assembly at the US Congress on October 1914 stated that

...there were public schools in the Philippines long before the American occupation, and, in fact, I have been educated in one of these schools, even though my hometown is such a small town, isolated in the mountains of the Northeastern part of the island of Luzon. ...as long ago as 1866 when the total population of the Philippine Islands was only 4,411,261 souls, and when the total number of municipalities in the archipelago was 900, the total public schools was 841 for boys and 833 for girls and the total number of children attending these schools was 135,098 for boys and 95,260 for girls. And these schools were really edifices and the students were lively, intelligent, alert. In 1892, the number of schools had increased to 2,137, 1,087 of which were for boys and 1,050 for girls. I have seen with my own eyes many of these schools and thousands of those students. They were not religious schools, but schools established, supported and maintained by the Government (Spanish).

Gunnar Myrdal, a renowned Swedish economist, observed that in 19^th-century Asia, Japan and Spanish Philippines stood out because of their stress on modern public education.

Education and Filipino nationalism

Ilustrados in Madrid (ca.1890)

As a result of increasing the number of educated Filipinos a new social class raised, that came to be known as the Ilustrados. Furthermore, with the opening of Suez Canal in 1869 travel to Spain become quicker, easier and more affordable, and many Filipinos took advantage of it to continue higher education in Spain and Europe, mostly in Madrid and Barcelona. This new enlightened class of Filipinos would later lead the Philippine independence movement, using the Spanish language as their main communication method. The most prominent of the Ilustrados was José Rizal, who inspired the desire for independence with his novels written in Spanish. Other Filipino intellectuals, such as Graciano López Jaena, Marcelo H. del Pilar, Mariano Ponce or Antonio Luna, who had also studied in Spain, began contributing to the cause for Filipino self-government and independence.

Describing this new generation of highly educated Filipinos, Fr. John N. Schumacher pointed out that,

Philippine higher education was not far behind, or, under certain aspects, was even superior to the general level of higher education in Spain, at least outside Madrid. Perhaps the best testimony for this is the fact that such larger numbers of Filipino students were able to move without apparent difficulty from educational institutions at home to those in the Peninsula and establish honorable records for themselves there.

The Philippines was also ahead of some European countries in offering education for women. Ironically, it was during the time of American occupation of the Philippines that the results of Spanish education were more visible, especially in the literature, printed press and cinema.

Criticisms

On 30 November 1900, the Philippine Commission reported to the US War Department about the state of education throughout the archipelago as follows:

...Under Spanish rule there were established in these islands a system of primary schools. The Spanish regulations provided that there should be one male and one female primary school-teacher for each 5,000 inhabitants. It is clearly shown in the report of the first Philippine Commission that even this inadequate provision was never carried out. They say: “Taking the entire population at 8,000,000, we find that there is but one teacher to each 4,179 inhabitants.” There were no schoolhouses, no modern furniture, and, until the Americans came, there were no good text-books. The schools were and are now held in the residences of the teachers, or in buildings hired by the municipalities and used by the principals as dwellings. In some of the schools there were wooden benches and tables, but it was not at all unusual to find a school without any seats for the pupils. In these primary schools, reading, writing, sacred history, and the catechism were taught. Except in a very few towns, the four elementary arithmetical processes were attempted, and in a few towns a book on geography was used as a reading book. Girls were taught embroidery and needlework. From the beginning the schools were entirely under the supervision of the religious orders, who were disposed to emphasize secondary and higher education for a few pupils rathe than to further and promote the primary education of the masses. The result of this policy is that a few persons have stood out prominently as educated Filipinos, while the great mass of people have either not been educated at all or furnished only the rudiments of knowledge, acquiring merely the mechanical processes of reading and writing. The little school instruction the average Filipino has had has not tended to broaden his intelligence or to give him power of independent thought. One observes in the schools a tendency on the part of the pupils to give back, like phonographs, what they have heard or read or memorized, without seeming to have thought for themselves. As a rule, they possess mechanical skill, and they excel in writing and drawing. The Spaniards made very little use of this peculiar capacity.

...It is stated on good authority that when the Spaniards came here several of the tribes of the Philippine Islands could read and write their own language. At the present time, after three hundred years of Spanish domination, the bulk of the people cannot do his. The Spanish minister for the colonies, in a report made December 5, 1870, points out that, by the process of absorption, matters of education had become concentrated in the hands of the religious orders. He says: “While every acknowledgement should be made of their services in earlier times, their narrow, exclusively religious system of education, and their imperviousness to modern or external ideas and influences, which every day become more and more evident, rendered secularization of instruction necessary."

...It has been stated that in 1897 here were in these islands 2,167 public schools. The ineffectiveness of these schools will be seen when it is remembered that a school under the Spanish regime was a strictly sectarian, ungraded school, with no prescribed course of study and no definite standards for each year, and that they were in charge of duly certificated but hardly professionally trained or progressive teachers, housed in unsuitable and unsanitary buildings.

