Education

During the Spanish period, schools in the Philippines were used to spread Christianity, and education was directed at the upper classes. The Americans ushered in a new era in education; the objective was now to prepare the people for democracy. A general system of public instruction was inaugurated, and Filipino teachers, supervised by Americans, were placed in charge of the primary level and, to some extent, the secondary level as well. Those with the potential to become good teachers were sent to the United States for further training. Only one institute of higher learning, the University of Santo Tomas, founded in 1611 by Dominicans, pre-dated the American era. A number of universities were established in the first decades of the twentieth century. The state-owned University of the Philippines was founded in 1908 in Manilla. Technical schools and colleges were also begun. The literacy rate in the Philippines stood at 49 percent in 1939; by 1994 it had reached 93 percent. When Pilipino was adopted as a national language in 1946, it was introduced as a medium of instruction in school along with the English language. However, English has been retained as the language of education at the intermediate, high school, and collegiate levels. There has been criticism, particularly among those imbued with strong nationalistic feelings, of the continued use of English as the language of instruction in schools and colleges in spite of the country’s independence from the United States since World War II. But, because English has long been used as the language of government, business, and industry, and is also used by the largest mass media not only within the Philippines but also in foreign countries, it has been retained. Furthermore, most textbooks are written in English even by Filipino authors.

Both males and females have had access to education. During the Spanish regime, separate classrooms for boys and girls and in some instances separate educational institutions existed. Nevertheless, both sexes could obtain formal instruction. Equal access was maintained during the American occupation and continues to the present, though some parents favour giving more opportunities to males than to females. Colleges and universities have gradually became coeducational, and women have entered professions that were traditionally occupied by men, including law, medicine, pharmacy, dentistry, engineering, chemistry, business, and agriculture. The granting of suffrage to women after a plebiscite in 1937 helped them to achieve equal rights with men in all spheres, social, educational, and political. They are able to enter politics, hold government jobs, work in private firms and corporations, and engage in business. Still, there appears to have been a strong tendency to stereotype careers for women and men, even after World War II. The advent of better communications with the rest of the world, especially the arrival of television, has brought more liberal ideas in education.

Critics of the educational system in the Philippines point to what they consider its distorted emphasis. Despite the fact that farming is the principal economic activity, young people do not enter agricultural schools in large numbers. The overwhelming preference is for programs that will prepare them for white-collar jobs. Filipinos are noted for their passion for education. Parents deem it their primary responsibility to send their children through school and to give them the best education, sometimes at tremendous sacrifice on their part. However, graduates do not find jobs commensurate with their professional training, and the educational system fails to prepare Filipinos to cope with the growing needs of the country. A large number of Filipinos who have come to Canada have been highly educated professionals. Their skills and talents are greatly needed in the home country, and their departure has resulted in the loss of the very resource that the Philippines needs most, though it has enriched their adopted country.

Like their counterparts in the homeland, Filipino parents in Canada value education for their children. They recognize its importance for greater economic security in the future. Childen are encouraged to attend college or university to the same extent as their parents did in the Philippines and women continue to have equal access to higher education. Some parents send their children to Roman Catholic separate schools while others send them to public schools. The community has not established its own schools. A study (1993) about Filipino adolescents showed that parents, particularly the mother, play a major role in their academic performance. Filipino girls were found to have better grades than boys and young adolescents (thirteen to fifteen years old) performed better than older adolescents (sixteen to eighteen). The study concluded that girls and young adolescents tend to be more obedient to their parents and are more disciplined in their study than boys and older adolescents. According to the same study, unlike Western society, which views academic achievement as a matter of individual behaviour, the Filipino immigrant group considers it a family issue.