Of the bookkeeping of the school
Art. 49. The staff and equipment expenses of the normal school shall
be met:
1. By the sums assigned at present in the provincial budgets for the
staff expenses of the sisters of charity charged with the teaching
in the school of Santa Isabel, and with those which are included for
the increase of two teachers.
2. With the sums which shall be assigned in the municipal budgets
for the support of the scholars and the equipment of the institution.
3. With the sums which are at present included in the municipal
budgets of Nueva-Cáceres for the practice school since it is a girls'
public school.
Art. 50. The board of supervision and oversight shall report annually
the budgets of receipts and expenses of the school. That report shall
be made by the directress, and shall be sent to the General Division
of Civil Administration without prejudice to the obligation of the
chiefs of the province to include in the municipal and provincial
receipts and expenses the sums which belong to this object.
Art. 51. For the collection and distribution of funds as well as for
the rendering and approval of accounts, the order prescribed by the
laws in force and the special orders dictated by the General Division
of Civil Administration shall be followed.
Transitory regulations
Art. 52. The board of supervision and oversight shall draw up a
project of regulations for the examinations to which those who are
candidates for teachers' certificates must submit themselves, as well
as for the placing and promotion of the same.
Art. 53. Until the staff of the school is complete, the directress
shall confer with the reverend diocesan prelate for the application
in so far as may be possible, of article 16 of these regulations.
Manila, June 19, 1875. Approved.
Malcampo
ROYAL DECREE CREATING IN MANILA A NORMAL SCHOOL FOR WOMEN TEACHERS
IN CHARGE OF THE AUGUSTINIAN NUNS OF THE ASSUMPTION ESTABLISHED IN
THE ROYAL SCHOOL OF SANTA ISABEL OF MADRID
EXPOSITION
Madam:
Primary instruction in the Philippine Archipelago demands reforms
for its invigoration, and to assure, at the same time, the teaching
of the Castilian language and the greatest facility possible for the
religious education--the elements of culture which are the necessary
basis for superior studies which are indispensable for the youth of
that beautiful archipelago, without distinction of origin or of class.
Until prudent and meditated reforms, harmonized with the respect, which
deep-rooted and traditional customs merit, succeed in establishing
a complete organism in the management of public instruction, the
undersigned minister esteems the creation of a superior normal school
for women teachers in the city of Manila as an imperative necessity,
since experience proves, by that formerly created in Nueva-Cáceres,
the undeniable advantages of a like nature in that country.
Since the two principal objects of primary education in Filipinas is
to inculcate in the heart of studious youth love for religion and the
Castilian language, it is certainly beyond discussion that whatever
attempts in this sense to improve the qualities of intelligence and
of the religious character which distinguish the Filipino woman,
[60] must redound, in consequence, to the greater degree of culture
and of the well-being of that society, so intimately bound up with
the destinies of the most glorious Spanish traditions.
For the attainment of this proposition, the undersigned believes that
the most efficient form for the ends of an education, suitable for
the habits and traditions, perfectly compatible with the greatest
progress of modern culture, is to confide the direction of the
superior normal school for women teachers in Manila to instructors
of well-known intelligence and excellent moral endowments, who give,
together with testimonies of knowledge, examples of virtue and zeal in
which that youth may be inspired. Therefore, there is nothing more in
harmony with this aspiration than to give the direction of the Manila
school to the congregation of the Augustinian nuns of the Assumption,
who are established in this capital. Their efficiency is proved by
the long and brilliant period of teaching to which they have devoted
themselves in the school of Santa Isabel in Madrid.
Consequently, then, with personal fitness, adorned with the
certificates which are requisite for teaching and of true ability
for the same, the superior normal school for women teachers in Manila
can be founded upon secure foundations of the most brilliant future,
which assure and prove the noble aspirations of a culture which so
much distinguishes that country, for whose destiny and prosperity the
government of your Majesty is trying to the best of its ability to
continue to establish as many beneficial institutions as necessity
inspires.
The undersigned minister, relying on the preceding considerations,
has the honor to submit the subjoined project of a decree for your
Majesty's approval.
Madrid, March 11, 1892. Madam, at the royal feet of your Majesty,
Francisco Romero Robledo
ROYAL DECREE
At the recommendation of the minister of the colony, in the name of my
august son, King Don Alfonso XIII, and as queen regent of the kingdom,
I decree the following:
Article 1. In order to attend to the necessities of primary education
in the Philippine Archipelago, and with the object of turning out
fitting women teachers, to whom to entrust the development, progress,
and successful direction of the same, a superior normal school for
women teachers is created which shall be established in Manila.
Art. 2. The direction and personal oversight of said centre of
education shall be in charge of the congregation of the Augustinian
nuns of the Assumption, established in the royal school of Santa
Isabel of this capital.
Art. 3. The sums for the staff and equipment of the above-named school
shall be assigned in the general budgets of expenses and receipts
of Filipinas for the present year, and shall be distributed in the
following manner: 7,900 pesos for the teaching force and management,
and 4,500 pesos for equipment.
Art. 4. For the management of teaching in this school, there shall be
five regular instructresses, two assistants--one of the department of
letters, the other of sciences--one music and singing instructress,
and another for hall gymnastics, and one professor of religion and
ethics who shall also be the chaplain of the institution.
Art. 5. To obtain the post of regular instructress in the school
created by this decree, the holding of a teacher's certificate of
superior primary instruction shall be an indispensable condition. Such
academical studies shall have been carried on in the national normal
schools.
Art. 6. The directress and regular instructresses shall be appointed
by royal order by the minister of the colonies, from the aspirants
who solicit said posts from the above-mentioned congregation of the
Augustinian nuns of the Assumption.
Art. 7. The teachers' certificate which shall be given in this school
shall comprise two grades--elementary and superior.
The teaching corresponding to the first shall be in three courses. The
second shall include one course more [than the first].
Art. 8. In the three years included in the elementary grade, studies
shall consist of the Castilian language, expressive reading and
caligraphy, religion and ethics, arithmetic and geometry, history,
geography in general, and, in especial, that of España and Filipinas;
principles of physics, chemistry, physiology, and natural history,
principles of law in application to the common exercises of life,
pedagogy, scholastic organization and legislation, special pedagogy
applied to deaf mutes and the blind, principles of literature and the
fine arts, general hygiene and domestic economy, French, English,
drawing, and singing, gymnastics, needle-work, and practice in
teaching. For the upper grade, the same studies shall be pursued,
enlarged as may be advisable.
Art. 9. The division and extent to which the previous branches shall
be studied, as well as the number of elections of each one, shall be
prescribed in the regulations.
Art. 10. The conditions which shall be demanded from the scholars
for entrance into this school, shall also be prescribed in the said
regulations.
Art. 11. The courses shall commence on the first day of June of each
year and close March 31 following.
Art. 12. To the normal school shall be annexed the corresponding school
for girls supported by the municipality where candidates for teachers'
certificates may acquire the practical knowledge indispensable to
those who devote themselves to this profession.
Art. 13. All the orders which prevent the fulfilment of the contents
of this decree shall be null and void; and the minister of the
colonies shall be authorized to settle any doubts which may arise
in the application of the same, as well as to dictate the measures
which their observance demands.
Given in the palace, March eleventh, one thousand eight hundred
and ninety-two.
Maria Cristina
The minister of the colonies:
Francisco Romero y Robledo
ROYAL ORDER 241 OF THE MINISTRY OF THE COLONIES APPROVING THE
REGULATIONS FOR THE SUPERIOR NORMAL SCHOOL FOR WOMEN TEACHERS IN MANILA
Your Excellency:
In accordance with the order of article 13 of the royal decree, of the
eleventh of the present month, by virtue of which a superior normal
school for women teachers is created in Manila, and for the purpose
of facilitating the institution of said school, and of regulating
the exercise of its functions from the beginning:
His Majesty, the king (whom may God preserve) and in his name, the
Queen Regent of the kingdom, has considered it advisable to approve
the subjoined regulations by which the abovesaid teaching centre is
to be ruled.
