Page 244 - Records of Bahrain (5) (ii)_Neat

564 Records of Bahrain

to the training of boys entering their works. This means that the
Technical School must do more for thoso boys> either before they
loavo the school or during the early part of their employment as
okillod workmen. It must at oily rate prepare them as far as
possible to work independently. Of course, no technical school
can turn out experienced craftsmen and mechanics. Only yours of
practice under industrial conditions can make a man muster of his
trade. The best school can only teach principles and methods,
and provide its students with a certain amount of valuable prac­
tice; it cannot give more than a very limited range of real trade
experience. This is especially the case where, as in Bahrain,
the urgent demand for trained youths makes it necessary to cut
down the period of their schooling to a minimum. There is, however,
an effective method of dealing with this deficiency in technical
school training, as the suggestions set down in the following
paragraph will show.
The requirements of both the Oil Company INDUSTRIAL
and outsido industry could be met by a basic two EXPERIENCE
year course in the Technical School. In the FOR STUDENTS.
case of boys entering the service of the Oil
Company as trade apprentices or probationary workmen, the School
would take no further part in their training. For thoso entering
the Government Service or taking up employment in private concerns,
the School would provide at least another year of supervision.
This does not moan that the boys concerned v/ould necessarily spend
another year in the school itself. In most cases thay would be
employed on building works or in workshops outside, side by side
with' other skilled men; but their progress would bo followed by
the Technical School staff and provision v/ould be male for them to
attend the school at certain times for special instruction. Such
an arrangement is actually u modification of the present system
of sending out Teclinical School pupils to work in the Government
Departments during the period of their two-yoar course. As the
school grows there should be little difficulty in extending this
system of co-operation to private industries. The advantages of
delaying the outside works experience until the third year of
apprenticeship are, first, that the two-year school course v/ould
not lie interrupted by the irregular withdrawal of pupils from the
classes, and second? that outside industry would not be ourdened
with the care of quite immature workers. By delaying their entry
into outsido works boys v/ould be better able to give useful service
in return for the v/oges paid to them as probationary skilled work­
men .

THE PROPOSED SCHEME OF TRAINING

In a te clinical school giving a two-year course Cor TRADE
boys between the ages of 13 and 16 it v/ould be quite un~ GROUPS.
desirable, if not impossible, to give training in tho
specialised work of each of the twenty or more trades listed in
the previous section of this Report. These trades fall naturally
into five groups according to the materials, tools and processes
which they employ, and the scientific principles underlying their
practice. The grouping of the trades is shown .in tin following
table j

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