Some advance has been made since the establishment of the normal school. But there is still much to do, and it is necessary that so crying a need be considered with the haste and decision that this important matter demands.
The establishment of schools of arts and crafts will also be very convenient and useful, and truly they will be productive of great results. Everything which contributes to the propagation of the teaching of industries, to the creation of superintendents and assistants of public works, master-masons, and all that relates to these matters, ought to be encouraged, and must be an advantageous and efficacious blessing to the natives of that country, who are extremely skilful in all the imitative arts and crafts, rather than for the studies which demand the employment of the superior faculties of the intelligence. [157]
GIRLS' SCHOOLS IN MANILA AND THE PROVINCES
There are four colleges for the education of girls without taking into consideration the municipal school of Manila, [158] and the college of Santa Isabel, of Nueva Cáceres. [159] These are the college of Santa Isabel, that of Santa Rosa, that of Santa Catalina, and that of La Concordia, also called college of the Immaculate Conception, all located in the capital of the archipelago. Of all these institutions, the oldest is the college of Santa Isabel, founded in 1632 for the education of Spanish orphan girls by a pious foundation called the Santa Misericordia. In 1650, the first regulations for the government of the same were issued, which continued in force until 1813, when they were revised. The college is supported from part of the interest derived from the Misericordia legacy, administered by a board, of which the civil governor of Manila is the president. It also enjoys a grant of land in Tagudín, province of Pangasinán, by a royal cedula of March 14, 1680, which produces an income of 600 pesos per annum.
Until the beginning of the present century, nearly 13,060 girls had been educated in this institution.
In 1861, the governor-general of the archipelago added the royal college of Santa Potenciana to the college of Santa Isabel. [160] The former was composed of the orphan daughters of military men, and was a most ancient and beneficent institution, founded about the end of the sixteenth century by Perez Dasmariñas. It afforded shelter and protection to the orphan daughters of military men who had succumbed to the climatological influences of this country, or had died in the defense of their country.