I inform your Excellency of this by royal order for your information,
and for the following ends, it being at the same time the will of
his Majesty that this resolution, as well as the regulations to which
the same alludes, be published entire in the Gaceta of Madrid, and in
that of Manila, in accordance with the rulings of the royal decree of
October 5, 1888. May God preserve your Excellency many years. Madrid,
March 31, 1892.
Romero
[Addressed: "Governor general of the Filipinas Islands."]
Cagayán de Misamis, May 19, 1892. Let it be fulfilled, published,
and sent to the General Division of Civil Administration, for the
purposes abovesaid.
Despujol
REGULATIONS OF THE SUPERIOR NORMAL SCHOOL FOR WOMEN TEACHERS IN MANILA
TÍTULO FIRST
OF THE OBJECT OF THE NORMAL SCHOOL
CHAPTER I
Article 1. The normal school created by royal decree of the eleventh
of the present month has as its object:
1. The turning out of suitable women teachers, who shall have
charge afterward of the schools of primary instruction for girls,
so that these will well and faithfully meet the necessities of the
present time.
2. To serve as a model so that the scholars who attend it may acquire
an exact knowledge of the methods, which must be employed with
good results in directing and developing the intellectual, moral,
and physical qualities of the girls who will later be entrusted to
their direction and care; and in so far as possible also consider its
establishment for good results in teaching according to the systems
by which they may rule those girls who shall be entrusted to them at
the end of their course.
Of the subjects to be taught
Art. 2. The subjects which must be the object of study for the
pupils who attend this school shall be those described in article
8 of the above-cited royal decree, comprising the three courses for
the elementary grade, and one additional course for the superior.
The subjects which shall be taught in the normal school of Manila
are as follows:
1. Religion and ethics (this course will include the explanation of
the catechism and sacred history).
2. Castilian grammar.
3. Expressive reading.
4. Arithmetic.
5. Caligraphy.
6. General geography and the geography of España and Filipinas.
7. History of España and Filipinas.
8. Hygiene and domestic economy.
9. Needle-work.
10. Geometry.
11. Room gymnastics.
12. Pedagogy.
13. Natural sciences.
14. Music and singing.
15. Practice in teaching.
16. Principles of literature.
17. Designing, with application to needle-work.
18. Principles of law and its application to the common exercise of
life.
19. French.
20. English.
21. Pedagogy for deaf mutes and the blind.
22. Fine arts.
Elementary grade
The first and second year shall include studies from 1 to 11 inclusive,
and the same instructress may unite the pupils of both years in
one class.
The third year shall be an enlargement of the same studies, adding
the studies from no. 12 to no. 15 inclusive.
Superior grade
For the superior grade of the fourth year, all the subjects of the
preceding years shall be studied in an enlarged form, adding the
studies of nos. 16 and 17, and substituting geometry for drawing.
From no. 18 to no. 22 the studies shall be optional, the study of all
or any of them being at the desire of the pupil, after the conclusion
of the studies of the fourth year.
Art. 3. Lessons shall be alternate, weekly or bi-weekly, according
to the importance of the subjects with relation to the course.
Each election shall last in general one hour, more time being given
to the lessons in needle-work, which shall be daily, and in the other
lessons to that which is believed to be for the advantage of the pupil.
Of school equipment
Art. 4. Since the effort must be made to try to give to the teaching in
this institution the greatest possible practical character, it shall
be furnished with sufficient scientific equipment. Accordingly then,
it must have:
1. The equipment for teaching suitable for each subject whose budget
formed beforehand by the directress, shall be submitted to the
approval of the governor general, in order that the sum assigned for
this purpose may be annually expended on it.
2. Since the economic condition of some of the pupils of this center
will not permit them to acquire a certain class of books, which
it would be necessary for them to know, the governor general shall
assign the said center a copy of the books, which have application to
the school of which these regulations treat, and the ministry of the
colonies shall send them for the encouragement of the public libraries.
The books shall be submitted to the approval of the directress, and
her permission shall be necessary so that the pupils can make use
of them. She shall also make the necessary rules in order for their
consultation, whenever she considers it advisable.
CHAPTER II
Of the teaching force
Art. 5. The school shall have the teaching force prescribed in article
4 of the royal decree of the eleventh of the present month.
Art. 6. One of the regular instructresses shall exercise the duties
of directress. Her appointment shall belong to the minister of the
colony on recommendation of the reverend mother superior general of
the congregation of the Augustinian nuns of the Assumption.
Art. 7. The duties of secretary and librarian shall be filled by the
instructresses appointed by the directress.
Art. 8. The appointment of assistant instructresses shall be made by
the directress.
Art. 9. The appointment of an assistant professor of religion and
ethics, who shall also be chaplain of the institution, shall be made
by the directress, with the consent of the diocesan.
Art. 10. The teaching force of the school will receive remuneration
in the following manner:
Pesos
Instructor-directress, with an annual salary of 1,000
Five regular instructresses [profesoras numerarias],
with a salary of 700 pesos each 3,500
One instructress of music and singing with an annual
salary of 475
One instructress of room gymnastics 400
Two assistant instructresses, one for the section of
sciences, and the other for the section of letters,
with an annual salary of 475 pesos each 950
One assistant instructor of religion and ethics,
who shall also be the chaplain of the institution,
with an annual salary of 475
-----
Total 6,800
Administrative force
One secretary 250
One assistant clerk for secretary 200
One portress 200
Three serving women at 150 pesos each 450
-----
Total 1,100
CHAPTER III
Of the directress
Art. 11. The duties of the directress of the school are as follows:
1. To observe and cause the laws, decrees, regulations, and other
superior orders to be observed.
2. To adopt the measures advisable for the conservation of scholastic
order and discipline.
3. To see that the instruction is given in the proper manner, for
which purpose she shall frequently visit the different rooms and take
care that the material aids which each subject demands are not lacking.
4. To call and preside over the board of instructresses and the
disciplinary council, and to execute their decisions or send those
decisions for superior approval if they require it.
5. To appoint the instructresses and the subordinates whose pay does
not exceed five hundred pesos, after informing the governor general
of said appointments.
6. To send the requests of the instructresses, employes, pupils,
and dependants, to the governor general with her report; with the
understanding that the course of instruction will not be granted to
those who do not submit their conduct [to her], in order that there
may be no complaint against her.
7. To represent the school in judicial matters in which the school
may be a party, or to delegate someone else to represent it.
8. To recommend the measures which she believes conducive to the growth
and improvement of the school, and which are not among her duties.
9. To see to it, with the greatest of zeal, that the instructresses
observe all the duties which are prescribed for them in the regulations
which are to be drawn up by the cloister for the interior management
of the school.
10. To preside over all the meetings held by the cloister and to
direct their discussions.
11. To direct the teaching, in accordance with the schedules presented
by the instructresses and approved by the governor general.
12. The administration of the economic part of the institution,
receiving the sums which are assigned for its support, and distributing
them in accordance with the approved budget, whose preliminary project
must be drawn up in due time.
13. The formation of the schedule of teaching hours, and the
designation of the place where it is to be carried on, after
conferring with the instructresses, so that the result may be more
satisfactory. She shall send to the general government a copy of the
schedule made out for each course.
14. To inform the governor general opportunely of the pupils who have
entered for each course, and to draw up the Memoria anuario [i.e.,
Annual report]. She shall send copies of these reports to the governor
general and the minister of the colonies.