See also

• Education in the Philippines
• Philippines education during American rule
• Department of Education (Philippines)
• Education in Spain
• Philippine literature in Spanish
• Spanish language in the Philippines
• History of the Philippines

Bibliography

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Arcilla, José S. (1998), An Introduction to Philippine History (4^th ed.), Quezon City, Philippines: Ateneo de Manila University Press, p. 141, ISBN 971550261X, OCLC 46698904 {{citation}}: Check |authorlink= value (help); External link in |authorlink= and |publisher= (help)

Coleman, Ambrose (2009) [First published 1899], The Friars in the Philippines, Charleston, South Carolina, United States of America: BiblioBazaar, LLC, p. 182, ISBN 1113719893 {{citation}}: External link in |publisher= (help)

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de Santa María, Fernando (1863), Manual de medicinas caseras para consuelo de los pobres Indios en las provincias y pueblos donde no hay médicos ni botica (in Spanish), Manila, Philippines: Imprenta de la Universidad Pontificia de Santo Tomás, á cargo de D. Juan Cortada, p. 208

de la Costa, Horacio (1967), The Jesuits in the Philippines, 1581-1768 (3^rd ed.), s.n., p. 702, OCLC 11565876

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Lumbera, Bienvenido L. (2001), Tagalog Poetry, 1570–1898: Tradition and Influences in Its Development, Quezon City, Philippines: Ateneo de Manila University Press, p. 267, ISBN 9715503748, OCLC 15870123 {{citation}}: External link in |publisher= (help)

Meade, Teresa A.; Wiesner-Hanks, Merry E. (2004), A Companion to Gender History (illustrated ed.), Wiley-Blackwell, p. 676, ISBN 0631223932, OCLC 441756114 {{citation}}: Check |author2-link= value (help); Check |authorlink= value (help); External link in |author2-link= and |authorlink= (help)

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Schumacher, John N. (1997), The Creation of a Filipino Consciousness, The Making of the Revolution: The Propaganda Movement 1880-1895 (revised ed.), Quezon City, Philippines: Ateneo de Manila University Press, p. 333, ISBN 9715502091, OCLC 39026910 {{citation}}: Check |authorlink= value (help); External link in |authorlink= and |publisher= (help)

Schumacher, John N. (1991), The Making of a Nation: Essays on Nineteenth-Century Filipino Nationalism, Quezon City, Philippines: Ateneo de Manila University Press, p. 269, ISBN 9715500196, OCLC 26201089 {{citation}}: Check |authorlink= value (help); External link in |authorlink= and |publisher= (help)

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Further reading

Private education

• Cruz, Isagani R. (1997). Building a Nation: Private Education in the Philippines. Makati City, Philippines: Fund for Assistance to Private Education. p. 229. ISBN 9718766030. OCLC 42410789.
• Isidro y Santos, Antonio (1973). Private Colleges and Universities in the Philippines. Quezon City, Philippines: Alemar-Phoenix Publishing House, Incorporated. p. 284. {{cite book}}: Check |authorlink= value (help); External link in |authorlink= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)

Public education

• Jacas, Hermenegildo (1894). Curso de legislación vigente de instrucción primaria en Filipinas: acomodado al programa oficial de esta asignatura en la Escuela Normal Superior de Maestros de Manila (in Spanish). Manila, Philippines: Impr. y Litografía de J. Marty. p. 86.

Role of the missionaries in education

• Byre, Damián (1988). Gómez, Fausto (ed.). The Dominicans' Mission Here and Now: 1587-1987. Manila, Philippines: UST Press. p. 173. ISBN 9715060102. OCLC 20332309.
• Cruikshank, Bruce (2003). Spanish Franciscans in the Colonial Philippines, 1578-1898: Catalogs and Analysis for a History of Filipinos in Franciscan Parishes (illustrated ed.). Hastings, Nebraska, United States: Cornhusker Press. ISBN 0615123449. OCLC 52848382.
• Galindo, Jesús (1979). 400 Years, 1578-1978 : Franciscans in the Philippines. Philippines: Regal Print. p. 146.
• Hernández, Policarpio F. (1998). Martínez, Marionette Ocampo (ed.). The Augustinians in the Philippines and their Contribution to the Printing Press, Philology, Poetry, Religious Literature, History and Sciences. Makati City, Philippines: Colegio San Agustín. p. 375. ISBN 971604058X. OCLC 433101288.

Miscellaneous

• Andrade Jr., Pío (1990). The fooling of America: the untold story of Carlos P. Rómulo. P. Andrade. p. 198. ISBN 9719126604. OCLC 26649231. {{cite book}}: Check |authorlink= value (help); External link in |authorlink= (help)

External links

• Miguel de Benavides Library
• Rizal Library
• "Education in the Philippines 1860-1898". Archived from the original on 18 October 2002.
• Life and Works of Fray Juan de Plasencia
• Teaching and Health Care during Spanish Rule (in English and Spanish)
• ‘Older than Harvard’: Philippine university celebrates 400th anniversary
• UST is oldest, period