Page 251 - Records of Bahrain (5) (ii)_Neat

The progress of stale education, 1939-J 941 571

and are employed in industry or in the oahool workshops, Tho
demand for ouch classes is more likely tb oomo from the Stu­
dents themeo 1 voo than from thoir employcro. Voluntary classes
are alwayo worthy of great care and attention on thd part of
tcohnlcal school authorities. It may be found deoiruble in
oo/ne trades, or in the cane of certain groups of studontis, to
institute compulsory part-time clashes for boys who have com­
pleted the normal course. In addition to organising classes
for actual instruction, should this be dosirublc, every effort
should be made by the Principal and staff of the cchool to
maintain contact with ex-students. There should bo an offic­
ial system of visiting boys at thoir work during theiir first
year of outside employment and of obtaining reports on their
progress. Employers and overseers would no doubt welcome
ouch a system and could be expected to make constructive
suggestions as to the school training.

TECHNICAL SCHOOL STUDENTS

Every effort should bo made to raise the stan­ EDUCATIONAL
dard of the Technical School by admitting only in­ standard on
telligent boys who have reached a satisfactory ENTRY.
standard of general education, and at the age of
13 or 14 years. These conditions may seem very'hard, and at first
it 'Will be difficult to find, boys with such qualifications who
ard at all willing to take up mechanioal trades for their living.
It will probably be found in Bahrain, as in moot other parts of
the East, that boys who have] had any success at all in education
look upon manual wOrk as something unworthy of their attention.
Nevertheless* by producing examples of successful careers in
technical work and by active propaganda in the schools this idea
must be gradually destroyed, for the Technical School will never
fulfil its function properly so long as it has to reoruit boys of
low educational standard.
It is still quite commonly supposed that un­ AGE OP PUPILS
intelligent boys arc likely to prove skilful with AND STANDARD OF
their hands, and that really clever boy3 are wus- INTELLIGENCE.
ted if they arc put to manual work of any kind.
Such views are quite contrary to the experience of practical people,
and especially those who are engaged in technical oducatioru To
such people it is well known that skilled work is done best by
intelligent and resourceful persons who ore quick to learn, fruit­
ful in ideas, and capable of building up experience. It is a mis­
take, oven out of charity, to attempt the training of dull and
baokward boys in the major skilled trades, end almost us unprofit­
able to accept any but quite young boys in any form of trade
apprenticeship. Older youths are difficult to teach, and do not
usually enter with enthusiasm upon routine work or the loss pleasant
tasks which constitute so large a part of the daily activities of
most skilled workers* Technical education is the most expensive
of all forms of education, a fact which alone should determine its
otrict preservation for pupils of a high standard of montal fitness.
Many of the present difficulties in the TECHNICAL SCHOOL
rooruitmont of suitable boys for the Bahrain IN RELATION TO
Teclmical School v/ill be overcome when the new THE NET/ SCHEME OF
scheme of general education becomes fully oper- EDUCATION .
utive. Under this scheme a considerable num-
bor of boys at about the ago of 13 or 14 will bo released each year
from the ’second stage' of general education with-no prospect of
continuing
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