intendents, amounting to 182.202 pupils for the whole archipelago, about 6,000 of these being of intermediate grade. At the close of the school year last March this figure had risen to 227.600. The school returns for the month of July, 1904, showed that there were actually enrolled 263,974. In considering this last enrollment report it should be noted that at the time it was made the schools had just opened after the long vacation; it was during the rainy season and the time of rice planting, in which many children are necessarily employed. Reports subsequent to the 1st of August have not been received in full, but from those provinces from which returns are in there is in every case a still larger gain, and the probability is that when the drier and cooler months of October and November come, and the labor of the children is no longer necessary in cultivation, the total number in primary schools will reach 300,000 of both sexes. This increase in public school attendance of the past twelve months is due very largely to the spontaneous growth of interest in public instruction among Filipinos of all classes. The American schools passed the experimental stage over a year ago. The American teachers have fully won their place in the confidence and affection of the native population. The period of war with its enmities, suspicions, and social disorganization is past, and the time is ripe for meeting without hindrance the ambitious desires of the entire Filipino race for American education. To meet the increased demand for schools during the past year, a system of school districts has been organized, each in charge of an American supervising teacher. These districts usually embrace a single municipality, but in some cases, owing to the limited number of American teachers, they include two or three. The population of a district varies from 5,000 and 6,000 to as many as 40,000 souls. These district supervisors spend the greater portion of their time in riding about from barrio to barrio, organizing the small hamlet schools, and, after they are once organized, visiting them regularly and assisting the native teacher in his work of instruction. Wherever possible at least once a day all the Filipino teachers gather at the central schoolhouse for an hour or an hour and a half of instruction under the American teacher. For the administration of public instruction in the 629 municipalities where schools are organized and in which, as stated above, there are over a quarter of a million children in attendance, the bureau of education has (September 15) a force of 700 American teachers regularly employed and on duty and 49 American teachers who are temporary appointees. There are 47 teachers on leave in the United States whose early return is expected and 40 more under appointment who have not yet reached the Philippines. There are 294 Filipino teachers appointed as a result of civil-service examination and paid by the bureau of education, and, in addition, 3,195 Filipino teachers appointed by division superintendents and paid out of local municipal funds. For the Filipino teachers actually engaged in class-room instruction there is an average of over 70 pupils to the teacher, an unfortunately large number when other conditions are excellent and especially so when the poor housing, inadequate school furniture, and the still limited training of the Filipino teacher are taken into consideration. The following statement shows the number, sex, and average monthly salary of Filipino teachers for twelve months per year: The number of teachers employed in the public schools of the Philippine Islands at the end of Spanish rule, according to the "Guia de Filipinas" for 1898, was 2,167, including both men and women. This figure appears to be a purely formal estimate of the Spanish Government. It is identical for each year from 1895 to 1898, and was evidently based upon the fact that the Spanish "maestro" and a plan contemplated a 66 maestra for each of the thousand or more pueblos. Nevertheless this plan was actually almost realized, and this figure must be approximately accurate. The education possessed by these teachers, with very few exceptions, was almost without any value under the system of public instruction introduced with American occupation. Many of them also were past middle life and naturally found extreme difficulty in acquiring a new tongue and radically changing the methods of instruction. The present number of teachers derived from the class who were teaching the Spanish schools at the time of the American occupation is very small. The great majority of Filipino teachers have received most of their education and all their training as teachers from American instructors. In the beginning the process of making Filipino teachers was exceedingly radical. Bright, intelligent young men and women were selected and organized in a teachers' class. Many of them, after only a few months of English instruction, commenced teaching their pupils with an English chart and an English primer. Not only were they entirely ignorant of English in the beginning, but their knowledge of the fundamental subjects of arithmetic, geography, and history was also very small. In their own instruction by the American teacher they could be kept but little in advance of the pupils in their classes. Frequently the teacher taught one week what he himself had acquired only the week preceding. Such a system of instruction, to be of any value at all, naturally had to be accompanied by the constant assistance, supervision, and instruction of the American teacher. Surprising to say, the Filipino teacher under this method has made progress far in advance of anything that could have been anticipated. Many of those now employed are very fair instructors in the subjects falling within the primary course. They have developed well as disciplinarians. Schoolrooms in charge of Filipino teachers are now almost invariably quiet and well ordered. The daily programme is carried through on time and successfully. What perhaps is more gratifying than anything else is the reliability and fidelity they show to their work and their increasing professional pride. In addition to the daily instruction given by the resident American teacher, the teachers of each province or school division have been gathered together at least once a year for a period of from four to eight weeks in a normal institute. These institutes, the first of which was held in Manila in April and May, 1901, have been productive of excellent results. Instruction has followed not only the ordinary branches-English, arithmetic, geography, history, civics, and science studies-but a large amount of emphasis has been put upon methods. The simplest matters of class and school organization and conduct had to be explained and illustrated. The method of presenting