15. To form tribunals for the term examinations [61] and revalida. [62]
16. She shall confer directly with the governor general and must act
through the medium of the latter when she shall have communication
with the supreme government.
17. When vacancies occur in the teaching force of the school, the
directress shall take the necessary measures so that the teaching may
not suffer the least loss, and shall immediately inform the ministry
of the colonies, so that they may be advised as soon as possible.
18. The directress of the school shall take the necessary measures so
that the pupils may not be deprived of the frequency of the sacraments,
of the holy sacrifice of the mass, and of other religious acts.
Of the instructresses
Art. 12. The instructresses shall be under the immediate orders of
the directress in whatever concerns school matters.
Art. 13. They shall lend their aid to whatever the directress of the
institution demands, endeavoring constantly to attain the greatest
aggrandizement and splendor of the same.
Art. 14. In the absence or sickness of the directress, the senior
instructress shall fulfil her duties, and if there should be two
or more instructresses appointed at the same time, she who shall be
designated by the governor general.
Art. 15. That instructress who shall fulfil the duties of directress
for any of the above-mentioned causes, shall not receive any
remuneration therefor, and only in case of vacancy shall she receive
the difference in pay.
Art. 16. Each one of the instructresses shall give a list to the
secretary of the pupils who in her judgment may be admitted to the
ordinary examinations, according to the number of failures, in the
first fortnight of the month of March.
Art. 17. Regular instructresses may use as a distinctive mark in
all the acts which concern the institution the professional medal
suspended from the neck by a cord made of the colors scarlet, sky-blue,
and turquoise blue.
Art. 18. The medals mentioned in the preceding article shall be--that
of the directress, of gilded silver, and those of the instructresses,
white of that metal.
CHAPTER IV
Of the secretary
Art. 19. The obligations of the secretary shall be:
1. To inform the directress of matters which occur in the government
and administration of the school.
2. To draw up papers, and record the reports and communications which
are offered, according to the instructions of the directress.
3. To make the entries of entrance examinations, and term examinations
of the pupils.
4. To petition and despatch the necessary resolutions for the
attestation of the documents presented by the pupils.
5. To superintend matters of receipts and disbursements.
6. To fulfil the duties of pay-mistress of the institution; to collect
and distribute fees for inscription [63] and academical fees.
7. To take charge of the archives, and of the classification of the
documents under her charge.
8. To issue with the proper authorization and in accordance with the
documents which are in her care, the certificates demanded by those
interested or by those who legally represent them.
9. To record the minutes of the board of instructresses, and of the
disciplinary council.
10. To keep all books and registers necessary for the successful
progress of the institution.
11. To open a register in which shall be recorded both the
merits acquired by each one of the scholars and the faults of any
consideration which the same ones may commit during the course of
their studies, and according to those data their study certificates
shall be made out.
12. To record and sign all the certificates ordered by the directress
and on which the latter shall place her O.K.
Art. 20. The secretary shall receive as a remuneration for her services
one per cent of the receipts of the institution, and for certificates,
the fees assigned in these regulations, in addition to the one per
cent of the academical fees as a compensation for the loss of money
and of the responsibility which she has in the collection thereof.
Art. 21. The secretary shall always be responsible for the correct
drawing up of papers, and for the accuracy of the documents which
she issues.
Art. 22. The regular instructress appointed by the directress shall
act as substitute for the secretary during the absence and sickness
of the latter and during vacancies.
CHAPTER V
Of the librarian
Art. 23. The duties of the librarian shall be:
1. To make an inventory of the works existing in the library, to
classify the volumes, and stamp them with the seal of the institution.
2. To name, after conferring with the directress the hours during
which this subordinate department will be open, and to watch after
the good preservation of the books which are committed to her care.
CHAPTER VI
Of the assistants
Art. 24. The assistant instructresses shall have the following duties
in the institution:
1. To act as substitutes for the regular instructresses in their
absence and sickness in their respective section.
2. To take care of the classes and whatever belongs to the duties of
any regular instructress, in case of a vacancy, until that vacancy
is filled in accordance with the royal decree of the eleventh of the
present month.
3. To aid the secretary in the extraordinary labors, and those suitable
for that office when she asks it. In this task the two assistants in
the sciences and letters shall alternate in each course.
CHAPTER VII
Of the subordinates
Art. 25. The portress shall have charge of the principal door of
the building, and both she and the servants shall execute whatever
the directress orders them in regard to the order, arrangement,
and cleanliness of the institution, and its furnishings.
Art. 26. The help cannot leave the edifice so long at it is open to
the public without express orders from the directress.
Art. 27. The help of the school are prohibited under penalty of
discharge to receive any tip from the pupils for the services which
they give in fulfilment of their obligations.
CHAPTER VIII
Of the board of instructresses
Art. 28. The board of instructresses shall be composed of the regular
teachers of the institution.
Art. 29. The directress shall consult the board of instructresses:
1. In the compiling of the annual and monthly budgets of the school.
2. In the making of the list of studies mentioned in these regulations.
3. In any other matters, both concerning the teaching force and the
government and management of the school, in which she believes it
advisable to hear their opinion.
Art. 30. She shall also convoke them:
1. For the annual opening of the studies.
2. When any matter is held in the school which in the opinion of the
directress merits the presence of all the instructresses.
3. At least twice during each term [curso], so that the instructresses
may propose whatever their experience declares to them as conducive
to the perfection of teaching.
Art. 31. Affairs shall be settled by a plurality of votes and in case
of tie the president shall decide.
Art. 32. The secretary shall record the minutes, which, after
approval by the corporation, shall be copied in a book, the president
authorizing the copy with her rubric, and the secretary with her
surname.
In the margin of each minute, the names of those members who were
present at the session shall be noted.
Art. 33. It is the secretary's duty to record the reports
and communications in fulfilment of the decisions of the
board. Nevertheless, the corporation may, when it deems it advisable,
charge any other of its members with the recording of any document
of this class.
CHAPTER IX
Of disciplinary Councils
Art. 34. The Council shall be composed of at least five members.
Art. 35. The school secretary shall be secretary of the disciplinary
Council.
Art. 36. The directress shall convoke the disciplinary Council whenever
anything occurs which the Council ought to know.
Art. 37. The decision of the disciplinary Council shall be verbal
and summary, and they shall always endeavor to decide definitively
on the same day on which the matter is submitted to their hearing.
The order of procedure shall be: Hearing of the deed; deciding
whether it is suitable for them to try; the examining of antecedents
and witnesses in order to bring out the truth clearly; to hear the
accused who shall be cited in the proper manner; and the rendering
of the verdict.
If the accused fails to appear of her own wish, the Council shall
settle the matter, judging the fault as an aggravating circumstance.
After the minutes have been recorded and signed by the secretary all
the members shall affix their rubrics to them.
Art. 38. The Council shall not impose other penalties than those
enumerated in these regulations, but they may punish the same pupil
with several of them.
Art. 39. The verdict shall be published when and as the Council
determines; but immediate advice of the penalties imposed shall be
given to each pupil, to her father, guardian, or care-taker.
TÍTULO II
OF THE ECONOMIC MANAGEMENT
CHAPTER I
Of the annual budgets
Art. 40. The directress of the school, in conference with the board of
instructresses, shall annually compile the annual budgets of receipts
and expenditures, both ordinary and extraordinary.
Art. 41. In the ordinary budget of receipts shall be included the
amount of the fees for matriculation, degrees, and certificates.
The extraordinary budget shall be composed of the funds which it is
calculated will be received in the school in any other way.
