Page 219 - Records of Bahrain (5) (ii)_Neat

The progress of state education, J939-1941 539

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The Technical School.

One of the brightest spots in Iho Bahrain educational scene was tho
Technical School at Munamuh, which is certainly tho most satisfactory
school in tho island. Its clussos uro small, its tcaohor6 aro oxperts, and
it is providing its pupils with just that kind of training which their future
employers will hope to find in thorn. Wkon l paid a surpriso visit to tho
school, I found overyouo busily engaged, and overytkiug goiug with that
cheerful swing which botokons tho olliciont aud woll-couducted institution,
for these rousons I was all tho uioro sorry to hoar thut only a very small
extension of this sido of Bahrain education is at prosont contomplatcd by
tho Education Bopartmont. In viow of the rapidly increasing technical
developments which aro taking place in Bahrain, 1 fool suro that this is a
•mistake. . Tho Oil Company is employing at good rates of pay hundreds
of foreigners, whoso placos could, and would, bo taken by Bahrainis, if only
tho latter posscssod tho sumo technical qualilioatious as tho former. I
understand that ono of the principal grievances of thoso who aro dissatisfied
relates to this very matter, and if this grievance is a genuine one, is not
tho correct answor to it an immodiato aud substantial increase in tho local
facilities for technical training ? Quito apart from the Oil Company,
tbero ato many local opeuings of which Bahrain schoolboys could tuke
advantage, if only they possossed tho requisite training. Tho building,
plumbing, curpcntcring, forging, fitting, engineering, and olcctrical trades
of Bahrain aro at present in tho hands of foreigners, aud the entrance to
allot them, for local boys, is through tho portals of a technical school.
1 know that mauy Bahrain schoolboys consider it more genteel to work
with a pen in an office, than to work with their hands at a bench or beside
nmachine. A boy who thinks liko this is of courso a fool, but bis folly is
not 60 much bis own fault as thut of his school, which has allowed him to
develop such unworthy ideus. I also know that, owing to shortsightedness
of outlook, very few Bahraini schoolboys cun bo persuaded to “ waste ” a
couple of years ut a technical school—although tho ultimata rewards aro
high—unless they aro puid by tho Government to do 60. Hero again, tho
schools arc to blame, and not tho boys. There is something very wrong
with our system of education when some of the schoolboys have to be bribed
by Hie Government to undergo training which after a couplo of years will
secure them high wages, and when others consider that any kind of manual
work is degrading. What is wrong is a lack of unity and mutual assistance
on the part of tho various schools of Bahrain, and a limited conception of
their proper functions on tho part of the schoolmasters. Wo cannot expect
to havo a plentiful supply of willing pupils for a technical school unloss
thcro has previously been an activo propaganda in favour of it in all tho
other schools, designed to bring homo to tho boys' minds tho enormous
advantage of tho proporly traiued inuu over tho unskilled labouror. Nor
cau we expect a right sense of values in schoolboys unless thoro has been
? r,okt lead from tho 6ohoolmustors. The proper work of a schoolmastor
j? not con lined to tho meohanical teaching of boys from printed books:
hero are othor branches of his cruft, such as tho firiug of youthful imagi-
uithuus, i|10 stimulation of youthful ambition, aud tho fostoring of right
v|ays of thought. The sohoolmueters of Bahrain might, for example, havo
jj^rilwd to their boys how in all tho great countrios of Europo tho sous of
0 submit thomsolves for yours to technical training as ordinary
weehuniej, in great ongineoriug works, in order eventually to becomo skilled
'“Rincon*; and how the sons of tho poor, who lmvo been working all day
employment, go at night with their money to the evening
U00,H buy thomsolvos tho technical training which will onaMo them