the subject, teaching with the use of objects, the conduct of English conversation, etc., have been explained with great care and the teachers drilled in these methods. The result has been that the Filipino teachers have left these institutes with new conceptions of school management and of teaching, with great enthusiasm, and with the assured feeling that the government was seeking to raise their efficiency and value. Year by year the results have told in raising the quality of primary instruction. Primary instruction, with the exception of a very few schools, is now conducted entirely in the English language. More than this, the conversation of the class room is in English. The Filipino teacher has been carefully instructed to address even the smallest pupil in short English sentences, discarding almost entirely the use of the native dialect from the beginning, in order to familiarize the child immediately with spoken English. Under these conditions the Filipino child, who is an exceedingly apt learner and possesses natural ability in the acquisition of languages, is making progress that is almost marvelous. In the appropriation bill for the fiscal year 1904-5 the number of American teachers is fixed at 863, including a superintendent for the Philippine Normal • Regulations governing the teaching force have been made more definite and satisfactory by reason of having been made a part of the general civil-service rules governing insular employment. This important step became effective by the provisions of act No. 589 on September 1, 1903. School and a superintendent for the Philippine School of Arts and Trades. The compensation provided is shown by the following schedule, which can not be exceeded: In accordance with his legally prescribed duties, the general superintendent, on the 15th of June, 1904, issued prescribed uniform courses of instruction. Prior to the issuance of the bulletin upon this subject (Bulletin No. 7, bureau of education) considerable diversity existed in all school work. These prescribed courses are for primary, intermediate, and secondary schools. As stated above, the primary course is taught almost entirely by Filipino teachers under American supervision. It is planned to have this primary course taught in full in all barrio schools, the pupil to proceed therefrom to the central municipal school for instruction in the intermediate course, and thence to the provincial high school for one of the secondary courses, which aims to supply him with a profession or calling. At present, however, in the majority of barrio schools it is not possible to give more than two years of primary instruction, while the central municipal school doing intermediate work is the exception rather than the rule. The provincial high schools are giving their attention in the current year almost exclusively to intermediate work. This condiion is indicative of the careful effort that is being made to grade pupils no higher than is warranted by their facility in reading and writing English. Emphasis upon "science studies."-Larger place is given to science work than is usual in the public schools of America. Training in the English lauguage and literature supplies the place in the Philippine system of the classical studies of American school programmes. Time is gained thereby for that training in exact methods and concrete subject-matter for which there is peculiar need. Another difference between American and Philippine educational conditions may be noted in this connection. An important function of American educational institutions had lain in the direction of modifying the strongly materialistic tendencies of American life. No stimulus has been needed to supplement the national tendency toward the acquirement of material benefits. Such tendency has ever been an integral part of the environmental conditions and racial temperament. It has led to the highest material advancement, while the academic spirit has been as a guard against the stifling of the nonmaterial. Here in the Philippines the demand upon the academic spirit is reversed. The great need of Filipino national life is precisely in the direction of effort to acquire material benefits. The graces of the culture studies may well await later lessons. The crying need now is for a stimulus which environment and racial history have for centuries denied, a stimulus to "practical" activity. It is with that training which gives the most tangible benefits that our secondary and specialized education purposes to concern itself. Elementary training of such character is given under the "science studies," while the bulk of the work in the secondary courses is to the end of efficient and scientific conduction of various industrial activities. We look to the Japanese for illustration of very much that is helpful in solving Philippine problems. There the most notable educational achieveED 1905 VOL 1-26 ment of modern times has been effected. They have shown no conservatism in the work of national regeneration. Nowhere is this more apparent than in their educational system. In it we find a remarkably large place given to those subjects of which old Japan was ignorant and in need, and which in an educational scheme may be grouped as "science studies." Under this caption the Philippine courses of instruction prescribe a large amount of work which finds its subject-matter in those things which most closely touch the daily life of the Filipino and affect his economic status. Education in the Philippines is concerned with a people whose lack of exactness, especially in their mental processes, is a conspicuous racial fault. The Filipino has an instinctive and intense reluctance to admit ignorance. This characteristic has often earned him an otherwise undeserved reputation for unreliability or dishonesty. He fails to appreciate the desirability of accuracy. Training in science, properly given, will develop a new respect for exactness and a conception of the inexpediency of misstatement, proving perhaps a better. corrective than methods which meet this fault by more direct attack. The plant and animal studies place emphasis upon economic values. They give to all students information fundamentally related to the improvement and expansion of agriculture in the islands-information which is more expanded and accompanied by practical field work in the secondary course in agriculture. Their pedagogical purpose, on the other hand, is to induce accurate first-hand observation and reasoning about facts observed. Especial difficulty lies in overcoming the tendency of the Filipino pupil to learn merely by rote. The science studies largely eliminate the use of this method in that they require answers as the fruit of reasoning rather than of memory. Filipino boys and girls are quite alike in their enthusiasm for work which is