Composed of the early childhood, elementary and the high school departments, its origins can be traced to as early as 1901 when Silliman Institute was founded as an elementary school for boys by AmericanPresbyterian missionaries. In 1916, the first high school diplomas were awarded and way into the 1950s an early childhood school was developed. Over the years, these schools operated as separate units, but in 2001 a merger was made to form the present-day School of Basic Education.[2]