Education in the Philippines during American

rule
During the United States colonial period of the Philippines (1898–1946), the United States government was
in charge of providing education in the Philippines.

Contents
Pensionado Act
Public system of education
Thomasites
Criticisms
Monroe Commission on Philippine Education
See also
References
Further reading
External links

Pensionado Act
The word pensionado originated with the Spanish language. It means to receive pension from the
government. As the Pensionado Act started in 1903, the purpose was to "Educate and bind current and
future Filipino leaders to the American colonial administration."[1] Filipinos, mostly males, that were
sponsored by the act were able to continue their education abroad and learn about American culture.

The United States government agreed to having Filipinos in the United States to acquire knowledge on
Western culture and civilization. This program encouraged Filipinos to obtain education in the United
States and return to the Philippines. The first year of the program there were about 20,000 applicants with
only one hundred of Filipinos men ultimately selected to study abroad in the United States. About forty
boys and eight girls were chosen each year in 1904 and 1905.[2] Students were spread across the United
States to participate in higher education.
...
The program, which ended in 1943 and sought to train future
Philippine leaders in preparation for post-World War II independence, also fostered beliefs in the supremacy
of U.S. institutions, language, and white culture as compared to traditional Philippine culture.[3]

Public system of education

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.[5] Instruction in
English language, and American history, lead to forming of a national identity and Filipino nationalism.[6]
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 Silliman University, in Dumaguete City is
sent to the U.S. to continue their studies and to become experts the first American institution of higher
in their desired fields or professions. They were called learning to be founded in Asia.[4]
"scholars" and "pensionados" because the government
covered all their expenses.[7] 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
Acosta-Sison and Francisco Delgado.

Many elementary and secondary schools from the Spanish

era were recycled and new ones were opened in cities and
provinces, among which there were normal, vocational,
agricultural, and business schools. Among the most
important colleges during American rule were: Philippine
Normal School in 1901 (now Philippine Normal University)
Central Philippine University, founded by the
and other normal schools throughout the country such as
American Baptists is the second American
Colegio Filipino (1900, now National University), Silliman
university in Asia.
Institute (1901, now Silliman University, Iloilo Normal
School (1902, now West Visayas State University), Cebu
Normal School (1902, now Cebu Normal University),
Negros Oriental High School (1902), Capiz Home School (1904, now Filamer Christian University, the
Echague Farm School (1918, now the Isabela State University) St. Paul College of Dumaguete (1904, now
St. Paul University Dumaguete), Zamboanga Normal School in 1904 (now Western Mindanao State
University), Jaro Industrial School (1905, now Central Philippine University), Instituto de Manila (1913,
now University of Manila), Philippine Women's College (1919, now Philippine Women's University), and
Institute of Accountancy (1928, now Far Eastern University. Examples of vocational schools are: the
Philippine Nautical School, Manila Trade School (1901, now Technological University of the Philippines)
and the Central Luzon Agriculture School. The University of the Philippines was also founded in 1908.

Schools were also built in remote areas like Sulu, Mindanao, and the Mountain Provinces, where attention
was given to vocational and health practice.

Thomasites
Volunteer American soldiers became the first teachers of the Filipinos. Part of their mission was to build
classrooms in every place where they were assigned. The American soldiers stopped teaching only when a
group of teachers from the U.S. came to the Philippines in June 1901. They came aboard the ship
"Sheridan." In August 1901, 600 teachers called Thomasites arrived. Their name derived from the ship
they traveled on, the U.S. Army Transport Thomas.
The original batch of Thomasites was composed by 365 males and 165 females, who sailed from United
States on July 23, 1901. The U.S. government spent about $105,000 for the expedition.[8] More American
teachers followed the Thomasites in 1902, making a total of about 1,074 stationed in the Philippines.

Criticisms

Monroe Commission on Philippine Education

The Monroe Commission on Philippine Education was created in 1925 with the aim of reporting on the
effectiveness of the education in the Philippines during the period of U.S. annexation. It was headed by
Paul Monroe, who at the time was the Director of the International Institute of Teachers College, Columbia
University, and it was composed by a total of 23 education professionals, mostly from the U.S. and some
from the Philippines. During 1925 the Commission visited schools all throughout the Philippines,
interviewing a total of 32,000 pupils and 1,077 teachers. The commission found that in the 24 years since
the U.S. education system had been established, 530,000 Filipinos had completed elementary school,
160,000 intermediate school, and 15,500 high school.

