Page 357 - UAE Truncal States

Chapter Eight

all the expenditure became the responsibility of the Office. Sharjah
had then an intake of 48 students for a 3-year course and Dubai had
80 students for a 4-year course. In 1964 for the first time all new
entrants were already literate, which meant that the standard of the
school improved. Specialised training could be carried to a higher
level and a link was established with further education centres in
Khartoum, Kuwait, Bahrain or Beirut and, from 1965, the U.K. By the
beginning of 1969 there were 298 students receiving technical
training in the Trucial States, excluding Abu Dhabi.135 In September
of that year the Trade School in Ra’s al Khaimah opened.
The Development Office did not involve itself in general education,
as this was a field in which Kuwait was particularly active. Since
1954 the Ruler of Kuwait had paid for the construction and running
of schools in the Trucial States. Qatar and Saudi Arabia also
contributed financially to educational projects, while Bahrain helped
by providing some of the teachers who were paid for by the other
stales.

Analysis of British Development Efforts
In the field of education the successes of British development
assistance as well as its shortcomings show up particularly clearly.
Under the strong influence of the British Ministry of Overseas
Development the British Political Agent and from 1965 the Develop­
ment Office faced their task in the Trucial States employing the same
principles as they would have adopted in any other developing
country. They therefore sought to motivate the young to undergo
technical and commercial training, and did not try to create a cadre of
administrators. This order of priority seemed to be correct for a
country with a very small population and the prospect of a rapidly
increasing number of technical jobs with oil companies. Trade was
expanding in the bigger population centres in the wake of the oil
company activities, and it became obvious to the Rulers that it would
be beneficial to their States if students were trained in skills which
would be needed in a booming economy, so they in turn welcomed
and promoted this policy in the Trucial States Council.
The question may be asked in hindsight whether the very limited
manpower should not have been trained to a greater extent for public
administrative careers. Could and should people involved in develop­
ment work in the Trucial States in the late 1960s have foreseen that
this was not the ordinary “developing country", but a country where

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