Education precolonial period

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Education in the Pre-

Colonial Philippines: Origins

of Schooling

Maria Mercedes “Ched” Arzadon [email protected]

Educ 101 “Alternative Learning Delivery Systems”

College of Education, University of the Philippines

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Limited info, privileging “formal

education”

A broader definition of education

View of education beyond “schooling” or the formalized system that we

see in schools

Education that includes knowledge systems and their means of

transmission, indigenous learning systems

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Sa loob at labas ng bayan kongsawi, kataksilan siyangnangyayaring hari, kagalingan at bait ay nalulugami, ininis sa hukayng dusa at pighati

(Florante at Laura)

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Ifugao Rice Terraces – World Heritage

Site

Reaching a higher altitude and being built on steeper slopes than many other terraces, the Ifugaocomplex of stone or mud walls and the careful carving of the natural contours of hills and mountains to make terraced pond fields, coupled with the development of intricate irrigation systems, harvesting water from the forests of the mountain tops, and an elaborate farming system, reflect a mastery of engineering that is appreciated to the present. UNESCO

What the Spaniards discovered

Sophisticated system of counting and

weights and measurement.

Used a decimal counting system

Used mnenomic aids like the runo

counters of the Ifugao in making

mathematical calculations. Sometimes,

shells or pebbles were stacked in heaps

or used with boards like the Sungka to aid

in calculations.

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Mathematical terms (Dr. Tirol)

The Sugboanon Bisaya can already count from sip (zero) to wakat (billion)

They already have native names for many of the stars and constellations

like lusóng (big dipper), butiti (small dipper), amupo (Pleiades), balátik

(Orion), kapanúsan (Venus), etc.

The word padalóman means magnetic compass and dálom means

magnetic bearing.

The Bisayans have 12 terms for wind directions, 17 terms for describing the

wind, and 9 terms for the scale of wind force

Other Bisayan math terms

Altitude—baróg

Area—langyab

Asymptote—ngílbit

Azimuth—dalom-líyok

Bearing—dálom

Center—taliwálà

Chord—talúdtod

Coefficient—pákas

Compass—padalóman

Compute—kalangkálang

Coordinates—tiganós

Cosecant—kaduhábok

Cosine—kalídpà

Cotangent—kalirás

Couple force—santáko

Cubit—manikô

Decelerate—alusáos

Decimal—tinagnapúlò

Degree measure—katágì

Denominator—dagnayán

Density—alindúot

Derive—pagsúhid

Diagonal—láktid

Digit—halítang

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Baybayin / Syllabaries

Miguel Lopez de Legaspi first experienced the linguistic diversity of the

Philippine Archipelago on 1565 (Chirino 1604). In the succeeding years,

Catholic missionaries were heaping praises on the excellences of Baybayin

Language, not hesitating to compare it even to the Hebrew, Greek and

Latin, the prestigious language of the letters and religion that time (Phelan

1924)

With the Philippines possibly as the only exception, writing in Southeast Asia

was in the hands of the elite such as the ruling class, priests, and official

scribes

Syllabary Scripts

Ilocano, Bisaya, Tagalog, Bohol, Bicol, Pampanga, Pangasinan, Hinunoo,

Buhid, Bangon and Tagbanwa

12 known scripts

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Baybayin (mistakenly labeled as

Alibata)

It is a syllabary (one

symbol one syllable).

Other syllabaries are

Hiragana of Japan

and Inuktikut of

Canada /Greenland

Bisaya, Ilocano,

Tagalog, Bikol,

Kapampangan,

Pangasinan

Used Baybayin to teach Doctrina Christiana (1593)

Distorted its writing

Changed the orientation from bottom up to left to right

Changed the axis of symbols. Kudlits which were placed either left or right were

written top or bottom

Included a consonant at the end

When the Spaniards came

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Ama Namin

Disappearance of the native Script

The native script was widely used until the early days of the Spanish

regime. By the end of the 17th century its used was almost non-

existent and by the late 18th century, it was extinct.

The Spaniards ordered documents written in native script be burned

because they were described as work of the devil

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Disappearance of the native script

The native script was replaced by the Latin script, a script introduced

by the Spaniards.

The Latin alphabet was easily learned by the natives. Proficiency in

the new system afforded social and economic benefits.

Use of Latin scripts for land titles

Hanunóo ambahans from

Treasure of a Minority by Antoon Postma

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Buhid urukays from

The Mangyans of Mindoro by Violeta B.

Lopez

Tagbanwan accounts fromIndic Writings of the Mindoro-Palawan Axisby Fletcher Gardner and Ildefonso Maliwanag

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The Laguna Copperplate Inscription

A Philippine Document from 900 A.D. 1989 Laguna de Bay

Antoon Postma (Dutch married to

a Mangyan)

Kavi script (diff frm bayabayin)

Sanskrit, Old Tagalog, Old

Javanese, and Old Malay

Places and chiefs in Manila

Moves the"starting point" of

Philippine history from 1521 to 900

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Trade and Commerce (Alzona)

With Chinese, Arabs, Hindus

Systems of weights and measure – pikul, kaban, ganta, tsupa, dipa

Loans, security, bartering

Shipbuilding, architecture, gold mining, pearl gathering

Barangay – kinship groups

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Indigenous learning systems

Cordillera

Dap-ay and bub-unan - “Boarding school”

Separate for male and female

“Curriculum” –Holistic (family, work, social relationships, spirituality)