Art. 42. In the ordinary budget of expenses, the following shall be
included under its proper heading:
1. The salaries which shall be received by the directress,
instructresses, employes, and help of the institution.
2. The amounts which are calculated to be necessary for the rent,
preservation of the edifice, and its equipment.
3. Expenses of the secretary.
4. Expenses demanded by the teaching and conservation of scientific
equipment.
5. One item for unforeseen expenses, which shall not exceed four per
cent of the amount of the ordinary expenses of the institution.
Art. 43. In the extraordinary budget shall be figured the expenses
which are believed to be necessary for the improvement of the edifice,
for the purchase of school equipment or furniture, or for any other
object not included in the preceding article.
Art. 44. The directress shall send the budgets to the general governor
with a memorandum, if she believes it necessary.
CHAPTER II
Collection, distribution, and payment of accounts
Art. 45. The school shall be guided in matters of collection,
distribution of funds, and payment of accounts, by the general rule
of accounts.
TÍTULO III
OF TEACHING
CHAPTER I
Of the opening and duration of the term [curso]
Art. 46. The ordinary examinations of studies shall be held in the
school from the first to the thirtieth of April, and the extraordinary
examinations from the first to the thirtieth of June. The first day
of July of each year shall be celebrated in the school by the opening
of classes. All the instructresses and assistant teachers shall be
present at the ceremony, and the authorities and corporations of the
village and those persons who are deemed advisable, in order to give
it more solemnity and pomp, shall be invited to it.
Art. 47. The opening ceremonies shall be presided over by the
directress, whenever the governor general does not attend.
Art. 48. The ceremony having begun, the secretary of the school shall
read a short and simple résumé of the condition of the institution
during the preceding year, expressing therein the changes which have
occurred in the staff of instructresses, the number of scholars
matriculated and examined, the progress made by the teaching,
improvements made in the building, increase in scientific equipment,
the economic situation, and all the other bits of information which can
contribute to give a complete idea of the progress of the institution.
This document shall be printed and afterward inserted in the official
newspaper of Manila, publishing therein as an appendix the tables
which will serve to prove what was explained in the memorial.
This memorial, together with the inaugural address, which shall be
read by the directress, or one of the instructresses, shall be made
into a single volume, and copies of it shall be sent to the ministry
of the colony, the general government, and scientific and literary
corporations.
Art. 49. After the conclusion of the reading, prizes shall be
distributed, and the ceremony shall close by the president saying:
"His Majesty, the king (whom may God preserve), and, in his name,
the queen regent of the kingdom, declares the academic term of such
and such a year open in the superior normal school for women teachers
in Manila."
Art. 50. Lessons shall begin on the day following the opening of
studies, and shall terminate on March 31.
Art. 51. Lessons shall not be suspended during the course, except on
Sundays, whole feast days, saints' days, and birthday anniversaries
of the king, queen, and prince of Asturia, on the day for the
commemoration of the dead, from December 23 until January 2, the
three days of the carnival, Ash Wednesday, holy Wednesday, Thursday,
Friday, and Saturday, and Easter and Pentecost.
CHAPTER II
Of the order of classes and methods of teaching
Art. 52. Five days before beginning lessons, a representative
table shall be affixed in that place in the edifice assigned for
announcements expressive of the studies which are taught in the school,
the instructresses in charge of them, the textbooks for their study,
and the rooms, days, and hours in which the lessons are to be given.
Art. 53. Explanations in all classes shall be in Castilian.
Art. 54. Instructresses shall follow in their teaching the schedules
approved by the superior government, in accordance with section 11,
of article 11, and shall try to excite emulation among the scholars
by contests which shall prove their progress.
Art. 55. The scholars seriously lacking in class in the respect due
the instructress shall be expelled from the class by that act and
judged by the disciplinary Council.
Art. 56. The instructress shall note daily for the abovesaid purposes,
failures of attendance in the scholars, and shall hand in a list of
names whenever she thinks it advisable.
She shall also note the manner in which they have answered in the
lessons, and to the questions which she has asked them; as well as
the acts of restlessness, and the pranks which they have committed.
Art. 57. At the end of each month the instructresses shall hand
to the secretary a list of the pupils in their classes, with a note
regarding the failure of attendance, lesson, and deportment, which they
have incurred, and the qualifications of their memory, intelligence,
application, and conduct, so that the persons in charge of them may
understand their behavior.
Art. 58. At the end of each month, the instructresses shall also hand
in a list of those pupils who have most distinguished themselves in
their progress and conduct.
Art. 59. The instructresses shall endeavor to conclude the course of
any studies at least twenty days before the conclusion of the term,
in order to devote the remaining lessons to a general review which
may prepare the scholars for the examination.
CHAPTER III
Of material equipments for instruction
Art. 60. There shall be a sufficient number of rooms in the school,
light, well arranged and ventilated, and large enough so that the
pupils whom it is calculated will attend may be accommodated.
The seats shall be arranged conveniently and the chair of the
instructress shall be elevated so that she may see all her pupils
and be distinctly heard.
There shall be a blackboard or oilskin [64] near the chair of the
instructress for writing and drawing the figures demanded in the
teaching.
Rooms for drawing shall be arranged in the manner suitable for these
studies.
Art. 61. In addition there shall be:
1. An image of our Lord Jesus Christ, and a picture of his Majesty,
the king, in all the classes.
2. The globes, maps, and other objects which are required for the
knowledge of geography.
3. The synoptical pictures which are required to facilitate the study
of history.
4. A cabinet for physics with the apparatus and instruments
indispensable for teaching this study profitably.
5. A classified mineralogical collection.
6. Another zoological collection, in which shall be found the principal
species, and if not, then plates which represent them.
7. A botanical garden and its herbarium systematically arranged.
8. A collection of all the solids and instruments deemed necessary
for the teaching.
Art. 62. The directress shall see that collections in the cabinets of
natural history are formed as completely as possible from the natural
products of the archipelago.
Art. 63. Each instructress shall have under her charge the conservation
of the material equipment owned by the school for the teaching of
her course of study.
TÍTULO IV
OF THE SCHOLARS
CHAPTER I
Of the qualifications which the scholars must possess in order to be
admitted to matriculation
Art. 64. In order that the studies of the normal school may produce
academical effects, they must be carried on with strict submission
to what is prescribed in these regulations.
Art. 65. In order to enter the superior normal school for women
teachers, one must pass an examination of the branches of Christian
doctrine and sacred history, Castilian grammar, arithmetic, geometry,
geography, history of España and Filipinas, hygiene, and needle-work.
Art. 66. The exercises of which the examination for entrance shall
consist shall be three in number, in the following form:
Written exercises
1. The writing of a letter or dissertation upon a theme of Christian
doctrine, and sacred history, hygiene, or the history of España or
of Filipinas.
2. Solution of an arithmetical problem.
3. Execution of a simple geometrical drawing.
Oral exercise
1. Explanatory reading of a complete sentence.
2. Grammatical analysis of a sentence.
3. Answer of a question in geography, and another in each one of the
subjects of Christian doctrine, sacred history, hygiene, and history
of España or of Filipinas. If any one shall have submitted a theme
on any one of these four matters for the dissertation of the written
exercise, that subject shall be excluded from the oral exercise.
Practical exercise
Execution of needle-work, under the supervision of the tribunal.
Art. 67. Judges of the entrance examination shall be three
instructresses regularly appointed by the directress.
The proofs of this examination shall be the same marks as those for
obtaining a course [ganar curso].
The pupils shall pay two and one-half pesos for academical fees,
which shall be distributed at the close of examination among the
instructresses who are judges of the tribunals.
