He was referring to the “half-day academic work, halfday practicum” program while taking up his secondary course at the then Central Luzon Agricultural College (CLAC) here.
“I was able to finish my secondary course and went on to higher education because of that program,” said Dr. Romeo Cabanilla, 71, former president of the Aurora State College of Technology (ASCOT) in Baler, Aurora.
Cabanilla, who graduated valedictorian in his elementary course but stopped schooling for four years because of sheer poverty, said a new whole world was opened for him when he was accepted in the then-Central Luzon Agricultural School (CLAS).
That was in 1960 and CLAS was then continuing the unique educational training started in the 1915-1916 school year dubbed “independent student-farmer” program.
Corollary to it was the “practicum-academic work program” that made students work in other projects of the school to earn while they learn.
Entrance requirement
Cabanilla said that as a part of the entrance requirement, he was made to carry a sack of rice weighing 50 kilograms up to a certain distance.
“We were told that the weaklings had no chance of tackling the school’s curriculum,” he said.
He readily breezed through the entrance requirement, was enrolled, lodged in the school’s dormitory, and was introduced to “practicum” in addition to academic works in the classroom.
It was a special instruction requiring certain hours of works during the five-day class works and on Saturdays, he said.
In it, the idea, theories, and principles in shops, poultry and pig raising, rice farming, vegetable growing, fruit trees growing, onion culture, raising fish, and raising field crops as sugarcane, corn, sweet potato, and others were applied in the field, he added.
“The underlying concerns in practicum were learning by doing, development of desirable skills, inculcation of the value and dignity of work and to forestall the ‘white-collar’ attitude,” Cabanilla said quoting from the explanation of the program.
In the collegiate level, a total of six months of works in agricultural projects was required for the four-year course and three months for a twoyear course.
For the boys in the secondary education, the practicum in the their first year level was field work of three hours daily, five days a week, and four hours on Saturdays. Those in higher years, the field works were four hours daily, six days a week including Saturdays.
For the girls, practical work was for two hours daily, five days a week, and four hours on Saturdays.
“We were compensated,” Cabanilla said. “Our pay was based on the classification of work and work ratings – with the highest at 35 centavos per hour of work and the lowest at 15 centavos,” he added.
Other work activities offered were in the botanical garden, livestock projects, poultry farm, fishponds, carpentry shop, blacksmith, operation- maintenance-repair of farm machines, electrification section, rice mill section, vehicles section, building construction, metal smithing, furniture- making, carpentry shop, health services, among others.
Independent student-farmer
In his second year, Cabanilla said, he became a student- farmer following the same practice started in the the-CLAS.
The American superintendent then, wanting to do something more for the students, selected 24 students and placed them on the school’s farm. Paired in twos and furnished with a carabao, farm implements, seeds, rice and a little cash, they were instructed “to live on their own”.
In the program, while one of the pair was attending classes, the other was working on the assigned farm. The school bought their harvest at P2 per cavan.
Thai prince enrolled
That program attracted then Thai prince Mon Raja Vong Anuthavat Na Aythya who enrolled in it in 1920.
“I preferred to work and learn, something useful. Here in the Philippines, which is so much like my own Siam (Thailand), I can learn much that will help my people,” the prince said in his published account then.
In later years, one Manila journalist asked a Thai agriculture official how his country was able to have a highly developed agriculture.
“Some of our key men in our Ministry of Agriculture were graduates of your Muñoz Agricultural School in Luzon,” he replied.
Money saved
“We had a total of 130 farm areas assigned to the student-farmers’ group that time. We lived in a cottage, raised vegetables and picked what the farms offered for our food,” Cabanilla said.
The sharing for the harvest was 75-25 percent in favor of the students, he said.
“When I graduated, I withdrew P200 from my savings in our student bank,” Cabanilla said.
“The amount started me up for my college education,” he added.
He went to finish his master’s and doctoral degrees, became full professor of CLSU, and was elected ASCOT president.
Cabanilla, now retired, is currently the president of the CLSU Alumni Association.
He said he regretted that in later years the students rejected the idea of undergoing the practicum.
“They feel as señorito and señorita (young masters) already. They don’t want to dirty their hands in practicum,” Cabanilla said.
