Spanish educational policy in the Philippine Islands

The educational policy pursued in all Spanish colonies remained almost exclusively in the hands of the Catholic church and the religious orders until 1863. Prior to that time no effort was made by the Spanish government to establish a system of public schools. The religious made no attempt to unite their schools into a system or to follow any set pattern. The type of school maintained depended upon the individual representatives of the church, on the order, and upon local conditions. When education has been carried on under such conditions, it is naturally very difficult to arrive at definite conclusions as to what was taught--how it was taught--and with what results. For a knowledge of what the civil authorities required to be taught in the Philippine schools, there is available in the Library of Congress a compilation by Daniel Grifol y Aliaga of all the Spanish laws pertaining to primary education. The most important of these laws are available to the student in the extensive work entitled The Philippine Islands, translated and edited by Emma Helen Blair and James A. Robertson. The best available sources of information as to early conditions in the Philippines, what was actually taught in the early schools, and the progress made in imparting western culture to the Filipinos, are the accounts of the religious and the official correspondence of the civil authoritiesHistor