ONE of the most perplexing problems which the Department of Education
has to face in Porto Rico is the problem of the rural schools. In
addition to a school budget too small to provide the number of rural
schools necessary for all of the children of school age, there are added
difficulties in the way of poverty and sickness among the country people
which lead to irregular attendance on the part of the children, poor
roads, and the keeping of children out of school in order to help earn
money to support the family, especially in districts where child labor
may be used profitably; and above all these difficulties is the great
difficulty of furnishing the rural schools with teachers who are
adequately trained and who have a comprehensive view of their mission as
teachers and of the duty of the school to the community in which it is
located.
The rural school problem will never be solved until we are able to
provide teachers who are thoroughly prepared for the work which they
have to do, and who look upon this work as being as important as any
other profession. At present the rural school teachers fall into two
rather large classes: first, the young, inexperienced, and often
untrained teacher; and, second, the old, often out-of-date teacher, who
has been unable to keep step with the progress of the town schools and
has been pushed out into the country. Neither of these classes is
fitted to give the best instruction in the rural schools; neither of
them considers the position of a rural teacher as a permanent one, and
in order to accomplish his best work the rural teacher should be
expected to live in one community for a term of years so that he may
fully understand and appreciate the problems of that community and
become thoroughly acquainted with the patrons of his school.
The wages of the rural teacher should be such as will enable him to live
in comfort, and as part of his wages the Government might very well
assign him a parcel of land, together with living quarters, which would
tend to make his residence in the district more permanent and which
would enable him to carry on experimental work in agriculture at his own
home.
There is no doubt but that the time will come when consolidated schools
will be established in each _barrio_ for the benefit of the children of
the community. In this way, better teachers, better school buildings,
better equipment, and a better arranged schedule of studies can be
provided, as an untrained teacher who works with poor facilities and who
has to handle two different groups of children in the day and who may
have six grades to teach, is working under a disadvantage which greatly
handicaps the work. This is especially true when the teacher has no
permanent interest in the rural school problem and regards his term of
office there simply as a stepping-stone to a place in the graded school
system of the town. In the annual report of the Commissioner of
Education for 1914-15 we find the following data in regard to the rural
schools of Porto Rico:
"The rural schools are located in the _barrios_ or rural subdivisions of
the municipalities. Of the 1,200,000 inhabitants which comprise the
total population of the Island, about 79 per cent live in this rural
area and about 70 per cent of them are illiterate. At the present time
there are approximately 331,233 children of school age (between 5 and 18
years) living in the barrios. Of these only 91,966 or 27 per cent were
enrolled in the rural schools at any time during the past year. This
shows a decrease from the figures reported last year, but the fact is
accounted for by an order issued from the central office prohibiting
rural teachers from enrolling more than 80 pupils. In some of the
populous barrios the teachers were enrolling 150 pupils and sometimes
more. Inasmuch as neither the material conditions of the school
buildings nor the professional equipment of the teachers justified such
a burden, it was deemed wise, even in the face of an overwhelming school
population for which no provision is made, to limit the enrollment to a
size compatible with a semblance of efficiency. The average number of
pupils belonging during the year to the rural schools was 76,341. The
average number of teachers at work in these schools was 1,243. This
figure includes a number of teachers whose salary was paid by the school
boards from their surplus funds. The corps of teachers for the entire
Island is fixed by the legislature each year when the appropriations to
pay their salaries are made, the commissioner being charged with its
distribution among the various municipalities, but the school boards
may, within certain limitations, increase the number allotted to them
provided they pay their salaries from any surplus funds at their
disposal. The average number of pupils taught by each teacher was about
63. The average daily attendance was 69,786, or 89.7 per cent, which
gives an average of about 58 pupils receiving instruction daily from
each teacher. About 59 per cent of the pupils were boys and 41 per cent
girls. The average age of all pupils in the rural schools was 10.1
years.
"The above figures show, in a way, the magnitude of the problem to be
solved before the people of Porto Rico can assume in full the duties and
privileges of self-government. That enormous mass of illiterates, in its
primitive, uncured condition, is not safe timber to build the good ship
of state. We realize that there are serious social and economic problems
to be solved before the people of Porto Rico reach the desired goal. But
the pioneer work must be done by the rural school. Those people must be
brought to a realization of their condition and to wish to improve it.
The rural school, adapted more and more to actual conditions, is the one
agency that can bring this about. At present, we are making provision
for less than one third of the rural school population. It is as if we
had an enormous debt and our resources did not permit us to pay the
interest on it. The problem calls for heroic measures.
"Of the 1,243 teachers in charge of the rural schools during the past
year, 1,217 or 91 per cent had double enrollment, i.e., one group of 40
pupils or less in the morning for three hours, and another similar
group in the afternoon for the same period. The distribution of time
among the various subjects of the curriculum depends, of course, on
whether the school has double enrollment or not, as well as on the
number of grades grouped in any one session.
"The course of study of the rural schools extends over a period of six
years. Of the 91,966 different pupils enrolled during the year, 49.1 per
cent were found in the first grade, 25.7 per cent in the second, 15.9
per cent in the third, 8.4 per cent in the fourth, and the remaining 0.9
per cent in the fifth and sixth grades. Of the total enrollment 93.2 per
cent were on half time, the remaining 6.8 per cent receiving instruction
six hours daily.
"Any enrichment of the rural course of study has been necessarily
conditioned by the meager professional equipment of the rural teaching
force, many of whom entered the service with nothing more than a
common-school education and a few scraps of information about school
management gotten together for the examination. Up to the present the
academic requirements for admission to the examinations for the rural
license have been limited to the eighth-grade diploma or its equivalent,
and the examinations for the obtention of the license have covered the
following subjects: English, Spanish, arithmetic, history of the United
States and of Porto Rico, geography, elementary physiology and hygiene,
nature study, and methods of teaching. It has been announced already
that in all probability candidates for the rural license will have to
present four high-school credits for admission to the examinations. The
excess of teachers now obtaining and the increasing output of the Normal
School will afford opportunity for selection and will raise the standard
of efficiency of the force. At its last quarterly meeting the board of
trustees of the University of Porto Rico voted to raise the entrance
requirements of the Normal Department from four high-school credits to
eight. In view of this, the Department of Education will probably
increase the requirements for admission to the examinations for the
rural license sufficiently to bring them up to the standard established
by the board of trustees for admission to the Normal Department of the
University.
"The rural teachers are elected by the school boards, subject to the
approval of the Commissioner of Education, who pays their salaries from
an Insular appropriation. The teachers are divided into three salary
classes, as follows: First class, $40; second class, $45; third class,
$50. All rural teachers begin at the $40 salary, and after three years
of experience pass to the $45 class and after five years to the $50
class. Last year all rural teachers received a salary of $38 only, due
to financial embarrassment.
"The rural schools were housed in 1,193 separate buildings, containing a
total of 1,250 classrooms. Of these 1,193 rural buildings, 320 are owned
by the school boards and were especially constructed for school purposes
from plans approved by the Department of Education and the sanitary
officials. Most of the rural school buildings contain but one room,
although not a few have two, three, and even four, the tendency toward
the centralized school growing steadily. In all, 24 new rural school
buildings have been erected during the year. Most of these are frame
structures, but some are built of reënforced concrete and have a very
pleasing appearance."