Art. 68. In order to be admitted to matriculation, one must have
passed the age of fourteen; petition therefor must be made to the
directress of the school; and the petition must be accompanied by
the baptismal certificate of the petitioner, by the certificate of
good conduct issued by the parish priest of her district, a medical
certificate stating that she has proved that she does not suffer
from any contagious disease or physical defect which incapacitates
her for the duties of teaching, the authorization of her father,
tutor, guardian, or husband (if the candidate should be married),
and the corresponding personal cedula.
CHAPTER II
Concerning matriculation
Art. 69. On the sixteenth of May annually, the matriculation of the
school shall be announced in the official gazette of Manila.
Art. 70. The announcement shall state:
1. The time when the school shall be open for those who have
matriculated.
2. The necessary qualifications for admission to the school, and the
manner in which these qualifications shall be proved.
3. The fees which must be paid by the pupils.
Art. 71. The matriculation which shall be open from June 1, shall be
divided into ordinary or extraordinary, according as it is effected
in the months of June or July. In the last five days of this term,
the secretary's office shall be open from eight in the morning until
four in the afternoon, and on the day which closes the matriculation
period, until eight o'clock at night.
Art. 72. Matriculation, whether ordinary or extraordinary, shall be
made by means of cedulas of inscription [65] made in accordance with
the model approved by the general government.
The price of each cedula shall be 1.25 pesos, which shall be paid
without distinction by the pupils in the secretary's office of the
institution.
Art. 73. Those who desire to enter the school, or come from another
institution, shall have a written petition in the form prescribed in
the preceding article.
The passing of the entrance examinations and the date thereof in the
school shall be entered in the registration of the first study in
which the pupil is matriculated.
Art. 74. The pupils, who shall not have matriculated for any reason
in the month of June, may do it in the month of July, by paying
double fees.
The extension of this last period of time is absolutely prohibited,
and the tribunals of examination shall not allow that scholar to be
examined whose matriculation is not in accord with this provision.
Art. 75. On July 1 of each year, all the fees paid by those who have
matriculated in the term which closes on the day before shall expire,
and in virtue of that those pupils who shall not have been examined
at that date, as well as those who shall have been suspended, shall
require a new matriculation for the following term.
Art. 76. The fees for matriculation shall be paid in two instalments
in papeles de pagos al estado, [66] half at the time of matriculation,
and the other half in the month of February. Those halves of paper
shall be united with the personal document of the pupil.
Art. 77. All the registers of matriculation of each term shall be
closed on July 31, and, on the following day, the directress shall
inform the general government of the result of the inscriptions in
all the branches of study.
Art. 78. Any scholar who shall have matriculated in the school may
go to any other official school for the purpose of continuing her
studies. Those who so desire shall send a petition to the director,
and she shall grant it whenever it is not for the purpose of escaping
some punishment.
The transfer of those who have matriculated from one institution
to another shall only be conceded from the beginning of the term
until January 31. If the necessity for such transfer is not proved,
the superior government shall be consulted. It shall be accomplished
by means of a special inscription for such cases, made out according
to a model which shall be sent ex-officio and registered, together
with the extract and the study sheet [67] of the one interested,
to the institution to which the transfer shall have been asked. Said
cedula shall be free, and shall confer right to continue the course
and be admitted to examination.
Art. 79. Those who are transferred to other institutions shall
pay beforehand the academical fees, in accordance with the special
inscriptions made for that purpose.
The upper part of the right hand section of these inscriptions
shall remain in the documents of the student as a proof of her
transference. The lower part [of the right hand section] shall be
delivered to her, while the other sections which shall constitute
the new matriculation of the pupil, shall be sent ex-officio in a
registered package to the directress of the other institution. In
the primitive inscription, said transference shall be noted by the
secretary rendering useless at the same time and diagonally the
examination coupons with a stamp [cajetín], reading "transferred."
Art. 80. The pupils transferred shall present themselves in the new
institution within a fitting period.
The inscriptions sent by post shall be united with the others of the
same study with the number of order corresponding to them.
Art. 81. The fees for matriculation in the school shall be paid in
two instalments: the first when the inscription of the respective
studies is proved; and the second in the month of February.
These fees shall amount to 7.50 pesos for all the studies corresponding
to each term.
Art. 82. In order to prove the inscription of matriculation the
secretary of the school shall follow the following rules:
1. The inscriptions shall be divided into as many groups as there are
studies corresponding to each term, enumerating them in correlative
order in those groups [i.e., from 1, up].
She shall authorize them with her signature and the seal of the
institution, and shall note in addition the name of the study, the
number of order in the upper part, leaving for the month of September
its repetition in the other sections.
2. A printed paper in accordance with a model shall be supplied to the
pupils in the lodge of the portress of the school, with the object of
setting forth the group of studies in which they are to matriculate,
taking care that after their names they write very distinctly their
two surnames, both paternal and maternal.
3. Such paper shall be handed to the secretary of the school, and
at the same time the papel de pagos al estado. The one interested
shall receive the coupon attached to the same, and the matriculation
shall thus be legal, even if the respective inscription shall not be
received until the following day.
4. According as the matriculation of each group is made, the list of
the pupils shall be made in accordance with the correlative order of
its numeration, so that on the second of July, at the commencement of
all the classes, the instructors may have said list at their disposal.
This list shall be completed with another list of those pupils who have
matriculated in the month of July, and further with those transferred
from other institutions, so that the list of the instructor may always
be in accord with the book of matriculations in which shall be noted
if possible the following:
First, those who are to receive honor; second, those of ordinary
matriculation; then, those of extraordinary matriculation; and lastly,
those transferred from other centers of teaching; all with one single
correlative numeration, so that the last number may always correspond
to the total number of inscriptions.
5. After the matriculation has closed, charge shall be taken of the
corresponding books, and it shall be ordered that the secretary devote
herself during the months of July and August to finishing the details
of each inscription, repeating the name of the pupil and that of the
group as often as it is noted in the printed form, and noting on the
other side the extracts of his study sheet, all with great neatness
and distinctness.
The directress shall communicate to the general government the result
of the inscriptions on the first of August in the form prescribed.
CHAPTER III
Obligations of the pupils
Art. 83. From the day in which the pupil is entered in the register
she shall be subject to the scholastic authority within and without
the institution.
Art. 84. Pupils shall be obliged to be punctual in attendance at
the class during the whole term. If they shall cease to be punctual
for some time without there being any cause therefor which appears
legitimate to the instructress, the latter may exclude them from
the ordinary examinations, and when they present themselves for the
extraordinary examinations in June they cannot aspire to more than
a passing mark.
Art. 85. All the pupils shall be obliged to obey and respect the
directress and instructresses, both within and without the institution,
and to heed the admonitions of the help, charged with the conservation
of scholastic order and discipline.
Art. 86. In the register of matriculation of each pupil shall be noted
the rewards which she obtains and the punishments which she suffers,
by virtue of the decision of the disciplinary Council as well as
those imposed by the directress and instructresses, if it be they
who resolve to punish her. In both cases the fault, for which the
penalty shall have been imposed, shall be mentioned.
Art. 87. The pupils shall be prohibited from addressing their superiors
orally or in writing in a body. Those who infringe this rule shall
be judged guilty of insubordination.
Art. 88. Pupils shall attend school decently dressed. The directress
is authorized to forbid any jewel which takes away from the decorum
which ought to rule in an institution of teaching.
CHAPTER IV
Of the examinations
Art. 89. The ordinary examinations of the studies shall be held in
the school and at set periods, and the pupils shall pay for this
purpose the academical fee of 2.50 pesos for each group.
These fees shall be paid in hard cash in the secretary's office of
the school during the month of March, and the pupils shall receive
a receipt which shall authorize them without the need of any other
academic document, to take the examinations, both ordinary and
extraordinary, in the respective group.
