Librada Avelino

Librada Avelino (January 17, 1873 – November 9, 1934) was a Filipina educator who co-founded the Centro Escolar University. She was the first woman to earn a teaching certificate from the Spanish authorities when she passed her examination in 1889. Continuing her education, Avelino was also certified as a secondary teacher in 1893. After establishing her own girls' school in Pandacan, she was forced to flee to Manila when in 1896, the Philippine Revolution brought troops to Pandacan. Reopening a school in the capital, she operated until the Spain ceded the country to the United States and the educational authorities changed the requirements, implementing English language curricula. To learn English, she agreed to take a post as principal of the Pandacan Girls' School, believing that teaching the language would help her learn it faster. She also took English classes and studied English briefly in Hong Kong in 1901.

In 1907, Avelino joined her friend Carmen de Luna and lawyer/educator Fernando Salas to found the Centro Escolar de Señoritas, a school which organized courses from kindergarten through high school for girls. The school was the first non-parochial institution in the country and based its curriculum on a modern, liberal model, attempting to equalize the education of girls with what was offered to boys. As the school grew, additional buildings were acquired for lectures and dormitories and by 1921 Avelino expanded the offerings to include tertiary, first offering a bachelor's degree program in pharmacy. She was awarded an honorary master's degree in pedagogy by the University of the Philippines in 1930. From 1930, the Centro Escolar de Señoritas operated as an accredited university and was incorporated with a name change to Centro Escolar University in 1932.

Avelino directed the school until shortly before her death from cancer in 1934. There are multiple monuments in the Philippines which bear her name. The Centro Escolar University bestows an award in her honor to Asian women who are recognized leaders. The school which she founded has continued to offer education for over 100 years.

Early life

Librada Avelino Mañgali was born on January 17, 1873, in Quiapo, Manila, in the Philippine Islands, then part of the Spanish Empire, to Francisca Mañgali and Pedro Avelino. Soon after her birth, the household, which consisted of her parents and her father's sister Juana Avelino, moved to Pandacan. Her father, an intellectual, worked in a pharmacy and also operated a store which sold sundries, including fabrics, needles and thread, cigars, and other items. When her father was working at the pharmacy, his sister Juana ran the store. Though her early education began at home, from five or six years old, Avelino, who was called "Ada", was sent to the public girls' school run by Luisa Bacho. This was the first school to offer education to girls and included primary courses in reading, writing, and mathematics, as well as recitation of prayers.

When Avelino was seven, her mother died and about three years later her father remarried to Paula Arcilla, who was determined to have a close relationship with her step-daughter. As Avelino wanted to learn more than was typically offered to girls, Maestra Bacho instructed her in rudimentary domestic science, geography and Spanish grammar, and introduced her to more difficult mathematical studies. She also studied advanced syntax and language with Fermin Raymundo, a local Spanish grammarian, as well as music, including the piano, with Ladislao Bonus. Upon completion of her primary schooling, Avelino moved to Manila to attend the municipal Santa Cruz School, but after one year transferred to the private institution run by Margarita Lopez in Tondo. The school was a preparatory institution which trained girls in the subjects needed for the teaching examination. After completing the courses in 1889, Avelino faced a jury and successfully passed the civil exam for elementary school teachers, becoming the first woman to receive certification in the Spanish era.