Philippine E-Journals

The Community School and Its Relevance to the Present Times

Mila D. Aguilar

Discipline: History

 

Abstract:

The concept of the community school, pioneered among others by  Dr. Jose V. Aguilar, former Superintendent of Schools in Iloilo, and later Dean of the U.P. College of Education, is characterized by elementary schoolchildren tilling little plots of land in front of their countryside schools. This concept left a deep mark on Philippine education, and should become a historical concern of educators, especially in its use for the present times. For, as conceived, the community school did not only mean getting schoolchildren to learn the farming skills of their parents; it also meant a three-way partnership between teachers, parents, and community in the insurance of a practical education for the nation's children, and the nation's adults as well, using the vernacular as medium of instruction. Can the community school concept be used at present to solve the problems of poverty, unemployment and underemployment, taking into account the possibility that the movement that spawned it may have been regarded as a potentially subversive pursuit?