Legal History of Philippine Education

04/12/2023 CHRISTOPHER P. ZAMORA 1

A Powerpoint Presentation by

Christopher P. ZamoraBulacan Agricultural State College

MAED - D


LEGAL HISTORY OF PHILIPPINE EDUCATION

The Filipino Legal TraditionThe Spanish PeriodThe UST as a Pontifical

UniversityThe American Period


The UP as the First and Premier University of the Country and

Some Major Developments


The Filipino Legal Tradition(The Pre-Hispanic Times)

FACTSEarly Filipinos lived in Barangay

(Balangay)a) Independent economically,

socially and politically.b) It has its own territory for

planting, hunting and fishing.


c) It is made up of cluster of families.

d) It is small, it does not have a standing army, police force and judiciary.


Functions of Barangay

1. To maintain its existence as a community by resisting outside enemies,

2. To preserve peace and order within its own territory through mediation.


Distinct Characteristics of Barangay

1. The family, not the individual, was the subject of the law. (murder, revenge, debt, marriage)


2) Both the society and families were considered hierarchy.

1 • DATU

2 •MAHARLIKA

3 •TIMAWA

4 •ALIPIN


3) The lesson of bloody conflicts taught the early Filipinos to prefer friendly arbitration as a means of settling differences.


The Spanish PeriodFACTS

During the Spanish Colonial Period of the Philippines (1521-1898) the culture of the archipelago experienced a major transformation from a variety of native Asian and Islamic cultures and traditions, including animist religious practices, to a unique hybrid of Southeast Asian and Western culture, particularly Spanish, including the Spanish language and the Catholic faith.


• 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.

• 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.


1. More parochial schools were later established,

2. Educational Decree of 1863a) Establishment of a public school system,b) Founding of a normal

school on December 20, 1863.


this decree laid down the foundation of private schools,

first systematic effort to train Filipino teachers,

essential groundwork for the implementation of the colonial policy (dissemination of instruction in the Catholic faith, in the mother tongue, with competent and capable teachers for the purpose)


The UST as a Pontifical University

FACTS– It was founded on April 28, 1611 by Miguel de

Benavides.– UST was first called Colegio de Nuestra Señora

del Santisimo Rosario– renamed Colegio de Santo Tomas, in memory of

the foremost Dominican Theologian, St. Thomas Aquinas.

– Intended as college for training future priests in the country.

– November 20, 1645, Pope Innocent X, elevated it to the rank of university.


• September 17, 1902 Pope Leo XIII made it a Pontifical University. (Pontifical universities are "academic institutes established or approved directly by the Holy See, composed of three main ecclesiastical faculties (Theology, Philosophy and Canon Law) and at least one other faculty. These academic institutes deal specifically with the Christian revelation and related disciplines, and the Church’s mission of spreading the Gospel, as proclaimed in the Apostolic Constitution Sapientia christiana.“)

• Pontifical universities follow a European system of degrees in the sacred faculties, granting the baccalaureate, the licentiate, and the doctorate.


• 1947 Pope Pius XII bestowed the title “The Catholic University of the Philippines”• May 20, 1865 Queen Isabel II of

Spain issued a decree creating a system of secondary education, with a 5-year humanistic course of studies leading to the degree of Bachelor of Arts.


• It is the university, which awarded all diplomas of Bachelor of Arts.• In 1927, the university

moved from Intramuros to its present site.• 1924, the university broke


the centuries-old tradition of accepting only male students.• It opened its doors to

women in the College of Pharmacy in 1924• Education in 1926


• Philosophy and Letters in 1927• 3 important documents

The Biac-na-Bato Constitution of 1897,

The Proclamation of Aguinaldo in 1898


• The Malolos Constitution of 1899

(These documents formed the first legal bases of education in the Philippines during the short live Philippine Republic.


• The supervision and control of public education was vested in a Bureau of Public Instruction, under the Department of Instruction, headed by a Secretary as mandated by Malolos Constitution.


• Placed all public schools under the control and supervision of the government• Private individual were given

the right to established school, provided they complied with the rules and regulations issued by the state.


• The pioneering public school education introduced by Spain in the Philippines was the first of its kind in all of Asia, and the first to be established in any European colony in the world. Such system was even ahead of most of United States at the time, where by 1900 only 34 states had any kind of compulsory schooling laws requiring attendance until age 14. As a result, the average American at the time was less educated than the average Filipino, something that was specially true among the troops that fought in the Philippine–American War, since most of the soldiers generally were of humble social origins.


The American PeriodFACTS

1891-1900 = 1000 Schools were openedAn English teacher was assigned to each of these

schools, Lieutenant George P. Anderson is the superintendent of city schools on June 1, 1899.

