INTRODUCTION

Spanish colonial motives were not, however, strictly commercial. The Spanish at first

viewed the Philippines as a stepping-stone to the riches of the East Indies (Spice

Islands), but, even after the Portuguese and Dutch had foreclosed that possibility, the

Spanish still maintained their presence in the archipelago. The Portuguese navigator

and explorer Ferdinand Magellan headed the first Spanish foray to the Philippines when

he made landfall on Cebu in March 1521; a short time later he met an untimely death

on the nearby island of Mactan. After King Philip II (for whom the islands are named)

had dispatched three further expeditions that ended in disaster, he sent out Miguel

López de Legazpi, who established the first permanent Spanish settlement, in Cebu, in

1565. The Spanish city of Manila was founded in 1571, and by the end of the 16th

century most of the coastal and lowland areas from Luzon to northern Mindanao were

under Spanish control. Friars marched with soldiers and soon accomplished the nominal

conversion to Roman Catholicism of all the local people under Spanish administration.

But the Muslims of Mindanao and Sulu, whom the Spanish called Moros, were never

completely subdued by Spain.

During the Spanish colonial period of the Philippines (1565-1898) most of the

archipelago underwent a deep cultural, religious transformation from various native

Asian cultures and traditions with Islamic or animist religious practices, to a unique

hybrid of Southeast Asia and Western culture including the Catholic faith.

Spanish education played a major role in that transformation. The oldest universities,

colleges, vocational schools and the first modern public educational system in Asia

were created during the colonial period. Education was still in the early stage of

development during the Spanish period. Even by the late 19th century, the Spanish

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language was still unknown to a great majority. They were literate in their own native

dialects.

The Spanish aristocracy tried to distinguish themselves from the Indios with the use of

language and level education.

There was a separate school for boys and girls. The wealthy Filipinos or the Illustrados

were accommodated in the schools. Colonial education brought more non-beneficial

effects to the Filipinos. System of writing during the Spanish regime was Latin

Alphabet.

Educational Decree 1863 the first educational system for students in the country was

established. Provide school institutions for boys and girl in every town. Spanish schools

started accepting Filipino students. The normal school was also established the friars

controlled the educational system during the Spanish times, the missionaries took

charge in teaching, controlling and maintaining the rules and regulations imposed to the

students. The schools before were exclusive for the Spaniards. The Filipinos were only

able to enter the school in the late 19th century.

The problem or the effect of education to the filipinos was only compelled to the friars

influences from their lessons based on the Christian Doctrines or teachings.

One major failure of the educational system of the religious congregations was the

withholding of the Filipinos to learn the other bodies of knowledge. In entirely,

education during the Spanish regime was privileged only to Spanish students. The

supposed Philippine education was only a means to remain colonizers. Meanwhile,

several Filipinos referred to as illustrados may considered one of the most major effects

of education in the Philippines.

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The primary problem of the Philippines during Spanish era is the recognition of the

Spanish crown itself in the legitimacy of settlement of indios in the Philippines. It was

in 19th century when conquistadores were at large searching for new world and society

hence their ‘discovery’ of Americas and islands in Pacific East Indies. The problem in

the Philippines was not experienced by indios (indigenous and native settlers of

Philippines) alone but by other colonies of Europeans. The general problem is that

Westerners’ superiority complex among island natives. They thought natives were

either barbaric or uneducated. They apply their European standard to island natives

which does not really apply. Island natives have their own technology and mechanism,

own set of laws, religion, beliefs, justice system, which does not apply to anyone else.

These whites only thought their brand of ‘education’ as the superior and standard. Thus,

during Spanish era, Filipinas society’s hierarchy were always topped by Peninsulares,

Insulares, and mestizos. Indios and Negritos were below the hierarchy. ‘Filipinos’ then

were only coined to Spanish mestizos - insulares or criollos. Technically, native settlers

are not ‘Filipinos’ because Filipinas was a product of a colonial term. Natives were

‘indios’ then.

That’s the advocacy which Filipino national heroes fought for; recognition of Spanish

crown to indios as equal to Europeans, its colonizers because all men are created equal.

Look how liberal the ‘Ilustrados’ then, they were really ahead of their compadres in the

Philippines in terms of ideology and belief.

The educational system of the Philippines during the Spanish times was formal. The

Religious congregations paved the way in establishing schools from the primary level

to the tertiary level of education. The schools focused on the Christian Doctrines. There

was a separate school for boys and girls. The wealthy Filipinos or the Ilustrados were

accommodated in the schools. Colonial education brought more non-beneficial effects

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to the Filipinos. With the coming of the Spaniards, missionary teachers replaced the

tribal tutors. The focus of education during the Spanish Colonization of the Philippines

was mainly religious education. The Catholic doctrine schools that were set up initially

became parochial schools which taught reading and writing along with catechism. The

first educational system for students in the country was established by virtue of the

Education Decree of 1863. This educational decree mandated the establishment of

free primary schools in each town, one for boys and one for girls, with the precise

number of schools depending on the size of the population.

There were 3 grades: Entrada, acenso, and termino.