Half of the amount of these academic fees shall be assigned to the
scientific equipment, and as pecuniary aids to superior and poor
pupils; and the other half shall be used for the formation of a common
fund, which shall be distributed in equal parts among all the regular
instructresses of the school.
Art. 90. The instructresses shall hand to the secretary ten days
beforehand a list of the pupils who may be admitted to the ordinary
examinations, and another list of those who shall remain for the
extraordinary examinations.
Art. 91. On the first of April, the register books shall be distributed
among the respective tribunals, the secretaries of the same taking
charge of them. After examining them, the examinations shall be begun,
commencing with the pupils with registers containing honorary marks,
and by those who obtained the mark of excellent for the last term,
without any suspension if they shall so petition in a request sent
to the directress of the school.
The others shall follow the strict correlative order of the
inscriptions, the secretary of the tribunal seeing to it that the
pupils sign in the place indicated for that purpose, and after the
presentation of their personal cedula, [68] and the other requisitions
which the tribunal may consider necessary, if there shall be any
doubt concerning their personality.
Art. 92. Examinations shall be announced sufficiently beforehand, as
well as the locality, day, and hour, in which they shall be held. On
each day, moreover, shall be announced the correlative numeration of
those persons who shall be examined on the following day.
Those who shall not be present at the ordinary examinations shall
remain for the extraordinary examinations.
Art. 93. Each study shall be the object of a special examination and
tribunals for term examinations, and competitions for ordinary rewards
shall be formed by the instructress of that course and two other
instructresses, also officials of the analogous branches designated
by the directress, whenever they are not related within the third
degree to the pupil.
One of the judges may be replaced by the assistant instructresses.
The term examinations shall consist of questions which shall be asked
for at least ten minutes by the judges on three lessons of the schedule
of the studies chosen at random.
Art. 94. The ceremonies shall be held in the following manner:
1. As many numbers as the lessons contained in the schedule of the
study shall be placed in an urn by the judges.
2. The secretary of the tribunal shall draw three numbers in the
presence of the pupil, and the three lessons bearing that number shall
be the object of that exercise. The numbers which are drawn from the
urn shall be returned to it at the end of the exercise.
3. In the studies of translation and analysis, two lessons shall
be chosen by lot, and at the end of the examination on them, the
secretary of the tribunal shall open the book which shall have served
as textbook for these exercises and shall assign to the pupil the
passage which she is to translate and analyze.
4. There shall be a blackboard or a square of oilskin in all the
places where examinations are held, so that the pupils may write
or make the figures which the judges order them, or which they may
believe to be necessary in order to answer fully the questions asked
them. Moreover they shall have the apparatus and objects which may
be deemed necessary by the tribunal.
Art. 95. At the close of the examinations of each day, the judges,
in secret session, and in view of the marks which they ought to have
taken during the exercises, shall rank the pupils examined.
These marks shall be: excellent, notable, good, passed, and suspended.
The secretary shall place a list in the lodge of the portress of the
school during the days of the examination on which shall appear the
marks which the pupils shall have obtained in the examinations.
Art. 96. The marks obtained in the examinations shall be immediately
entered in the general register in alphabetical order which shall
be started with all those who have matriculated in the school,
on the first of September, according to the form approved by the
General Division of Public Instruction. In this way, before May 5,
they can send to the general government the lists of matriculation
as well as of ordinary examination, with their grades, in order that
the general summary may be published in the Gaceta on the fifteenth
day of the same month.
Art. 97. Pupils suspended and those who do not present themselves at
the ordinary examinations shall be admitted into the extraordinary
examination without other official document than the said voucher
stating that they have paid the academical fees in March.
If the first of July arrives without that having been attended to
they lose all their fees, and shall have to matriculate again for
the following course in accordance with the regulations.
Art. 98. Having noted in the general register the grades of the
ordinary examination, they shall proceed, under the supervision
of the secretary of the school, to cut the second section of the
inscription of the pupils who have passed, in order to join it on
their respective documents. The same operation shall be repeated at
the end of the examinations in June, except in regard to the pupils
who have not passed, to whom the inscriptions refer.
Art. 99. The marks given by the judges shall be decisive and no appeal
of any kind shall be received in regard to them.
Art. 100. Those admitted to the extraordinary examinations shall be:
1. The pupils included in the lists of the instructresses as admissible
to them.
2. Those admissible to the ordinary examinations who did not appear.
3. Those suspended.
4. Those who desire to obtain a better mark than they obtained in
the ordinary examinations.
Art. 101. All the rules relating to the ordinary examinations are
applicable to the examinations held in June.
CHAPTER V
Of rewards
Art. 102. Every year rewards, which shall be ordinary and
extraordinary, shall be granted in the school.
Ordinary rewards shall be of two kinds: those of the first kind shall
consist of matriculation of honor; [69] and those of the second in
the payment of matriculation and academical fees, books, medals, etc.
Art. 103. Two ordinary rewards shall be granted, one in each course,
if the pupils do not exceed fifty in number. If they exceed that
number by another fifty or the fraction of fifty pupils, an equal
number of honorable mentions may be conceded to them.
Art. 104. The pupils who obtain rewards of the first class shall be
entitled to ask the directress for matriculation of honor completely
free in the following term and in the same school, whenever such
persons do not have unfavorable marks or antecedents in their
academical deportment.
Art. 105. The pupils who shall have obtained the mark of excellent
in all the examinations of the same term, may become candidates for
admission to the competitive exercises for rewards of the first class.
In order to be admitted to the exercises for rewards of the second
class, it shall be required that the candidates prove a lack of
resources and shall have obtained three marks of excellent in the
same term.
Art. 106. Competitive exercises for ordinary rewards shall be held
three days after the termination of those for term examinations of
the studies, the judges for such exercises being the instructresses
who shall have formed the tribunal, during the examination of the
branch which was the object of the competition.
Art. 107. In the extraordinary examinations a certificate of honor
and grace as teacher of primary elementary teaching, and another as
superior shall be conceded.
Art. 108. The competitive exercises for these rewards shall be begun
on the twentieth day of June, at twelve o'clock in the morning, before
a tribunal composed of five instructresses, under the presidency of
the directress.
Art. 109. Those scholars who shall have obtained the mark of excellent
in all the exercises may become candidates for the degree of elementary
and superior revalida for extraordinary reward.
Art. 110. The cloister of instructresses shall prescribe the
subjects in which the exercises for the rewards, both ordinary and
extraordinary, shall be the object.
Art. 111. The tribunal shall adjudge the reward to the pupil who
shall have handed in the best exercises; and the fact that she who
does not receive a favorable mark has competed for a reward shall be
noted as a special merit in her study certificate.
Art. 112. The judges shall not speak a word to the one taking the
exercise.
Art. 113. The expenses occasioned by the judging of awards shall be
paid from the amount arising from the inscriptions and academical
fees, three-fifths being assigned for the pay of matriculation and
the other two-fifths for the purchase of books and supplies.
CHAPTER VI
Certificates and decisions
Art. 114. The certificates of the academical studies of the pupils may
refer to the branches of one single term, or those of two or more,
and also to those of the whole course [carrera] with or without the
corresponding title. The certificates solicited by the pupils, in
accordance with the form printed for that purpose, shall be issued by
the secretary, on the payment in hard cash of one peso and twenty-five
centavos, if the certificate shall embrace the studies of one group;
and two and one-half pesos, if it shall embrace more or those of all
the course [carrera], the state seal which the regulations in force
prescribe being on account of the secretary.
Art. 115. Certificates made out with the object of a continuance
of the studies or the receiving of an academical degree in another
institution shall be sent ex-officio and registered, the suitable
coupon only being delivered to such person.
