The Early Years of Capiz State University Main Campus

Original from Christian's Chronicles blog

Tomorrow we celebrate the 103rd founding anniversary of Capiz State University Main Campus, which was originally established as an intermediate school for boys. While school records show that the founding year was 1917, I have the feeling that it may have actually been established years earlier considering that intermediate instruction was offered along primary education (I guess I need to do more sleuthing here). The Division of Capiz was founded in 1902 with E.F. Coddington as the first superintendent and in the same year the secondary school (present-day Capiz National School) was opened.

The trade school originally shared the same building with the Capiz High School in what was originally the municipal prison (the present location of the Roxas City Hall). The carcel was remodelled for school purposes. The school originally catered to intermediate learners and offered woodworking as the only course.



On August 29, 1918, however, the carcel burned down of unknown cause. The provincial government started looking for a site where a new school site would be built. Luckily, the family of Fortunato Fuentes donated several hectares of land of the southeastern side  of the city, about a kilometre away from the Provincial Capitol and opposite the Mission Hills (where Baptist Home School is located). On two separate hills, Capiz Trade School and Capiz High School Buildings were built with a common athletic field (now Capiz Provincial Park) in between. CTS was awarded a three hectare site and a semi-permanent five-room building (site of the present-day Gabaldon-Library building).

As the years went on the enrolment increased and additional teachers were employed. The intermediate classes ceased as full secondary education was offered in 1929 with Jose Roldan as the school principal and Arthur Wittman as the provincial superintendent. Automechanics was offered the following year and with the  increase of enrolment also saw the demand to construct additional semi-permanent buildings for the automechanics course, which is the origin of the present-day BIT program.