out of doors, away from the printed page, and concerns things which they can handle, which they have seen every day, and which have very considerable economic importance for them. SECONDARY SCHOOLS. After what has been previously stated it will be understood that secondary instruction is only beginning with the current school year. Schools for more advanced instruction than that provided by the primary course were intended also to provide for students whose greater age makes them reluctant to attend the barrio schools. Legal provision was made for these institutions in act No. 372, quoted above. Such schools have been organized in 35 provinces, with attendance varying from 75 to 500. By an understanding which has already been suggested, the provincial boards are expected to provide by rental or construction for housing of these schools, while the bureau of education supplies teachers and educational equipment. This arrangement has led to the designation of these schools for higher instruction as "provincial schools"i. e., schools supported, at least in part, by the provincial governments. This somewhat ambiguous expression has been recently modified upon the forms of the bureau into “provincial high schools." The course in literature, history, and the sciences in these schools will compare with the American high school course, although the requisites for admission are less difficult and several courses taught in American high schools here receive less consideration. This will be most noticeable in two lines. The first is the classical languages. The slight attention paid to Latin and the elimination of Greek are made necessary by the importance of other subjects which must, in view of immediate needs, be emphasized. While in the United States we depend, in our training of the youth, upon Latin and Greek for giving breadth of mind and depth of intellectual and moral insight, here in the Philippines we must depend upon English literature for these same purposes. It is believed that English is adequate to impart these essentials of education, both in disciplinary and spiritual aspects. The other notable difference is in the teaching of higher mathematics. There can be found place in such a course as this for hardly more than the briefest elements of algebra and geometry. Advanced work in these branches, in trigonometry, and the higher mathematics must necessarily be left to be pursued in special courses leading up to professional training. The course has been drawn to emphasize the subjects of education which have heretofore been much neglected in the Philippines, and these appear to be literature, history, and the modern sciences. This course will doubtless receive modification as it is put to the test of actual trial. SCHOOL BUILDINGS. School buildings which were erected by the Spanish Government are still standing, and to some degree serviceable, in at least 374 municipalities. Their total number summarized from recent reports is 534. These buildings, though usually substantially built of stone or brick, are as a rule poorly lighted and seldom of a type that conforms to good schoolhouse designs. During the military occupation many of these buildings were occupied as army storehouses or offices. In some cases they were destroyed in the course of war. Others have been rendered unfit for use by decay. In most cases, however, where the expense was justified, these buildings have now been reconstructed or repaired. Building has been exceedingly expensive in the islands ever since the American occupation, and, while less so now than at any time during the past five years, is still costly. Furthermore, school buildings were never erected by the Spaniards in the numerous hamlets of which each municipality is composed. The public school building was always located on the plaza, and was never built large enough to house more than a fraction of the children of the pueblo who are now presenting themselves for instruction. Thus the narrow sites or poor construction of the Spanish schoolhouses, their inadequate size even where they still stand, the absence of buildings in the barrios, and the fact that no buildings whatever for secondary instruction were erected by the Spanish Government have compelled the bureau of education to begin practically at the bottom and plan an entirely new system of public school buildings for the islands. The plan adopted contemplates three kinds of school buildings-the barrio school, the municipal school, and the group of high school buildings. Turning next to municipal school buildings, reports have been secured from all but two divisions with nearly complete data. As stated above, the 534 or more buildings left by the Spanish Government have, almost without exception, been put into a fair condition of repair. Roofs, which generally were destroyed during the progress of war, have been replaced, new floors laid, and in many cases new windows and doors opened, allowing larger admission of light and air. Under American rule up to December, 1903, there had been constructed 369 new school buildings. The greater part of these were built in the year 1903. These figures do not distinguish between schoolhouses built of stone or hard woods, and of consequent durability, and those built of light materials with grass or nipa thatched roofs; but about 40 are of the former class. A comparatively large amount of school building has been .accomplished within the seven months of the present calendar year. Most of these are barrio schoolhouses, built of hard-wood frames, nipa or grass roofs, bamboo walls, and usually bamboo floors, although in some cases these are of hard wood. Summarizing, we have the following total of municipal and barrio school buildings: Serviceable schoolhouses of Spanish construction___ 534 369 600 Total 1,503 Those left from the Spanish period which were of light materials and are no longer truly serviceable are not here included. Of these 395 are practically completed. This leaves approximately 712 schools for which there are no public schoolhouses. According to reports, 333 of these were housed last year in buildings rented by municipalities. The remaining schools, to the number of 380, are housed in private residences loaned to the municipality without rental; a considerable number in convents or parish houses where these buildings are in the hands of the municipality and have been offered by the municipality for occupancy by school, and a still larger number are held in the town halls or presidencias. A few small schools are held in the houses of the teachers. THE TECHNICAL SCHOOLS AT MANILA. Schools maintained by the Philippines for the direct preparation for a profession or trade are three: The Philippine Normal School, established in 1901; the Philippine School of Arts and Trades, established in 1901, and the Philip |