Page 254 - Records of Bahrain (5) (ii)_Neat

574 Records of Bahrain
There is no good reason why technical education should not footer
enterprise, confidence and originality in students of eastern
countries with the suae successful results us in the west.
It will be clear frer/» a study of the scheme PROGRAMME OF
of training proposed fox1 the Technical school ENROIMENT AND
that tha enrolment of students at irregular LEAVING.
intorvals during the year would cause serious
disturbances in the courses of study and training. Classes should
bo formed at the beginning of the Gchool year, and only in excep­
tional circumstances should nev/comers be admitted after the first
two or three weeks of the session. The only advantage attaching
to irregular enrollment i.o that students finish their course at
various times of the year and the school authority is not faced
with the problem of placing a large number of boys in industrial
posts all at one time. It is obvious that vacancies in industrial
v/orko occur only at scattered intervals during the year and cannot
always be Kept open until particular candidates have completed
thoir set period" of schooling.
Under thn regular course system the placing of boys in suit­
able employment need not, however, give serious difficulty. If
the school year ends on dune 30th and examinations or testa have
to be carried out, those could be given early in May. It would
then be possible for any student to take up a post approved by the
School Principal (5 to 3 weeks before tho end of the session, should
his services be urgently required. The summer vacation would give
timo for others to find suitable posts without being subject to a
long period of unemployment. Should all the responsible members
of tho school staff* bo absent together for any length of t:lrne
during the; summer vacation, the school 'employment Bureau' could be
transferred temporarily to the head offices of the Government, so
that students would not be entirely without advice and information
when seeking posts. Finally, those who had not found employment
by tho end of the vacation could return to the school and remain
as paid employees in the workshops until favourable opportunities
arose for their transfer into outside industrial work.
With a school of nominally 100 students carrying out a two-
year course, 50 boys would be enrolled at the beginning of each
school year. Under c. scheme providing, as suggested, for the
.temporary employment of ex-students, and for part-time continua­
tion classes of boys already in industry, the maximum accommoda­
tion of the school would havo to be for 130 to 140 boys, the maxi­
mum attendance would obtain between October and Decomber, that is
when the temporary employment period coincided with the season of
continuation classes. Numbers would fall to a minimum of perhaps
80. by the end of June, when, soy, 20 of the second year students
would already have been transferred to permanent employment.

EK SCIIOOJf PRINCIPAL

The success of the Technical Gchool will depend almost entire­
ly on the ability and personality of the Principal. Unless a man
of the right type is chosen, for this post the whole scheme will
fail in its objects ;:rd become a source of embarrassment to your
Highness' z Government. The problem is not the same as that of
appointing a headmaster in a country which has a long-standing
tradition
- 20 -