Hello everyone, good morning, I am here to discuss about did spain help to improve the educational

system here in our country??

We all know na isa ang ang spain sa sumakop sa ating bansa, but meron din itong naitulong sa atin sa
sistema ng edukasyon.

Di ba kaya ang ginamit ni Dr Jose Rizal sa pagsulat ng kanyang nobela ay sa wikang Kastila upang mas
maunawaan ng mga tao kung ano ang gusto niyang iparating at wikang kastila din ang wikang
ginagamit noon.

The Educational Decree of 1863 was an effort by Spain to reform the Philippine colonial education
system. The Decree established a complete system of education in the archipelago--it required two
elementary schools in each municipality (one for girls and one for boys), standardized the curriculum,
and established normal schools, thus making systematized education available to the masses. In the
nineteenth century, educational opportunities opened to a segment of society previously kept under
control by the religious orders through a selective curriculum of rudimentary academics and a heavy
dose of catechism. The colonial logic was to create a cadre of clerks and officials in service of the new,
liberal colonial state, but the Educational Decree of 1863 had an impact that was the reverse of what
Spain intended. The formal system of education created in the Philippines under Spain, even when
unevenly implemented, provided Filipinos with the tools to function outside of colonial rule.

Did Spain try to improve the condition of educational system in the Philippines?
Yes. Spain’s efforts to reform the educational system consisted of these two important decrees on
education: Education Decree of 1863 and Moret Decree of 1870
Significant mandates under the Educational Decree of 1863
✓ establishment of at least two primary school in every town for boys and girls;
✓ teachers were trained at a normal school for men (starting 1865; this made training available for
aspiring secondary school teacher)
✓ government finally supervised public schools;
✓ Friars were assigned to implement the educational reforms; however, they did not agree with the
teaching of the Spanish language; they thought that Filipinos would oppose Spain after learning the
language;

