Page 253 - Records of Bahrain (5) (ii)_Neat

V

The progress of stale education, 1939-1941 573

more acuto in the town than in the country districts. There are
hov/ovor, two important points to consider. Tho first is that the
propo3ed improvements in education in tho villages ohould be
accompanied by incentivea to tho village boyo, one of which would
bo udmi03ion to technical training. The second point is that
villago boyc are likely to prove on the whole more apt'for indus­ i
trial training than those from the town. The Oil Company have
spoken in favour of country men and boye as being more adaptable
to certain kinds of labour, though their experience in this matter •
relates mainly to employees in unskilled and semi-skilled occupa­
tions. Certainly, a good technical school would not be giving
full and fair service to tho State unless its doors were open to
boys from all. parts, regardless of all else but their eduoational
qualifications and'their suitability for the oourses of training*
I noted with interest during my visit to Bahrain that two students
were to bo sent from Kuwait for training in the Technical School.
V/itli a larger and more efficient school, Balirain may be asked to
extend this kind of service, but it will only be possible to
acknowledge the compliment worthily if tho technical training is
accompanied by proper boarding facilities.
Given the necessary building accommodation COST Ob’ BOARDING,
and equipment, the cost of maintaining all tho
Technical School students in a boarding house would not be high.
In Baghdad the cost of X’ood, clothing, laundry, depreciation of
equipment, boarding house servants and various small items of
expenditure, amounts to about £1.8 per student, i>er annum. The
majority of the studentG come from poor families and find the
standard of living in the school relatively high. A boarding house
for ICO students in Balirain.would require ono resident master and
an assistant. The latter might be an ex-student working us a
junior instructor in the school workshops. Tho boarding house
would nood a dispensary and tho regular attendance of a health
official. A cook and two or three servants would suffice for tho
domostic staff, the students themselves taking part in the domestic
work. Although Arab boys have strong family attachments tney
adapt themselves very well to corporate life in a boarding house,
and even look upon compulsory residence as a privilege.
When selecting entrants to the Technical QUALITIES OF
School special interest might be taken in boys ARAB STUDENTS.
coining from families with a craft tradition.
Arab workmen of the artisan class are hardworking, patient and
frugal, and these qualities may reasonably be expected in their
children. It is, of course, most usual for an Arab craftsman him­
self to train one or more of his sons from early childhood in the
practice of his trade, this being an essential feature in the
economy of working-class family life. But it may often happen
that a boy from such a family displays a capacity for education
and advancement, in which case elementary schooling followed by
technical training would produce excellent results for the boy and
ultimately for the community. Officials in the Bahrain Oil Company .
reported very favourably on the aptitude of local workmen for
certain classes of training. They specially instancod tho success
which had attended their efforts to train native welders. Elsewhero
in the East it is common to find boys and men from the poorer
classoa who show similar capacity for learning skilled work.
Generally the Arab workman is not very original or imaginative,
and dooG not reudily take action on hio own responsibility, lie
copies well and carries out orders faithfully, so far as he under­
stands them, but he is a poor designer. It i3 often assumed that
these limitations are inevitable and fixed, but in my opinion they
are the outcome of repression in the native system of training and
will disappear in time when better methods of education have re­
placed the traditional ideas of instruction in craftsmanship.
There
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