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Philippines Historical Background
Many of the Filipinos who led the revolution against Spain in
the 1890s were ilustrados. Ilustrados, almost
without exception, came from wealthy Filipino families that could
afford to send them to the limited number of secondary schools
(colegios) open to non-Spaniards. Some of them went on to
the University of Santo Tomás in Manila or to Spain for higher
education. Although these educational opportunities were not
available to most Filipinos, the Spanish colonial government had
initiated a system of free, compulsory primary education in 1863.
By 1898 enrollment in schools at all levels exceeded 200,000
students.
Between 1901 and 1902, more than 1,000 American teachers,
known as "Thomasites" for the S.S. Thomas, which
transported the original groups to the Philippines, fanned out
across the archipelago to open barangay schools. They
taught in English and, although they did not completely succeed
in Americanizing their wards, instilled in the Filipinos a deep
faith in the general value of education. Almost immediately,
enrollments began to mushroom from a total of only 150,000 in
1900-1901 to just under 1 million in elementary schools two
decades later. After independence in 1946, the government picked
up this emphasis on education and opened schools in even the
remotest areas of the archipelago during the 1950s and the 1960s.
Data as of June 1991
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