Colonial orientation of the educational system
In 1900, the American colonial government governed the Philippines through the Philippine Commission. By virtue of Commission Act No. 74, the US sent a thousand American teachers (the Thomasites, named after the ship USS Thomas that brought them to the Philippines) to the country; established the Department of Public Instruction; organized normal, agricultural, vocational and maritime schools; and allotted at least $700,000 for buildings, equipment and salaries. The law�s objective was to use education to inculcate a colonial mentality in place of critical thinking and patriotism.
The US sent the Thomasites to propagate pro-imperialist philosophy and culture and dilute patriotic and progressive ideas. To facilitate all this, the Thomasites taught English. They also propagated the idea that the Philippine revolutionaries were bandits and thieves. They sought to make the people docile so they would easily embrace colonization. This formed part of the US military government�s pacification campaign amid the raging Filipino-American war. The University of the Philippines was established in 1908 to develop elitist leaders to serve US political and economic designs in the country. Its curriculum was molded and instructional materials chosen in accordance with the actual directions of US imperialism.
Foreign donations that poured into UP as well as the proliferation of institutions and research projects funded by the US Agency for International Development, World Bank, Leo Fulbright Foundation, Ford Foundation and similar imperialist agencies and institutions all served US monopoly interests. Aside from UP, other state colleges and universities served the same purpose.
Many Filipino scholars and military officers also trained in US universities and military academies. Such was the substance of the decades of US "training" in "self-governance and democracy" received by Filipinos even before the outbreak of the Second World War.
After the US established the neocolonial Philippine state in the form of the puppet republic in 1946, the Philippine educational system remained under its decisive control through international agencies like the World Bank. Suffused with anticommunism and cultivating admiration for the "American way", the US and its international agencies intensified their direction and design of study programs, books and scholarships. An anti-nationalist mentality that ran counter to the people�s democratic aspirations significantly influenced the consciousness of teachers and students. It was in this manner that US imperialism tried to quench the fires of patriotic and revolutionary consciousness among the people.
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