Art. 116. Certificates stating that the exercises for revalida, or
rather that the respective titles have been issued, shall also be given
upon the petition of those interested, for the payment of 1.25 pesos.
Art. 117. Those pupils who shall have obtained three or four honorable
mentions, and no conditions [nota de suspensa], shall be given all
the certificates that they need, without other fees than the amount
for the state seal.
Art. 118. Half of the amount of the fees of the documents which are
issued by the secretary of the school shall be assigned for printing,
state seals, registration of mail, and other like expenses, and the
other half shall be divided among the secretary and the employes of
the secretary's office, whenever these amounts do not exceed a fourth
part of their respective pay.
If they exceed such sum, the remainder shall be employed in improving
the archives and other dependencies attached to the secretary's office.
CHAPTER VII
Of faults against academic discipline and means of checking them
Art. 119. Slight faults are:
1. Inattention in regard to the [admonitions of the] help of the
institution.
2. Injuries and offenses of slight moment to other pupils.
3. Faults of deportment in the schoolroom.
4. Indecorous words and unquiet acts and pranks.
Grave faults against academic discipline are:
1. Blasphemy, irreligious actions, and immodest actions and words.
2. Passive resistance to superior orders.
3. Insubordination against the directress and instructresses of
the school.
4. Grave offenses or insults which wound the other pupils.
5. Any other action which causes grave disturbance in the academical
order and discipline.
6. The second occurrence of slight faults, and resistance in suffering
the punishment which shall have been imposed for them.
Art. 120. The checking of slight faults belongs to the directress
and instructresses, but the hearing of grave faults belongs to the
disciplinary Council.
Art. 121. Punishments prescribed for slight faults are:
1. Private censure by the directress of the school.
2. Idem, public before her companions.
3. Seclusion in the institution for the space of several days, which
may not exceed one week, but attendance at class and permission for
the pupil to go home for the night.
4. Increase of failure of attendance up to the number of five.
Art. 122. Grave faults shall be punished by the following penalties:
1. Public admonition, ex-cathedra, by the directress or instructress,
according as may be prescribed by the disciplinary Council.
2. Loss of the [studies of the] term.
3. Expulsion from the institution.
4. Disqualification to continue her course.
Art. 123. Punishments 2, 3, and 4, shall be imposed by personal
action, which shall be declared by the cloister in full session, the
one interested being heard for that purpose; but the confirmation of
the governor general shall be indispensable.
Art. 124. The pupil who shall not present herself to undergo the
penalties expressed in number 1 of the preceding article shall lose
the term.
The penalty of expulsion shall carry with it the loss of the term. The
pupil expelled shall not be allowed to enter the school without the
express permission of the directress.
Art. 125. If a punishable act shall be committed in the school by those
who are subject by the laws to the judicial action, the directress,
collecting the data and advisable information, shall inform the court
so that it may proceed in accordance with law.
Art. 126. If the pupils, anticipating, or prolonging, their vacation,
or for the reason of scholastic disturbances, cease to attend their
classes, they shall not be admitted to the term examinations until
the extraordinary examinations of June. That fact shall be noted by
the instructresses and handed to the directress of the school.
TÍTULO V
REVALIDA EXAMINATIONS [i.e., examinations for a degree]
Art. 127. Pupils may receive the degree of a teacher's certificate
of primary, elementary, or superior teaching, to which they may be
admissible, according to the studies which they have pursued during
any time of the year, if it is not in the month of May, the time when
the instructresses in all branches shall have their vacations.
Art. 128. Those who are candidates for a degree shall present a
petition to the directress accompanied by documents sufficient to prove
that they have taken the course and passed in the necessary studies
in due time and form. The petition shall be handed to the secretary
so that she may give information of what appears in the books, and
ask the decision if the pupil comes from another institution.
Art. 129. The paper having been drawn up, the directress shall grant
admission to the exercises or shall refuse the petition. In case of
doubt she shall consult with the cloister of the school.
Art. 130. The paper having been approved, the pupil shall pay six
pesos for the fees of inscription, and having done that, the secretary
shall appoint the day and hour for the first exercise.
Art. 131. Exercises for academical degrees shall be made by means of
inscriptions similar to those of matriculation, regulated according
to the form approved by the government. In them shall be comprised
the extract of the studies and the antecedents of the course of the
one interested.
These inscriptions shall give a right to the repetition of each one
of the exercises of the degree in the case of suspension, but having
been repeated in one such exercise, the inscription remains null and
void, and another one is needed for a new examination.
Art. 132. The exercises mentioned in the preceding article shall
not be held in distinct institutions, but each pupil shall begin and
end them in one and the same institution. Among the candidates for
the degree at any time, those who shall have the best marks in their
study certificate shall be preferred, for the order of the exercises.
Art. 133. The exercises for degrees shall be four in number--one
written, one oral, and two practical--and shall last for the time
deemed advisable by the tribunal.
Art. 134. The tribunal for each exercise shall be comprised of three
instructresses, those of the branches examined, taking turns in
composing it.
Art. 135. The written part for the candidates for the certificate
of teachers of elementary primary instruction shall consist in the
writing of a capital alphabet and another small alphabet on the ruled
paper which is supplied to them; in the writing by dictation of one or
more sentences, which shall occupy at least a fourth of the paper of
the size of the stamped paper; in the solution of three arithmetical
problems chosen by lot from among twenty prepared beforehand; and
in the development of one pedagogical theme from three chosen by lot
from an urn containing thirty, for this last part taking as a minimum
half a sheet of paper the size of the stamped paper.
Four hours shall be allowed for these exercises.
Art. 136. The written part of the exercise of confirmation for the
candidates to the teacher's certificate of primary superior education
shall consist in the solution of three arithmetical problems chosen
by lot from among twenty previously prepared, and the development of
a pedagogical theme from three drawn by lot from an urn containing
twenty, of the matter suitable for this grade, taking as a minimum
one sheet of paper of the size of the stamped paper.
Five hours shall be prescribed for these exercises.
Art. 137. When there are several candidates they shall take the
written exercises at the same time, but shall be conveniently located
and watched so that they may not aid one another.
Art. 138. Paper with the seal of the institution and rubricated by
the president of the tribunal, shall be furnished to those examined
for all the written exercises.
Art. 139. The oral exercises for those pupils who are candidates for
the elementary teacher's certificate shall consist in answering nine
questions on the three branches which shall be chosen by lot from
among all the others constituting the general group of the studies
of the elementary teacher; and for the candidates to the superior
teacher's certificate, in the same exercise, and in like manner for
all the branches studied in the four terms.
Art. 140. After the termination of the written and oral exercises the
practical exercise in needle-work will begin. This last having ended,
the tribunal in the practice school shall be constituted, in the
elementary or superior section, according to the class of the pupil
in point. Each one of them shall draw a paper from an urn in which
there shall be as many as there are branches of study included in the
corresponding grade; that is to say, those studies of the elementary
for the pupils of that class, and all the studies for the superior,
except that of music and singing, which shall not form a part of
this exercise.
The subject having been chosen by lot, the one examined shall draw a
new ticket from another urn from thirty prepared for that purpose. The
number of that ticket shall indicate the point which she is to explain
on the development of girls, the elementary spending ten minutes on
the explanation and the superior fifteen.
Art. 141. Immediately after the termination of an exercise, the
exercise shall be passed upon by secret vote, for which purpose the
president shall distribute to each one of the judges three tickets,
one of which shall contain an S (sobresaliente [i.e., excellent]),
the second one A (aprobada [i.e., passed]), and another one shall be
blank (suspensa [i.e., conditioned]).
