Vocational guidance in the Philippine public schools

Title

Language

English

Source

The Philippine Craftsman Volume V (Issue No. 7) January 1917

Year

1917

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Fulltext

GENERAL TOPICS 515 The keeping of an accurate record of students for at least two years after graduation. Providing each graduate with a kit of tools. This proved successful when tried at the Iloilo Trade School several years ago. It will be made a permanent practice in the wood working courses at the Philippine School of Arts and Trades beginning with next year. The tools will be earned by each student, a per centage of his pay for commercial work being deposited with the office each month. VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE IN THE PHILIPPINE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. By Lutiier Parker, Division Industrial Supervisor, Pangasinan. In determining the vocation for which the industrial training of a Filipino pupil should aim to prepare him, the principal matters to consider are natural aptitude and the economic cir cumstances of the individual. A consideration of the occupations of the Filipinos of long ago, may be worth while to those who presume to guide the youth of this country in the choice of their life work, since these indicate the general aptitude of the people. In the earliest European accounts of the Filipinos, mention is made of the pursuits of agriculture, stock raising, mining, fishing, hunting, and trading; also handicrafts such as hat and mat making, the weaving of cloth, and ironworking. The metal worker or “panday” was held in high esteem throughout the Archipelago at the time of the conquest, and one of these, Panday Pira, a Pampangan, was chief cannon founder for the rulers of Manila in Legaspi’s time. The quality of the Menangcabau kris made the Malay conquest of the Islands possible. The builder who, without nails, put together large boats that were known in many Oriental ports long before the conquest, was one of the chief factors in the settlement of the Archipelago, since his labor made navigation possible. The carpenter was indispensable; and the work of the painter remains to us on coffins from prehistoric burial caves. The painter was also the carver, and he engraved the native syllabary on bamboo—a syllabary that bears internal evidence of having been handed down through the early Malayan ancestors of the Filipinos from the literature of India. Weaving was an important employment, and the names of the parts of the primitive loom also give evidence of an Indian origin. The rich embroidery of the Chinese was known in the 145846-----4 516 THE PHILIPPINE CRAFTSMAN Philippines long before embroidering was encouraged by the church. The carved boats and houses noted by the early explorers evidenced an innate love of art in the ancient people of these Islands. The earliest Spanish explorers mentioned paintings on cloth, that were traded in the Philippines for wax and gold. But aside from special individual fitness, the factor that chiefly governs the choice of a vocation is the economic condition of the individual. The consideration of a few statistics will be necessary in order properly to realize governing conditions. Where the statistics taken are for long periods they furnish a comparatively stable basis for calculation. From 1901 to 1916, there have been approximately 125,000 graduates from the primary course, about 30,000 graduates from the intermediate course, and 2,500 from the secondary course. Of the 494,000 pupils enrolled in the primary grades in 1915, about 19,000 graduated into the intermediate course; of the 45,000 intermediate pupils, about 5,700 graduated into the secon dary course; of the 8,300 secondary pupils, about 470 graduated ready for university work. One person in every fifteen of the 9,000,000 estimated inhabitants of the Philippines, is enrolled in the public schools. Of those enrolled about 1 in 30 finish the fourth grade, 1 in 100 finish the seventh grade, and 1 in 1,200 finish the secondary course. From these figures it is evident that the greatest problem in vocational guidance lies in deciding upon the work to be taught the pupils of the primary grades. The relatively small number of pupils above the primary grades, and the fact that they are older and better able to judge for themselves simplify the selec tion of a vocation for those in the high schools and in the univer sity. The most careful planning must be done for the pupils who attend the primary grades for one, two, or three years, since they form the large majority and come from the class that must of necessity do the ordinary work of the country. The brief period during which these children remain in school, and the fact that they will not learn enough in an academic way to prepare them for a vocation, make it imperative that they be given the right start in an occupation or, at the very least, that they be given a desire to learn to do something of economic value after leaving school. Of the 607,000 pupils who attend public schools, about 1 in 31 finish the four years of the primary course. The other 30 are given all the expert direction they ever receive in school, in less than four years. From the very nature of the case, the industries in which they GENERAL TOPICS 517 are given instruction, must be of a manual nature, principally in hand weaving and needlework. The hand weaving most suc cessfully taught in these grades is the making of baskets and coir mats for boys; and hats, mats, and mat products for boys and girls. The needlework that can best be taught girls, is ele mentary lace of various kinds, and simple embroidery. It is essential that as much of the work as possible be taught in the second and third years of schools. The first year, which includes about 268,000 pupils, cannot be seriously considered, since the youth of the children and the short time spent in school, precludes the possibility of teaching many of them enough to be of any commercial value. The same is true, to some extent, of the 115,000 who are enrolled in the second year; although the fact that the industrial grade of a child does not depend upon the length of time he is in school, but upon his size and ability to do industrial work, makes it possible to give commercial train ing of value to a number of pupils of the second year. But the daily program must be so arranged that all pupils take industrial work at the same period, so that they can be divided into in dustrial, instead of academic grades. ■ Pupils who stay in school for three or four years can be fairly well trained to make a living upon leaving school, or at least, to add materially to the family income. Not much can be done in less than three years. Many parents are satisfied with the academic work of a child as soon as it learns to read and write, which it does in about two years; but at present parents do not begin to understand the value of industrial instruction before the child has had two or three years of training. In order to keep pupils in school for three years, it will be necessary so to arrange the courses of study in industrial work as to give the maximum of instruction in the first and second grades, the object being to secure practical results sufficient to induce parents to keep their children in school longer than they have been doing in past years. TEG A LG ON DO—A JAVANESE AGRICULTURAL SCHOOL. By Ernest H. Hespelt, Department Industrial Supervisor, Mindanao and Sulu. Java is, without doubt, the most intensively cultivated island in the tropics. Yet previous to 1912 there was no such thing as agricultural instruction for the natives. After almost a hun dred years of uninterrupted Dutch rule the work of enlightening the vast majority of its thirty million people, who are mostly

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