Today in the Past

Today, December 20, 1863, the Educational Decree is promulgated to reform the educational system of the Philippines. It contains two main provisions; the establishment of a public school system and the founding of a normal school.

The Educational Decree of 1863 established the first public school system in the country. The law provided for the establishment of a public elementary school for boys and another for girls in every town. Boys and girls, therefore, attended separate schools. There was no co-education in the Philippines during the Spanish regime.

The schools established by Spain contributed to the intellectual growth of the Filipino people. In 1843 the percentage of literacy in the Philippines was relatively high. As Sinibaldo de Mas commented: "In proportion, there are more persons who can read and write in these islands than in Spain and in some other civilized countries."

Judged from the present pedagogical standards, the schools founded by Spain in the Philippines were defective. But if we were to consider the conditions and circumstances of the age when they existed, they were not really as bad as biased critics would make us believe. Those schools produced the great heroes, martyrs, educators, scholars, and scientists of the Filipino nation. They were as good as the schools in Spain, and even better than those in Latin America during that age.