A place for disciplinary action on wayward male youths

DAWAK

school of mambunong

Senior mambunong – Lalakay – 70+

Mambunong apprentice

sumarsaruno – late 50s

Mostly male “lalakay” (male elders) an

exception was Lolita who did the

mambunong role but limited to his own

family and immediate neighbors

School of Mambunong or

Village Priest (Cordillera)

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school of mambunong

• Spiritual guide– communicating with Kabunian,

spirits thru prayers, offerings

• Experts of right and wrong, health, prosperity,

relationships, history

• Mentors family host to do mambunong

• Trains incoming mambunong

• Community leader (ancestral domain)

• Mediates conflicts - families

Manursuro - responsibilities

school of mambunong

• Kin member; Nalaing, nasirib, saan nga bartek, haan

nga makibabae, nagaget, respetuen ti tao

• Extent of knowledge about combination of prayers

and rituals;

• Able to remain sober

• Able to interpret dreams, signs, liver/bile

• Able to address difficult concerns (especially burial)

sacrifices accdg to # of family members, schedule

for the wake, availability of mambunong, resources

• Ability to attract people to seek his advise

Qualifications / Source of authority

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state-led schooling system school of mambunong

• Literacy – Listening,

speaking, reading letters,

symbols, stories, literature

• Numeracy /Math

• Science / Ecology

• Social studies

• Values education

• Music/Arts

• Listening, uttering, reading – prayers,

chants signs dreams, stories

• Computing - watwat (meat portions),

calculating needs for rituals, # of days

• Kinds of animals for rituals,

healthy/unhealthy internal organs,

plants for healing, gathering wood

w/o destroying the environment,

means of cooking

• Relating with Kabunian, spirits, kin,

neighbors

• Right and wrong

• Songs, chants (day-eng) dancing ,

gongs

Subject Areas

state-led schooling system school of mambunong

Teachers are appointed and

promoted based on national

system of ranking/point system

(based on educational level, LET,

years of experience,

accomplishments)

• Stage 1: Apprenticeship,

observe/listen/ help in gathering

water, wood, setting the place,

butchering, distribution

• memorization->note-taking->

picture and video shots

• Stage 2: Praying for the wine;

offering of duck, chicken, dog

• Stage 3: Organizing canao,

giving directions re processes,

teaching prayers, join the

council of elders in addressing

special concerns for individuals,

family and community

Transfer Process

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state-led schooling system school of mambunong

New basic education – from k to

grade 12 (free, compulsory)

College/universities – BS to PhD

Evidence of completion - Framed

diplomas, graduation photos

Grade 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13 - Number of

pigs slaughtered for canao -

Grades 1-5 is necessary

Grades 7 and up- the purpose is to

gather relatives from all over

Evidence of completion – skulls of

animals displayed at the doorpost,

promoted to be a

manursuro/teacher

Levels / Evidence of Completion

Context of colonialism

Age of discovery

Political

Economic

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Socialization processes and indigenous learning systems

Child rearing, rituals, learning systems, taboos and other means of social control / reward and punishment

Craftsmen – farmers, weavers, musicians, etc – apprenticeship

Related to evolutionary processes

Origins of schooling

characteristics of mass schooling

All children are required to go to school

Government funding for education (such that education may be free)

Government control of education

Government hiring of teachers

These systems developed in the late 18th and 19th centuries in Western

Europe and later spread throughout the world

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Schools in the Middle Ages

Schools

independent from

each other, each

organized by a

particular teacher

Lack of gradation

of the curriculum:

Mixing of students

of different ages:

ten year olds might

sit with twenty year

olds

Madrassa in Pakistan

Origin of schooling

Schooling is not a natural, universal and inevitable model

Grew up in one place – Prussia (early 18the century) and later Great Britain

and France

Produce compliant citizens of new nation states

meet the need for labor in an industrial society

Schooling was designed to drill students into their future of working in

factories; that many school bldgs, with their imposing facades and high

windows were constructed similarly with that of a factory where grown up

children will spend the rest of lives

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David Hargreaves, formerly Professor

of Education at Cambridge declared

that ‘schools are still modelled on a

curious mix of the factory, the asylum

and the prison’..

Universal fixed and compulsory

From Europe it was exported worldwide through colonialism

1990 World Bank Report: “Through the influence of the UN and other

international agencies, primary school curricula are remarkably

similar world-wide.

Regardless of the level of economic or educational development,

countries now teach the same subjects and accord them the same

relative importance.

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An astonishing uniformity of school curricula worldwide…faced a standard

school math textbook from an unspecified country, even internally

experienced educators find it almost impossible to say what part of the

world it comes from.” (cited in Leach and Little’ s Education Cultures and

Economics” 1999)

“the power of Western hegemony rests on the claims of the superiority,

universality and ethical neutrality of Western math, positivistic science,

technology and education. These claims of Western superiority extend into

social, cultural, moral, political and intellectual spheres.” (ibid)

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Privileging of formal, universalized,

compulsory system ignored /attacked other

forms of learning

Indigenous learning systems

Apprenticeship programs

Home-based tutorials (homeschooling)

Religious education – Madrasah, Sunday school

Education programs for scribes, healers, priests, etc

Village education program/ritual based programs were attacked

“primitive” and ignored

Formalized indigenous ways of learning were labeled as informal or

primitive

In Asia the role of guru and wandering scholar fell largely out of practice

Our task is to recognize, certify and put to use informal, indigenous

knowledge and learning systems