Isabela State University

Isabela State University is a public university in the province of Isabela, Philippines. It is mandated to provide advanced instruction in the arts, agricultural and natural sciences as well as in technological and professional fields. Its main campus is located in Echague, Isabela.MilestoneThe Isabela State University traces its beginning in December 1918 to a farm school – the Echague Farm School, constituting a four-room academic building and a home economics building established through the efforts of an American supervising teacher, Mr. Horatio Smith, under the provisions of the Compulsory Education Act.With ten teachers to run the school, it accommodated 100 pupils from grades five to seven to take up elementary agriculture. Soon after, growth was gradually seen when the 100 enrollees increased to 300, necessitating the hiring of more home economics teachers and a farm manager as was provided by the same provision. Subsequently, more infrastructures were gradually constructed in 1925 to include a modest library building, a granary, a poultry swine building, garden houses and a nursery.More developments soon followed with the conversion of the farm school into a rural high school in 1928. This progress provided for the opening of higher academic levels – the first and second-year classes, and the third and fourth-year classes thereafter. In response to increasing demands for appropriate higher education programs, the secondary agricultural education and home economics courses were made fully operational.The year 1935 brought in another development for the Isabela State University when the Municipal Council of Echague, Isabela withdrew its support from the gradually progressing rural high school. Consequently, the school was transferred to Jones, Isabela where it saw the reverting of its status to a farm school again until World War II.