CHAPTER XXXI. EDUCATION IN PORTO RICO. [The following extracts from the report of Dr. Samuel McCune Lindsay, the commissioner of education for Porto Rico, give an excellent idea of the present condition and probable future of the educational propaganda introduced into the island by the Americans, and of the zeal and energy which characterizes their undertaking and which they have communicated to Porto Rican teachers. The efforts of the American educational authorities in Porto Rico, as elsewhere, have been mainly confined, so far, to the public elementary, secondary, and normal grades of education, the higher (college and university) education being left for the present until the preparation for it has been completed. Some extracts from the appendix of the report are presented in order to give a livelier impression of the conduct of the work, its difficulties, and the steps taken to overcome them, than could be obtained from the official summary of the commissioner. The favorable observations upon the intellectual capacity of the Porto Rican children, which are quoted from the reports of the supervisors, are especially interesting.] * * * Upon my arrival in Porto Rico, in February, 1902, I found a good American system of schools of primary, secondary, and grammar grades in every municipality on the island, one high school in San Juan, and a normal school at Rio Piedras for the training of teachers. These schools were in successful operation under a general school law enacted by the insular legislature, whose provisions were for the most part eminently wise and practical, and did not involve too great a departure from the local traditions of the past, but pointed unequivocally in the direction of the best achievements of the American free public school as we know it in the States. The elementary schools can not be compared, of course, in their everyday output of work with the best city schools of the same grade in the States, but the poorest schools here are fully as good and in some respects better than the poorest of the same grade in very many parts of the United States. The essential fact is that we have the American free public school in every municipality. The territory of the whole island was divided at that time into 66 legally constituted municipalities, which include urban and rural districts. These are grouped into 16 school districts, to one of which the neighboring islands of Vieques and Culebra are added. At the end of the last school year (June 21, 1901) we had 733 schools open, in which 33,802 pupils were enrolled, with 768 teachers, which was an increase for that year of 20 per cent in the number of schools, 37 per cent in the number of pupils enrolled, and 21.5 per cent in the number of teachers. The scholastic year 1901-2 began on September 30, 1901, with 780 schools open, 32,302 pupils enrolled, and $29 teachers; and the school year closed June 20, 1902, with 874 schools open, 40,993 pupils enrolled, and 923 teachers employed, which, compared with the previous year, shows an increase of 19.2 per cent in the number of schools open, an increase of 21.2 per cent in the number of pupils enrolled, and of 20.2 per cent in the number of teachers employed. These figures do not represent the highest mark reached during the year, because the month of June comes in the rainy season and some rural schools were closed. The months of March, April, and May show a larger ED 1902-VOL II- -1 1177 number of schools open and a larger enrollment, reaching as high a figure as 42,187. Nor do the above figures show that the total enrollment from the beginning of the school year, and excluding duplicates or reenrollments, was 59,096, which is the actual number of children in the ordinary public schools at some time during the year. To this number should be added, however, 2,767 pupils enrolled in the high, normal, and special schools, not included in the above statistics, which gives a grand total of 61,863, or 19.2 per cent of the total population of school age, and 6.5 per cent of the total population of the island. * * * We may summarize the school statistics for the year 1901-2 as follows: 1. Total population of the island (census of 1899). 2. Total school population (ages 5 to 18).. 3. Number of school districts in the island.. 4. Number of supervisors in the island.. 5. Number of municipalities in the island.. 6. Number of local school boards in the island. 7. Number of members of each local school board. 953, 243 322, 393 16 16 66 66 5 8. Number of schools open at end of year (boys, 71; girls, 29; mixed, 774; night and special schools, 47)................ 921 9. Average number of schools open each month (excluding night and special schools) 857 10. Average number of schools per district during year 54.5 11. Number of buildings in use for schools at end of year (town, 126; rural, 487) ...... 613 12. Average number of American teachers employed each month.. 96 911 White- Colored Males.. Females Total Males... 15. Average number of teachers per district during year. 556 296 852 40 31 71 596 327 923 57 16. Total number of different teachers employed during year (exclud 17. Total number of American teachers employed during year: 18. Number of pupils enrolled (excluding duplicates or reenrollments), all schools: White Males Females Colored Males Females Total Males Females 19. Average number of pupils enrolled each month during the year (excluding special schools).... 20. Average enrollment per school during year. 21. Average number of pupils per district during year 22. Average total attendance per month per school. 23. Average daily attendance in the whole island during year (excluding special schools) ............... 24. Average daily attendance per school during year.. 25. Average daily attendance per district during year. 26. Total number of weeks schools were kept during year. 26, 669 16, 711 43, 380 11, 265 7,218 18, 483 37,934 23,929 61, 863 27. Average number of days each school kept during year. 28. Per cent of total population enrolled in all schools 29. Per cent of school population enrolled in all schools.. 30. Per cent of enrolled population (excluding special schools) attending daily..... 31. Per cent of school population attending daily... 32. Per cent of colored pupils in total enrollment.. 33. Per cent of colored teachers in total number employed 34. Per cent increase in enrollment from year 1900-1901 (excluding special schools) .......... 3. Proportion of men in teaching force.... 36. Estimated value of all insular school buildings. 37. Average cost of schools per pupil enrolled. 38. Average cost of schools per pupil attending. 39. Average monthly salary of teachers... $229,000.00 $9.42 $14. 12 $40.36 Summary of school statistics for the school year beginning September 30, 1901, and ending June 20, 1902, for high, normal, and special schools. a As all the night schools were not opened at beginning of school year, it is not proper to combine the averages for night schools with those for the other special schools. The statistics for the last school year, ending June 21, 1901, showed but 3.5 per cent of the total population and 10.5 per cent of the total population of school age enrolled in the schools, while for the year ending June 20, 1902, we have 6.5 per cent of the total population and 19.2 per cent of the school population enrolled, so that there has been a steady gain and substantial progress made in the effort to reduce the appalling percentage of illiteracy in the island. How much still remains to be done is readily seen from a comparison with the statistics for the United States, where the Commissioner of Education at Washington, Dr. Harris, reported for the year ending June 30, 1901, that about 21 per cent of the total population attend some public school supported by the taxes of the State or municipality and about 2 per cent additional atfend some private school, while in Porto Rico only 6.5 per cent of the total population attended some public school at some time during the past school year, and probably considerably less than half of 1 per cent attended any private school. For further statistics see statistical report in appendix to this report. |