The Commission declared that although Filipino students were on the same level as their American
counterparts in subjects like Math or Science, they lagged far behind in English-language related subjects.
George Counts, a Yale professor and a member of the Commission wrote in 1925 in The Elementary
School Journal that "Half of the children were outside the reach of schools. Pupil performance was
generally low in subjects that relied on English, although the achievement in Math and Science was at par
with the average performance of American school children..." Counts also described the Filipino children
of the 1920s as handicapped because not only were they trying to learn new concepts in a foreign language
but they were also being forced to do so from the point of view of a different culture, due to the fact that
they were using materials originally designed for pupils in the United States.[9]

The report also informed that teacher training was inadequate and that 82 per cent of the pupils did not go
beyond grade 4. Many of the problems identified were attributed to the attempt to impose an English-based
education system in just one generation, concluding that "Upon leaving school, more than 99% of Filipinos
will not speak English in their homes. Possibly, only 10% to 15% of the next generation will be able to use
this language in their occupations. In fact, it will only be the government employees, and the professionals,
who might make use of English."[10]

Other recommendations of the Commission asking for a "curtailment of the type of industrial work found
on schools" and the elimination of the General Sales Department that had been set up to distribute the sale
of items made in schools, pushed the implementation of several changes in the educational system to try to
prioritize on the instruction of the pupils to be taught over the teaching of "industrial" education that until
then had been focusing on the production of handicrafts such as basketry for boys and embroidery for girls,
farming techniques, and other skills deemed favorable for the future of the pupils.[11]

See also
Education in the Philippines
Education in the Philippines during Spanish rule
Department of Education (Philippines)
Cebu Normal University
History of the Philippines (1898–1946)
References
1. Lee, Jonathan H. X. (2015). History of Asian Americans: Exploring Diverse Roots: Exploring
Diverse Roots (https://books.google.com/books?id=hxoUBgAAQBAJ). ABC-CLIO. p. 92 (htt
ps://books.google.com.ph/books?id=hxoUBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA92&dq=%22Pensionados%2
2). ISBN 978-0-313-38459-2.
2. Orosa, Mario. "The Philippine Pensionado Story." Journal (2007).
3. Panganiban, Leah L.; Bonus, Rick (2014). "Filipino Americans (Education)" (https://books.go
ogle.com/books?id=9J6kBQAAQBAJ&pg=PT680&dq=pensionado+%22brought+about+the
+inculcation+of+beliefs%22). In Danico, Mary Yu (ed.). Asian American Society: An
Encyclopedia. SAGE Publications. ISBN 978-1-4833-6560-2.
4. "NHI Resolution No.7, Series 2002" (http://www.nhi.gov.ph/files/NHI_res_7_s2002.pdf)
Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20110721112715/http://www.nhi.gov.ph/files/NHI_res
_7_s2002.pdf) July 21, 2011, at the Wayback Machine. National Historical Institute.
Retrieved 2010-12-30.
5. Karnow, Stanley. In Our Image: America's Empire in the Philippines, Ballantine Books,
Random House, Inc., March 3, 1990, 536 pages, ISBN 0-345-32816-7
6. Jeremi Suri (27 September 2011). "Reconstruction After Empire". Liberty's Surest Guardian:
American Nation-Building from the Founders to Obama (https://books.google.com/books?id
=-3EgejhUotwC&pg=PA110). Simon and Schuster. pp. 82–121. ISBN 978-1-4391-4170-0.
7. "Pensionados" (https://web.archive.org/web/20140427034839/http://www.filam.si.edu/curric
ulum/u3-part-02a.html). Filipino American Heritage Website. Smithsonian Asian Pacific
American Program. 2008. Archived from the original (http://www.filam.si.edu/curriculum/u3-p
art-02a.html) on 27 April 2014. Retrieved 6 December 2014.
8. "The Thomasites:An Army Like No Other", News.Ops.gov.ph October 12, 2003 (http://www.n
ews.ops.gov.ph/archives2003/oct12.htm) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/2010051416
2906/http://www.news.ops.gov.ph/archives2003/oct12.htm) May 14, 2010, at the Wayback
Machine
9. Counts, George (October 1925). "Education in the Philippines". The Elementary School
Journal (The University of Chicago Press): 26.
10. Monroe, Paul. A Survey of the Educational System of the Philippine Islands. Manila: Bureau
of Printing. pp. 24–25.
11. W. McCoy, Alfred; Scarano, Francisco Antonio (2009). Colonial crucible: empire in the
making of the modern American state (https://archive.org/details/colonialcrucible00mcco).
Univ of Wisconsin Press. pp. 160 (https://archive.org/details/colonialcrucible00mcco/page/n
178). ISBN 0-299-23104-6.

Further reading
Francisco Benitez (1906). "American Education in the Philippines". The Filipino (https://boo
ks.google.com/books?id=xaVNAAAAMAAJ&pg=RA2-PA24). Filipino Company. pp. 24–26.
United States. Office of Education (1901). Report of the Commissioner of Education (https://b
ooks.google.com/books?id=jeFCAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA1599). U.S. Government Printing
Office. p. 1599.
The Filipino Teacher (https://archive.org/details/filipinoteacher01assogoog). Philippine
Teachers' Association. 1907.
Acierto, Maria Guillen (1980). "American Influence in Shaping Philippine Secondary
Education: An Historical Perspective, 1898-1978 An Historical Perspective, 1898-1978" (htt
ps://ecommons.luc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2791&context=luc_diss). Loyola
University Chicago.
External links
Philippines government website (https://web.archive.org/web/20070927222832/http://www.g
ov.ph/news/default.asp?i=3748)
Looking Back: Real challenge in Philippine education (https://web.archive.org/web/2011041
0221551/http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/columns/view/20080117-113132/Real-ch
allenge-in-Philippine-education)

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