The curriculum required the study of Christian doctrine, values and history as well as

reading and writing in Spanish, mathematics, agriculture, etiquette, singing, world

geography, and Spanish history. Girls were also taught sewing. As a consequence, the

Spanish schools started accepting Filipino students. It was during this time when the

intellectual Filipinos emerged. The Normal School, run by the Jesuits, was also

established which gave men the opportunity to study a three-year teacher education for

the primary level. Normal schools for women teachers were not established until 1875,

in Nueva Caceres. Despite the Decree of 1863, basic education in the Philippines

remained inadequate for the rest of the Spanish period. Often, there were not enough

schools built. Teachers tended to use corporal punishment. The friars exercised control

over the schools and their teachers and obstructed attempts to properly educate the

masses, as they considered widespread secular education to be a threat to their hold

over the population. The schools were often poorly equipped, lacking the desks, chairs,

and writing materials that they were required to have under the decree. Though classes

were supposed to be held from 7-10 am and 2:30-5 pm throughout the year, schools

were often empty. Children skipped school to help with planting and harvesting or even

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because their clothes were ragged. For higher education, there were a few reputable

private institutions such as the University of Santo Tomas, Colegio de San Juan de

Letran and Ateneo Municipal. Though initially an institute of higher education, UST

was required by an 1865 decree to open public secondary schools. After the Spanish

colonial government was overthrown, the schools established during the Spanish era

were closed down for a time by Emilio Aguinaldo.

Under Spanish rule there were established in these islands a system of primary schools.

The Spanish regulations provided that there should be one male and one female primary

school teacher for each 5,000 inhabitants. It is clearly shown in the report of the first

Philippine Commission that even this inadequate provision was never carried out. They

say: "Taking the entire population at 8,000,000, we find that there is but one teacher to

each 4,179 inhabitants." There were no schoolhouses, no modern furniture, and, until

the Americans came, there were no good textbooks. The schools were and are now held

in the residences of the teachers, or in buildings hired by the municipalities and used by

the principals as dwellings. In some of the schools there were wooden benches and

tables, but it was not at all unusual to find a school without any seats for the pupils. In

these primary schools, reading, writing, sacred history, and the catechism were taught.

Except in a very few towns, the four elementary arithmetical processes were attempted,

and in a few towns a book on geography was used as a reading book. Girls were taught

embroidery and needlework. From the beginning the schools were entirely under the

supervision of the religious orders, who were disposed to emphasize secondary and

higher education for a few pupils rather than to further and promote the primary

education of the masses. The result of this policy is that a few persons have stood out

prominently as educated Filipinos, while the great mass of people have either not been

educated at all or furnished only the rudiments of knowledge, acquiring merely the

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mechanical processes of reading and writing. The little school instruction the average

Filipino has had has not tended to broaden his intelligence or to give him power of

independent thought. One observes in the schools a tendency on the part of the pupils

to give back, like phonographs, what they have heard or read or memorized, without

seeming to have thought for themselves. As a rule, they possess mechanical skill, and

they excel in writing and drawing. The Spaniards made very little use of this peculiar

capacity. It is stated on good authority that when the Spaniards came here several of the

tribes of the Philippine Islands could read and write their own language. At the present

time, after three hundred years of Spanish domination, the bulk of the people cannot do

his. The Spanish minister for the colonies, in a report made December 5, 1870, points

out that, by the process of absorption, matters of education had become concentrated in

the hands of the religious orders. He says: "While every acknowledgement should be

made of their services in earlier times, their narrow, exclusively religious system of

education, and their imperviousness to modern or external ideas and influences, which

every day become more and more evident, rendered secularization of instruction

necessary."

It has been stated that in 1897 here were in these islands 2,167 public schools. The

ineffectiveness of these schools will be seen when it is remembered that a school under

the Spanish regime was a strictly sectarian, ungraded school, with no prescribed course

of study and no definite standards for each year, and that they were in charge of duly

certificated but hardly professionally trained or progressive teachers, housed in

unsuitable and unsanitary buildings. The schools maintained by Spain were closed and

in many cases looted and badly damaged during the Spanish-American war and

the Philippine Revolution.

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CONCLUSION

Prior to Spain’s colonization of the Philippines the country was a ere geographical

expression. It consisted of independent and self-governing barangays, peopled by

diverse tribes. It was Spain that gave the country its identity. The country came to be

known as Philippines due to Spain’s three centuries of colonial administration. The

political condition in the Philippines and state. The friars, like the government officials,

exercised political, economic and other non-spiritual powers. They controlled the

educational system as well as the collection of taxes and the conscription o natives into

the army. The Spaniards introduced us the education they are the first one who taught

us to write and read, they established almost all of the universities that known here in

the Philippines like Colegio de San Juan de Letran, University of Santo Tomas and

Ateneo Municipal. There are positive and negative impact of the colonialization of

Spain he negative is they took advantage of the Filipinos in education because even if

they introduced us the education only the illustrados or the wealthy are capable or

accommodated in schools before the education degree of 1563. So intensive was so

called friar interference in the country that in the 19th century, Filipino propagandists

demanded their expulsion.

REFERENCES

https://www.scribd.com/doc/78332892/Spanish-Influence-on-the-Philippine-

Educational-System

https://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/1197/Philippines-HISTORY-

BACKGROUND.html

https://www.slideshare.net/ijennaMel/education-in-spanish-era

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