Page 270 - Neglected Arabia Vol 2

16 r XliC.LUCTED ARABIA

having sufficient land for playgrounds and a hoarding school, The school
building has six classrooms, a kindergarten, an office, and a large central
assembly room. The kindergarten has sliding doors which open into the
assembly room and give aidadded amount id’ space there tor huge gather­
ings or commencement exercises. With blackboards, electric lights and
gongs, tiled floors and proper window arrangements fur both ventilation I
and light, the building is as modern in equipment as the newest schools at
home. There is a separate room at the back of the school which the girls
use for a diningroom and rest room. The kindergarten has a separate exit
leading out to a garden where there will he special equipment for a kinder­
garten playground, hi the playground for the older girls, which i** at the !
limit of the school, a badminton court has been laid out. We liojie to
increase our playground equipment by swings and see-saws during the
year. The school is separated from the rest of the compound by a reed
fence. People are loud in their praise of the building, and especially
appreciate the seclusion afforded the girls hv the curtained windows and
high compound walls. We cannot adequately express our appreciation to
the Woman’s Hoard for the Jubilee gift, or to Mr. Dykstra for his able
execution of the work. We are eagerly looking forward to the time when
we will occupy the house and we hope for the appointment of a resident
evangelistic worker who will form contacts with non-school children and
their families and thereby increase our enrolment. In December live girls,
two Moslems, two Christians, and one Jewess, will receive their diplomas.
Graduation exercises would ordinarily have been held in June, hut they
were postponed so that they could be held in the new building. The total
enrolment was 83, highest monthly enrolment 78, and highest monthly
average attendance 65. About half were Moslems, the rest C hristians
and Jews.
A survey of our educational work as a whole reveals the fact tu us
that we now have severe competition with other schools in all our stations;
that these, other schools have government and religious hacking and
prestige; and consequently we must aim In make our work intensive, to
emphasize character building, and to capitalize the quality of our personnel
and our Christian motive and message.

Statistics of the Arabian Mission, 1928-1929
Stations ...................................... 5 Received on confession (con­
Outstations ................................ 2 verts baptized) ..................... 1
Missionaries (ordained) ........ Hoarding schools (male)......... 1
Missionaries, men (not or­ Scholars.............................. 20
dained ..................................... 5 Sunday schools.......................... 8
Associate missionaries (mar­ Scholars.............................. 282
ried women) ......................... 11 Day schools (boys’)............. 4
Missionaries (unmarried wom­ Scholars.............................. 364
en) .......................................... 10 Day schools (girls’)................. 2
Native helpers (male)............. 23 Scholars.............................. 128
Native helpers (female)........... 17 Hospitals and dispensaries.... 7
Communicants........................... 8 Patients 72,729