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<img loading="lazy" src="https://cdn.kahimyang.com/resources/elwell_otis_t.webp"  alt="General Elwell S. Otis" /> 
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(General Elwell S. Otis)
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The Civil Commission, under the Military Government, headed by Judge William Howard Taft, earlier reported:
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 "that in 1897 there were in these islands 2,167 public schools. The ineffectiveness of these schools will be seen when it is remembered that a school under the Spanish regime was a strictly sectarian, ungraded school, with no prescribed course of study and no definite standards for each year, and that they were in charge of duly certificated, but hardly professionally trained or progressive teachers, housed in unsuitable and unsanitary buildings. When the Spaniards came here several of the tribes of the Philippine Islands could read and write their own language. At the present time, after three hundred years of Spanish domination, the bulk of the people can not do this. The Spanish Minister for the Colonies in a report made December 5, 1870, points out that by the process of absorption, matters of education had become concentrated in the hands of the religious orders".
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The American authorities then quickly realized that better educational facilities were indispensable and  were determined to introduce the American system of free, non-sectarian public schools.
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In Manila, which was then practically the only place where the military conditions permitted such peaceful work,  by the direction of General Otis, and to please the Catholics, Father McKinnon, a Roman Catholic Army Chaplain, undertook the establishment of public schools.  McKinnon  was soon succeeded by Mr. George P. Anderson, under whom the zone of school work was gradually widened untill it included several places outside of Manila.
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Captain Todd secured reports and opinions from Army officers in various parts of the Islands and recommended the following:
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That a comprehensive, modern school system for the teaching of elementary English be inaugurated at the earliest possible moment, and that attendance be made compulsory wherever practicable. 
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That industrial schools for manual training be established as soon. as a fair knowledge of English has been acquired. 
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That all the schools under Government control be conducted in the English language so far as in any way practicable, and that the use of Spanish or the dialects be only for a period of transition. 
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That English teachers, well trained in primary instruction, be brought over from the United States in sufficient numbers to take charge of the schools in larger towns at least. 
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That a well equipped normal school be established for instructing natives to become teachers of English. 
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That in the larger towns, a portion, at least, of the school houses be modern structures, plainly, but well and properly equipped. 
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That the schools supported by the Government be absolutely divorced from the Church. If the natives desire schools in which religious instruction is to be given, that they furnish the entire support of same from private resources, but that attendance at these latter schools shall not excuse the children from attendance at the public schools, where English is taught. In addition, the parochial church schools, if such are maintained, shall be required to be equal in character of general instruction to the public schools.
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March 30, 1900: General Otis formally constituted a Department of Public Instruction for the Philippines