Spanish Period

◎ 1595
INTRODUCED FORMAL EDUCATION AND FOUNDED SCIENTIFIC INSTITUTIONS.
Higher education was provided by schools set up by the different religious
orders in the urban centers. However, access to these schools was limited to the
elite of the colonial society. Also, higher education was pursued for the
priesthood or for clerical positions in the colonial administration. Jesuits
founded in Cebu City, the Colegio de San Ildefonso and in Manila, the Colegio de
San Ignacio, Colegio de San Jose and the Ateneo de Manila. The Dominicans also
had the Colegio de San Juan de Letran in Manila

With the enactment of the Educational Decree of 1863, it liberalized access to education, which
provided for the establishment of at least one primary school for boys and girls in each town under the
responsibility of the municipal government.

There were three grades: "entrada", "acenso", and "termino". The curriculum required the study of
Christian doctrine, values and history as well as reading and writing in Spanish, mathematics,
agriculture, etiquette, singing, world geography, and Spanish history. Girls were also taught sewing.