Providing for Popular Civico-Educational Lectures in the Municipalities and Principally in the Barrios of the Philippine Islands

May 21, 1908

ACT NO. 1829

AN ACT PROVIDING FOR POPULAR CIVICO-EDUCATIONAL LECTURES IN THE MUNICIPALITIES AND PRINCIPALLY IN THE BARRIOS OF THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS

SECTION 1. In each municipality of the Philippine Islands, where possible, principally in the barrios of the same, popular civico-educational lectures shall be delivered in any of the dialects of the locality.

SECTION 2. Municipal teachers shall have charge of said lectures, the number of which for each quarter shall be determined by the Bureau of Education; and said lectures shall be delivered on non-workdays.

SECTION 3. The lectures shall treat of the rights and duties of the citizen, the Municipal Code and Provincial Government Act, the organization of the Central Government, of knowledge or popular notions of certain common crimes and of any laws which are important in the judgment of the Director of Education, as well as of industry and commerce, especially the mining industry, manufacturing, the breeding and care of animals, and the care and irrigation of plants and trees; and in addition of a varied knowledge of geography and history. cAaDHT

SECTION 4. For the purposes of the next preceding section the Director of Education shall divide and classify the subjects of which the lectures are to treat in a programme which he shall furnish to division superintendents of schools.

SECTION 5. The Director of Education, in determining the number of lectures to be delivered during each quarter, shall likewise determine the order in which private citizens authorized by the local school board shall lecture, without prejudice to such private citizens taking the place of any ex-officio lecturer, in cases of his absence for just cause.

SECTION 6. When there is a sufficient number of teachers for said purposes the lectures in the barrios of a municipality shall be delivered simultaneously on the established days. And when there is not a sufficient number of teachers, the barrios shall be grouped in sections, and each section shall consist of a number of barrios equal to that of the teachers, in order that in all sections lectures may be delivered at one time, according to the established turns.

SECTION 7. The knowledge of the most learned residents of the pueblo may be availed of whenever such residents apply to the local school board for a turn or turns to deliver lectures, which may also be given on the invitation of said board regardless of who the lecturer may be, provided, that his learning and his fidelity to the Government of the United States are known or are guaranteed. HCaDIS

SECTION 8. Municipal teachers are hereby declared ex-officio lecturers.

SECTION 9. When a private citizen applies for a turn or turns in lecturing, or when the lectures are promoted by the local school board, the said board shall assign the subject of his lecture to such applicant or invited person, as the case may be, in accordance with the numbers of the programme determined by the Director of Education.

SECTION 10. The municipal council of each municipality on the recommendation of the division superintendent of schools shall fix the compensation to be received by the lecturers for each lecture delivered by teachers as well as by authorized private citizens, and their traveling expenses shall be paid to said lecturers by the municipal treasurer, out of the school funds, whenever the distance from the house or residence of the lecturer to the place where the lecture is to be delivered shall exceed two kilometers.

SECTION 11. When the municipal president sees that, on account of lack of information on the part of the residents of the barrios they fail to attend lectures, on motion of the teacher whose turn is to lecture, or on his own initiative, he shall cause to be made public, by the town crier and by notice to the public posted in the most conspicuous places in the locality, the announcement for the lecture two days before its delivery.

SECTION 12. All Acts or parts of Acts in conflict with this Act are hereby repealed.

SECTION 13. This Act shall take effect on its passage.

ENACTED, May 21, 1908. AHCETa