In the Philippines, free access to modern public education was made possible through the enactment
of the Spanish Education Decree of December 20, 1863 by Queen Isabella II. Primary instruction was
made free and the teaching of Spanish was compulsory.[35] This was ten years before Japan had a
compulsory form of free modern public education and forty years before the American government
started an English-based public school system in the Philippines.[2] The royal decree provided for a
complete educational system consisting of primary, secondary and tertiary levels, resulting in valuable
training for all Filipino children and youth.[36]
The Education Decree of 1863 provided for the establishment of at least two free primary schools,
one for boys and another for girls, in each town under the responsibility of the municipal government.
It also commended the creation of a free public normal school to train men as teachers, supervised by
the Jesuits. One of these schools was the Escuela Normal Elemental, which, in 1896 became
the Escuela Normal Superior de Maestros de Manila (The Normal School) for male teachers. The
Spanish government also established a school for midwives in 1879, and a Normal School for female
teachers in 1892, the Escuela Normal Superior de Maestras.[37] By the 1890s, free public secondary
schools were opening outside of Manila, including 10 normal schools for women.[38]
The range of subjects being taught were very advanced, as can be seen from the Syllabus of Education
in the Municipal Atheneum of Manila, that included Algebra, Agriculture, Arithmetic, Chemistry,
Commerce, English, French, Geography, Geometry, Greek, History, Latin, Mechanics, Natural History,
Painting, philosophy, Physics, Rhetoric and poetry, Spanish Classics, Spanish Composition,
Topography, and Trigonometry. Among the subjects being taught to girls, as reflected in the
curriculum of the Colegio de Santa Isabel, were Arithmetic, Drawing, Dress-cutting, French, Geology,
Geography, Geometry, History of Spain, Music, Needlework, Philippine History, Physics, Reading,
Sacred History and Spanish Grammar.[11]
Contrary to what the Propaganda of the Spanish–American War tried to depict, the Spanish public
system of education was open to all the natives, regardless of race, gender or financial resources.
The Black Legend propagation, black propaganda and yellow journalism were rampant in the last two
decades of Spanish Colonial Period[39][40] and throughout the American Colonial Period.[n 3][n
4] Manuel L. Quezon, on his speech for the Philippine Assembly at the US Congress in October 1914
stated that [n 5]
...there were public schools in the Philippines long before the American occupation, and, in fact, I
have been educated in one of these schools, even though my hometown is such a small town, isolated
in the mountains of the Northeastern part of the island of Luzon.[41]
...as long ago as 1866 when the total population of the Philippine Islands was only 4,411,261 souls,
and when the total number of municipalities in the archipelago was 900, the total public schools was
841 for boys and 833 for girls and the total number of children attending these schools was 135,098
for boys and 95,260 for girls. And these schools were real buildings and the pupils alert, intelligent,
living human beings. In 1892, the number of schools had increased to 2,137, of which 1,087 were for
boys and 1,050 for girls. I have seen with my own eyes many of these schools and thousands of these
pupils. They were not religious schools, but schools created, supported and maintained by the
Government (Spanish).[42][43]
Gunnar Myrdal, a renowned Swedish economist, observed that in 19th-century Asia, Japan and
Spanish Philippines stood out because of their stress on modern public education.[2][33]
Ilustrados in Madrid (ca.1890)
As a result of increasing the number of educated Filipinos a new social class raised, which came to be
known as the Ilustrados. Furthermore, with the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 travel to Spain
become quicker, easier and more affordable, and many Filipinos took advantage of it to continue
higher education in Spain and Europe, mostly in Madrid and Barcelona. This new enlightened class of
Filipinos would later lead the Philippine independence movement, using the Spanish language as their
main communication method. The most prominent of the Ilustrados was José Rizal, who inspired the
desire for independence with his novels written in Spanish. Other Filipino intellectuals, such
as Graciano López Jaena, Marcelo H. del Pilar, Mariano Ponce or Antonio Luna, who had also studied
in Spain, began contributing to the cause for Filipino self-government and independence.[44]
Describing this new generation of highly educated Filipinos, Fr. John N. Schumacher pointed out that,
Philippine higher education was not far behind, or, under certain aspects, was even superior to the
general level of higher education in Spain, at least outside Madrid. Perhaps the best testimony for this
is the fact that such larger numbers of Filipino students were able to move without apparent difficulty
from educational institutions at home to those in the Peninsula and establish honorable records for
themselves there.[45]
The Philippines was also ahead of some European countries in offering education for women.
[34] Ironically, it was during the time of American occupation of the Philippines that the results of
Spanish education were more visible, especially in the literature, printed press and cinema.[

Ang kultural na pagbabago ng lahing Pilipino ay batay sa relihiyon. Ang edukasyon ay pinamahalaan
ng mga pari sa pamamagitan ng pagbubukas ng mga paaralang parokya (paaralan ng simbahan) na
siyang naging isang paaralang itinatag sa Cebu.
Ang pagtatag ng mga paaralan ay isang paraan upang maitanim sa isipan ng mag-aaral
ang Kristiyanismo.
Ang paaralang primarya para sa mga batang katutubo ay naitatag lamang sa huling bahagi ng
ikalabinsiyam na siglo. Ang mga aralin ay nakasentro sa relihiyon, bagamat itinuturo rin ang
kagandahang-asal, pagbasa, pagsulat, pagbilang, musika, Doctrina Christiana, at mga kasanayang
nauukol sa pamumuhay at pamamahay. Sinabi ni Padre Pedro Chirino na ang mga Pilipino ay
matatalino; madali nilang natutunan ang wikang Kastila at pagbigkas nito. Madali rin nilang natutunan
ang kahit ano.
Nagtatag din ng mataas na paaralan ang pamahalaang Kastila upang madagdagan ang kaalaman ng
mga mag-aaral. Noong taong 1565 dumating ang mga Agustino, Sumunod ang
mga Pransiskano noong 1577. Dumating sa Marikina ang mga Hesuita noong 1581. Ang
mga Dominikano naman ay dumating noong 1587 at ang mga Rekolito noong 1606.