Art. 142. If each one of the judges deposits a distinct letter in the
urn the president shall declare the graduate to have passed; in other
cases she shall be qualified according to the vote of the majority.
Art. 143. In order to be admitted to the second exercise, one must
have passed in the first; in order to be admitted to the third she
must necessarily have passed in the second; and in order to be admitted
to the fourth one must have passed the three preceding.
Art. 144. Pupils conditioned in the exercises for confirmation shall
not present themselves for new exercises until two months from the
date of their condition.
Art. 145. The exercises to which the preceding article refers can be
repeated indefinitely, whenever the above-mentioned time intervenes
between each two times.
Art. 146. When a pupil repeats the exercises in which she shall
have been conditioned, at least one of the judges who shall have
participated in the condition shall form part of the tribunal.
Art. 147. For fees of teacher's certificate of superior primary
instruction, candidates shall pay in papeles de pagos al estado the
sum of forty pesos, besides presenting the fitting stamp which must
be affixed to each certificate, and paying in cash two pesos for
expenses of issuing the document.
The above-mentioned sum of forty pesos shall be reduced to thirty-five
when it is a question of a teacher's certificate of elementary
primary instruction, and to seventeen and one-half for the change
from elementary teacher's certificate to that of superior.
Half of the amount collected for the purpose of issuing the circulars
shall be assigned for printing and other like purposes, and the other
half shall be distributed among the secretary and the employes of
that office.
Art. 148. The governor general, finding the documents regular,
shall issue the certificates with the mark of passed or excellent,
which shall bear in plain sight the coupon part of the respective
inscriptions which the directress of the school sends him for that
purpose, on which he shall note the approval of the exercises and
the payment of the fees which the regulations in course prescribe,
accompanying it also with a registered copy of the baptismal
certificate of the graduate.
Of the practice school
Art. 149. A school of primary teaching, supported by the municipality,
shall be joined to the normal school, and, if possible, shall occupy
the same building with it, in which the pupils who are candidates
for teachers can learn what a school for girls is and practice in it,
following the most adequate method and procedure for the teaching of
each subject, so that during their course they may obtain the good
results which must be promised.
Art. 150. The practice school shall be divided into two sections,
which shall be called the elementary and the superior grades. There
shall be one teacher in charge of it with a superior certificate,
and she shall be called "regent."
Art. 151. The regent shall have one assistant, for whom it shall be
sufficient to possess a teacher's certificate of elementary primary
instruction, since she shall be in charge of the section peculiar to
the certificate which is demanded of her.
Art. 152. The practice school shall not lose its character as a public
school for the girls of the village, and shall be supplied in the
manner prescribed for others of its class.
Art. 153. The superior normal school for women teachers in Manila shall
have at present only day pupils, until the necessities of instruction
in the archipelago counsel the admission of resident pupils exactly
or in similar form as the normal school for men teachers.
Art. 154. The Augustinian nuns of the Assumption may establish at
their account, if they deem it advisable, the admission of resident
pupils in the same institution of the school, whenever that is not
to the prejudice of the day pupils, or indeed in any other edifice
contiguous to or distinct from the school.
Art. 155. All the orders which prevent the fulfilment of the contents
of these regulations are abrogated, and the minister of the colonies
is authorized to decide the doubts which may arise from the application
of the same.
Additional article
The directress and instructresses of the congregation of Augustinian
nuns of the Assumption shall have complete liberty for the observance
of the statutes of their order.
Madrid, March 31, 1892. Approved by his Majesty.
Romero
DECREE OF THE GENERAL GOVERNMENT ELEVATING TO THE GRADE OF SUPERIOR THE
NORMAL SCHOOL FOR MEN TEACHERS IN MANILA, AND APPROVING PROVISIONALLY
THE NEW REGULATIONS OF THIS SCHOOL
Normal school of teachers: Your Excellency:
The normal school for men teachers in Manila, established by virtue
of the royal organic decree of December 20, 1863, for the purpose
of being used as a seminary for men teachers fit to take charge
of schools of primary instruction for the natives throughout the
Philippine Archipelago, has been fulfilling, since its foundation,
the difficult task committed to it by the government of his Majesty,
filling the great space which was experienced in these remote provinces
from the primitive times of the conquest. With the adoption of a
system combining pedagogical instruction and education, at the same
time that it has diffused, so far as has been possible, the use of the
Castilian language, knowledge of evangelical truths, and the practice
of Christian morals, it has propagated the germ of true civilization in
all the islands, consolidating, with the most elementary principles of
education, the civil life of the villages in their diverse relations
in regard to the social organization, and especially with the diverse
institutions which unite this archipelago with the mother country.
The immediate truths of that foundation are the greater facility
of communication between the natives and the civil, military,
ecclesiastical, governmental, judicial, and administrative authorities,
and the greater development in the arts and industry, in agriculture
and commerce, and in the participation of the natives in the profession
of letters and of sciences, and in the exercise of authority and
other subordinate charges in the different state offices. Such results
have been preceded by an initial period of most laborious formation,
for, although the normal school had to be ruled from the beginning
by organic regulations adapted to the needs of the region and to the
special circumstances of the time and of the individuals for whom it
was founded, it had to limit its sphere of action to the most reduced
horizons, in accordance with the remarkable state of imperfection
and backwardness of the scholars entrusted to it, and of the little
time allowable for their fitting instruction and education in the
profession of teacher. The perfection of the normal teaching and
of its regulation was left, therefore, for the provision of later
supplementary orders. For, having seen the moral impossibility of its
complete application, according to the ideal demanded of a perfect
plan of pedagogical teaching, it had to be molded according to the
pressing needs of the villages and to the lack of a staff fit to take
charge from the beginning of all the schools of primary instruction
in the archipelago.
The absolute lack of suitable men teachers, with actual experience
in teaching, was the reason for the studies in the normal school
being reduced in the earlier years to supplying hastily the first
intellectual and moral needs of the villages. Those having been
satisfied, the studies required in article 4 of the regulations for the
acquisition of a teacher's certificate of elementary instruction were
completed in three years. But although the resident and day pupils had
to be fully sixteen years old for admission into the normal school,
it resulted that, since the majority of them came from provinces
where they generally cease to attend school after the age of twelve,
the few ideas which they had learned in those schools were already
obliterated from their minds, especially the use and knowledge of
Castilian. Consequently, in order that the pupils might study the
branches suitable for the teaching profession with understanding of
the authors of the textbook, and the explanations of the instructors,
it was indispensable to cause said studies to be preceded by a
preparatory year, in order that the legal qualifications of ability
to pursue their career might be obtained.
At the beginning, the textbooks had to be chosen from among the
shortest and most abridged, in consideration of the lack of development
of the intellectual faculties of the pupils. That produced in due
time the advantage that the new teachers, explaining to the children
of their schools the same authors by whom they had been formed,
afterwards came themselves better prepared to frequent the classes of
the normal school. Furthermore, having left aside the qualification
of the young candidates being sixteen years old, in order to enter the
preparatory class, the halls of this normal school were from that time
filled by the most advanced pupils of the elementary primary schools
of the villages, without any notable interruption in the progress of
their studies from childhood until the completion of their course.
To this spontaneous and natural modification of the regulations,
was due the calling to the teaching profession of the most suitable
and advanced pupils whom the normal school now possesses; and if to
them be added the best students of the practice school who increased
annually the number of the preparatory class, the result is that said
selection must greatly redound to the very great advantage of the
teaching force. It proceeded then to mitigate the harmful exclusiveness
of article 11 of the regulations for the schools and teachers of
primary instruction for the natives of this archipelago, permitting
the exercise as teachers to the scholars graduating from this normal
school of Manila, who had acquired the teacher's certificate before
reaching the age of twenty.