Rizal insisted on education as key to social progress and nation-building in the Philippines. He urged the Spanish government to improve education for Filipinos to address backwardness. His own studies abroad made him appreciate how education enables social advancement. Rizal also tirelessly promoted national unity among Filipinos as essential for surviving injustice and developing the nation. He encouraged collective action and sacrifice for the greater good of their country.

1. Rizal’s Role
in
Nation Building

2.  Rizal Insist on Education as the
Instrument for Social Progress
 The Ultimate Means at Nation-
Building is National Unity

3. Rizal Insist on Education as
the Instrument for Social
Progress
A major contribution to the making of the
Filipino nation was Rizal’s insistence on
the education of his people, a social
commitment of any government. He
considered this as a cornerstone of the
reform the country so urgently needed at
the time.

4. Rizal pleaded to government authorities to
take steps to improve the education of the
Filipinos:
We believe, wrote Rizal, that the cause of our
backwardness and ignorance is the lack of
means of education.

5. Rizal advance all possible arguments in
favor of the Filipinos need for Education
Without education and liberty – the soil and
the sun of mankind , no measured can
give the desired result.
Rizal’s appeal for education was not contrary to Spain's
aim at Christianizing the Filipinos. If all it was in support
of this, for a true Christian education calls for the
development of the whole man. Rizal warned Spain
against the possible outcome that may arise from

6. The enriching effects of Rizal’s study abroad
made him see how education could bring
social progress.
Rizal’s desire to share with his people what
he had learn during his studies in Spain,
France, and Germany and his
observations in London and Belgium
became his supreme aspiration.
The noble aspiration was a major step
necessary in national development.

7. Rizal consistently urged his fellowmen to do
everything they could do for the education
of their generation.

8. The Ultimate Means at Nation-
Building is National Unity
Rizal’s greatest contribution to the building
of Filipino nation was his untiring efforts in
urging his countrymen to work together for
national unity, a condition for national
survival.
Any man who refused to fight injustice is
not for the welfare of society.

9. Letter to Rev. Father Vicente Garcia
What shall you say to your God, you a priest of
a religion that has declared that all men is
equal? What shall you say to God who has
hated tyranny and has made human intellect
free when He ask you: “What have done for
the unfortunate and the oppressed?” in what
have you employed your extraordinary
intellegence and your enlightenment?

10. Why have you not followed the impulses of
your heart which has shuddered at seeing
everywhere injustice, ignorance,
abjectness, and sufferings?” What shall
you reply to that God when he tells you: “I
have suffered harsh death for saving men.
What have you done for your brothers?”

11. Elias in the Noli Me Tangere
He showed his mission in hastening
national unity
Alone, it is true, we are nothing, but take up the
cause of the people, unite yourself with the
people, be not heedless of their cries, set an
example to the rest, spread the idea of what
we called a fatherland.

12. December 31, 1891 Addressing the end-
of-the-year banquet to his
companion
Now the Filipino Colony (in Madrid) understand
the advantages of unity. What does it matter,
gentlemen, if we sacrifice a portion of our
freedom, but we offer it in the altars of our
country? What does it matter if we are
deprived of some particles, if this becomes
grains that are kept to be planted and later
harvested abundantly?

13. We, therefore, profess, gentlemen, once
again unity & solidarity among us. The good
and welfare of our country is our motive. Let
us prove to the world that when a Filipino
wills something, he can always do it.
The Filipino youth should wake up and show
the foreigner that we are better than the
have depicted us, that we have conviction
and courage.