Education became a very important issue for the United States colonial government, since it allowed it to spread their cultural values, particularly the English language, to the Filipino people.

Every child from age 7 was required to register in schools located in their own town or province.

The students were given free school materials.


There were three levels of education during the American period. The "elementary" level consisted of four primary years and 3 intermediate years. The "secondary" or high school level consisted of four years; and the third was the "college" or tertiary level. Religion was not part of the curriculum of the schools. as it had been during the Spanish period.

In some cases those students who excelled academically were sent to the U.S. to continue their studies and to become experts in their desired fields or professions. They were called "scholars" because the government covered all their expenses. In return, they were to teach or work in government offices after they finished their studies. Some examples of these successful Filipino scholars were Judge José Abad Santos, Francisco Benitez, Dr. Honoria Sison and Francisco Delgado.


January 21, 1901 it passes Public Act No.74

• An act establishing a department of public instruction in the Philippine Islands, and appropriating forty thousand dollars ($40,000) for the organization and maintenance of a normal, and a trade school in Manila, and fifteen thousand dollars ($15,000) for the organization and maintenance of an agricultural school in the island of Negros for the year 1901.


a) Sec. 8. The chief officer of this department shall be denominated by General Superintendent of Public Instruction and shall be appointed by the Commission. His annual salary shall be six thousand dollars ($6,000).b) The whole archipelago should be divided into 10 divisions headed by a Division Superintendent.


c) Subdivision of each provincial division into school districts.d) Sec. 14. The English language shall, as soon as practicable, be made the basis of all public school instruction, and soldiers may be detailed as instructors until such time as they may be replaced by trained teachers.


August 21, 1901 about 765 teachers called Thomasites arrived. Their name derived from the ship they traveled on, the USS Thomas.

a) They were armed only with books, pencils, paper and slates.


b) Hired with high ideal and genuine desire to help.c) Instrumental in establishing modern public school system.d) Lured by the call of adventure and inspired by the American involvement beyond the Pacific.


e) Moved out to the provinces and begin the experiment of preparing the Filipinos for statehood or nationhood.f) They give all the instruction in English.g) They also helped spread democracy.


1902 the number of American teachers swelled to 1074. From this period on, the mushrooming of schools was very much felt.

September 1, 1901 the Philippine Normal School was established intended to train teachers.


October 8, 1902, Public Act No. 74 was amended by Public Act No. 477, which created a new office, a Bureau of Education, under the Department of Public Instruction.

a) The function is to supervise and administer the public school system of the country.


b) The head is called General Superintendent of Schools, who was under the Secretary of the Department of Public Instruction.c) The Schools divisions was increase to 36, under s division superintendent.


1917, two regional normal schools were put up (Cebu and Ilocos Norte)

a) Bayambang Normal Schoolb) Leyte Normal Schoolc) Albay Normal SchoolThe aim of which is to train enough teachers for all the regions.


The UP as the First and Premier University of the Country

FACTS June 18, 1908, Act No. 1870, the University of

the Philippine Islands was born.UP is mandated to1. Give advance instruction in literature,

philosophy, the sciences and arts and professional and technical training to every qualified students, irrespective of age, sex, nationality, religious belief, or political affiliation.


March 6, 1909 – the Board of Regents voted to establish the College of Agriculture in Los Baños and the school of Fine Arts in Manila.

1910 – they simultaneously established:1. Colleges of Philisophy, Science and

Letters and Engineering.2. College of Science and Surgery.3. College of Veterinary Medicine.4. College of Law. (1911)


Some Major Developments1918-1926 – several developments took

placeIncrease in the enrolment of elementary

and secondary levels,Monroe Survey – which conducted a

comprehensive survey of the Philippine Educational System, they were made the bases for educational policy and planning by the Department of Public Instruction.


Teacher Training Institutions (TEI)- it took the necessary measures to provide courses in general education which would give prospective teachers knowledge of the major human activities to help them understand the political, social, and economic conditions of their environment, the structure of their changing society, and the basic elements of the culture of the society.


Public Act no. 477 – specify that the school divisions should be under a Secretary of the Department of Public Instruction.

When the Jones Law was passed by the United States Congress, the DPI was made one of the executive branches of the Insular Government and was under the Vice-Governor of the Philippines.

The Office of the Undersecretary was also created.


Reorganization Act of 1947 and Executive Order No. 94 – DPI was renamed Department of Education.

The Department became one of the executive departments of the Republic of the Philippines with its executive officer designated as Secretary of Education.


Under the Revised Administrative Code of the Philippines, Section 82, the Department of Education has supervision on the following bureaus and agencies:

1. Bureau of Public Schools2. Bureau of Private Schools3. Bureau of Public Libraries4. Institute of National Language5. Philippine Museum
