Knowledge systems and indigenous learning systems Origins of schooling

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Education in the Pre-
Colonial Philippines: Origins
of Schooling
Maria Mercedes “Ched” Arzadon chedarzadon.upd@gmail.com
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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S looOb+ At lbs+ N byN+ koN sw,i
ktksilan+ siyN+ nNyyriN+ hri,
kgliNan+ at bit+ aY
nlulugmi, iiiIniiInis+ s huky+ N dus
at pighti.
Sa loob at labas ng bayan kong
sawi, kataksilan siyang
nangyayaring hari, kagalingan at
bait ay nalulugami, ininis sa hukay
ng 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 Ifugao
complex 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 from
Indic Writings of the Mindoro-Palawan Axis
by 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