Toronto Teachers College - Yearbook (Toronto, Ontario Canada)

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1-- ji' -- Enucimou T-3 in THE PHILIPPINES - L. c. Kui-ioNtA While it is true that I was born and educated in the Philippines, I can not and do not claim to present here an authoritative nor a technical report of the Philippine educational practices. A truly complete work of this sort would take one, perhaps two or even three years of intensive survey and study. I can only give an account from a student's observation in general and from an elementary school teacher's point of view in particular. The Philippine Educational System is largely pattern- ed after the American system although there are still some tints of the old Spanish influence as could be found in some privately owned institutions. There are institutions through the country but the most number are in Manila, the capital city of the country. There are about lO universities and 14 colleges in this city. All schools are under the jurisdiction of the Depart- ment of Education with the Secretary of Education as head. The Public Elementary and Secondary Schools are directly under the government through the Bureau of Public Schools. These schools are, therefore supported entirely by government funds. The state colleges and universities, on the other hand, are partly aided by the government and partly by the students thus they are also partly controlled by the government. The Philippine Normal College is a state college de- signed mainly for the education of future elementary school teachers. lt offers courses leading to the degrees of: Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education, Bach- elor of Science in Elementary Education, Home Econ- omics Major, Master of Arts iM.A.J, Master of Education iM.Ed.J, and the Master of Arts in Teaching iM.A.T.l. The University of the Philippines fthe state universityj is hardly financed by the government. lt is supreme in its educational policies. No one but the dean of each college or department could prescribe what textbooks to use or what methods or subjects to follow except, of course lfor those provided in the Constitution of the land. Of the courses offered in different colleges and universities, the longest to take is Medicine, which takes 9 years to finish. The university is governed by a Board of Regents with the president of the university as the head. lt offers courses in all fields of learning such as education, engineering, medicine, law, agriculture, nursing, mathematics, business administration, social work and the arts. Degrees offered are Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Arts degrees, Master of Arts, Master of Education, Master of Arts in Teaching, Doctor of Philosophy CPh.D.J, Doctor of Education iD.Ed.l. The elementary education is completed in 7 years, 4 in the primary grades and 3 in the intermediate grades. Free compulsory education is only up to the completion of the primary grades. English is the med- ium of instruction except in the first two grades where the vernacular li.e., the dialect in whatever particular region the pupils arel is used. The subjects are divided into broad subject areas, viz. Health and Science lsimi- lar to those offered in Canadal, Arts and Physical Edu- cation, Social Studies lthis includes civic life, history and geography of the Philippines, neighboring coun- tries and the world as a whole with a slant towards the United Statesl, English igrammar and composition, reading and phonics and spellingl, Elementary Math- ematics, Good Manners and Right Conduct, Cgood breeding and social gracesl, and Work Education CHome Economics for girls and Wood Working and Gardening for boysl. There are kinds of elementary schools in the Philippines. These are the public elementary schools fthe one just describedl, the private elementary school and the laboratory schools. By private elementary schools is meant those schools run by private corpora- tions and religious orders, whereas the laboratory schools are elementary schools in different colleges or universities offering elementary education courses. They are called laboratory schools because they serve as training ground for practice teaching, or in-campus student teaching. Students take half in-campus student teaching and half off-campus student teaching. The secondary school is completed in 4 years. The subjects offered are Mathematics ithat is, general math- ematics, geometry, algebra, and arithmeticj, History Cpresent and past account of Philippine and American history plus neighboring countries and current events of the worldl, English lgrammar and composition, and Philippine, English and American literaturel, General Science, Biology, Economics, Physics, Physical Educa- tion, Arts and Music, Character Education, Health, Home Economics for girls and P.M.T. or Philippine Military Training for boys. Each male student has to take this course the moment he enters the secondary school, private or public. Spanish is another subject that was recently added. This is only elementary Spanish, though. Following graduation from the high school, a student may choose to continue his studies at the university and take the Liberal Arts which is a two-year preparatory course. He may, however, decide to take a course other than the university course and thus takes a vocational one. Graduates of public and private teacher institutions can teach in the public elementary school provided they are holder of the degree of Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education, a 4-year course Cexcept H. E. majors course which is a 5-year oneb and have passed a government examination called Competitive Exam- ination for Teachers. All elementary school teachers in the government are provisional or temporary Cin nature of positionsj until they pass another government examination, a civil service examination called, Junior- Teacher Regular Examination, which is given every 4 years. If a teacher passes this examination his posi- tion becomes permanent regardless of the number of years of his experience in teaching. If he does not pass I9

