Page 219 - Neglected Arabia Vol 1 (3)_Neat

r r NEGLECTED ARABIA

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Our aim should be towards a school of secondary and high school
grades. We should plan to equip boys for commercial pursuits, for
commerce is the direction in which the future prosperity of Kuwait seems
lo iic. Certainly there is no large scope here for agriculture for which
cither rainfall or irrigation would be required. More, however, in the
line of market gardening might be done. Wool is the only local product
that would oiler manufacturing possibilities and these would be rather
limited. The electricity and motor transport which the city is beginning
to use will require a certain number of men with mechanical training.
For the most part such workers have until now been imported. If oil
should be found in Kuwait territory sufficient for commercial exploita­
tion, it is probable that most of such workers would also be imported.
The pearling industry in the Gulf quite properly offers no scope for
I oodem methods. The commercial field is, however, restricted only by
the size of the population. A business training therefore seems to be the
hind our school should aim to give the youths of Kuwait, so that they
guy be able to take all the clerkships that the town offers and also to
conduct enterprises for themselves: There are numbers of businesses
that flourish in other eastern cities which have not yet been established
here and there are many^kinds of European and American goods which
itc without agencies and representatives here, largely because of the lack
of clerks qualified to conduct the necessary correspondence in English.
The emphasis our school places upon English is therefore entirely
iound and whatever success the school has had is undoubtedly due to its
otisfying part of the needs of .the boys. But our curriculum should be
i merged to include the other branches proper to a commercial course.
I These we cannot give with our present staff. A missionary able to give
I goly part time to the- school cannot make the school both large and
joccessful. We may think that we can always maintain a supremacy in
English and decide to be content with our present numbers, which are
About all that our quarters will accommodate. Two of the Arab schools
*re now using the English primers prepared for our Mission schools and
car margin of superiority in English may not continue to be large enough
to offset the advantages presented by the other schools.

Program ok Advance
We now have the opportunity to consolidate our position as the best
Kbool for preparing boys for commercial pursuits. To secure this
jaiition the school needs, first of all, the full time of an enthusiastic
jusionary with some normal training that qualifies him to organize and
ooduct an institution of thirty or more boys. He could have in addition
t Bight school of twenty or thirty young men who would study English. 1;
Secondly, the school needs a suitable building. Thirdly, it requires a
Vjtr budget for equipment. When these are provided there will un­
doubtedly be a larger enrollment which will necessitate a larger staff.'
lhcn we have supplied the above needs we will give the youths of
fowait a satisfactory training for them to earn their livelihood and will
t the same time give ourselves our best opportunity for influencing a
yjcr number of Moslems for Christ in their early and impressionable
ion.
Emtoi's Note: This is one of tho tnany promising lines of advance of which we
lake advantage because our receipts are not even sufficient to maintain the
which has already been established.

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