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this his position becomes permanent only after teaching for 20 years, in the public schools. lf he desires to be promoted to a principal's or a supervisor's position, he needs to pass, aside from the Jr.-Teacher Regular, the Senior-Teachers' Regular Examination. The highest elementary school official after the Secretary of Education is the Director of Public Schools. The counterpart of Canada's boards of education are the Some Aspects of Teacher Training in ec eee' W T fll Tobago in Q-.uv-Munn-v.v -vo?-v ----.. Trinidad L. THOMAS Ba: '-'a To the average Canadian the words West Indian ls- lands coniure up the picture of a mass of small islands somewhere down to the south to which the birds mi- grate in winter. To the more knowledgeable it may be associated quite rightly with the word Caribbean , or further still might even provoke the question which island? In my particular case being a Trinidadian, it is the island of Trinidad. When thinking in terms of size relative to the vastness of Canada, it might be humour- ously pinpointed, not as an island or country, but rath- er as a geographical position. After undue consideration one might be moved to ask What is the educaion system like, or more speci- fically, What is teacher training like? To put the matter in a nutshell, l shall try to elucidate, yet in all humility not assuming the pretensions of a knowledge- able scribe. Since education has been chiefly respons- ible for our unprecedented independence, teacher train- ing has quite rightly played a significant and important role. There are five teacher training institutions in Trinidad and Tobago. In order to be accepted for one of these institutions a candidate must have at least the Univer- sity of Cambridge and Oxford Ordinary Level Certific- ate Division ll with at least five credits in different subiects. Normally a person with one of these certific- ates may enter the teaching profession directly, and later enter a training college if he is thought worthy by his head master or principal. Entrance is normally gained on seniority, according to how many years the person has taught, and his overall performance during 20 division offices. Each division office is under a division superintendent. In the division offices are the different subiect supervisors or inspectors. Directly responsible to the division superintendent are the district super- visors. A district is composed of one, two or three towns depending upon the number of schools in each town. The principals and the head teachers are directly responsible to the district supervisors. this time. With respect to the Canadian situation, it would seem quite surprising that a person teaches without having gone to a Teachers' College, and in some isolated cases up to a period of even twelve years! This teacher is called an acting teacher or per- haps a monitor , yet there is a vast difference here. An acting teacher is one who has obtained his Grade two Cambridge Certificate but has not yet been chosen to go to Teachers' College, whereas in the monitor's case the teacher has only passed his Post Primary exams at age fifteen, and is not eligible for a High School education because of age. The Post Primary education is equivalent to a grade eight or nine education in Canada. Whereas the Cambridge and Oxford Certificate classes are similar to a Grade twelve education. On being chosen to go to a teachers' training Col- lege, the student teacher has to sign a contract to work for the government for three years, and if the contract is broken he reimburses the government under pain of prosecution, and dependent upon the amount of time that he has worked after graduation. A situation like this arises, since teachers are paid salaries whilst going to Teachers' College, the salary being the amount of money which the said teacher was earning before entrance. This sum is paid to the student teacher during the period of training which lasts for two years. If dur- ing those two years of training he obtained 54,800.00 then he has to repay the government one third of this sum, 51,600.00 in default payment, having only work- ed for two thirds of his contract stipulation. On gradu- ation, if he obtains the highest marks in the entire college in all departments he is given a scholarship to the University of the West Indies or to a reputable overseas University. The curriculum of these institutions varies slightly, but basically it comprises the three P's, which are Philosophy, Psychology and The Principles of Teach- ing. As regards Philosophy the course deals with the doctrines of the great educators with emphasis on Rous- seau, Pestalozzi, Froebel and Montessori. For The Prin- ciples of Teaching, one studies Methodology, class management, etc., and in Psychology the course deals emphatically with child Psychology. Other compulsory subiects are Physical Education, Health, Science and participation in the College sports which are held annually. Other subjects in the curriculum are Sociol- ogy, Electricity and Magnetism, Mathematics fadvanced