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Chapter Eight

                   all the expenditure became the responsibility of the Office. Sharjah
                   had then an intake of 48 students for a 3-year course and Dubai had
                   80 students for a 4-year course. In 1964 for the first time all  new
                   entrants were already literate, which meant that the standard of the
                   school improved. Specialised training could be carried to a higher
                   level and a link was established with further education centres in
                   Khartoum, Kuwait, Bahrain or Beirut and, from 1965, the U.K. By the
                   beginning of 1969 there were 298 students receiving technical
                   training in the Trucial States, excluding Abu Dhabi.135 In September
                   of that year the Trade School in Ra’s al Khaimah opened.
                     The Development Office did not involve itself in general education,
                   as this was a field in which Kuwait was particularly active. Since
                   1954 the Ruler of Kuwait had paid for the construction and running
                   of schools in the Trucial States. Qatar and Saudi Arabia also
                   contributed financially to educational projects, while Bahrain helped
                   by providing some of the teachers who were paid for by the other
                   stales.

                   Analysis of British Development Efforts
                   In the field of education the successes of British development
                   assistance as well as its shortcomings show up particularly clearly.
                   Under the strong influence of the British Ministry of Overseas
                   Development the British Political Agent and from 1965 the Develop­
                   ment Office faced their task in the Trucial States employing the same
                   principles as they would have adopted in any other developing
                   country. They therefore sought to motivate the young to undergo
                   technical and commercial training, and did not try to create a cadre of
                   administrators. This order of priority seemed to be correct for a
                   country with a very small population and the prospect of a rapidly
                   increasing number of technical jobs with oil companies. Trade was
                   expanding in the bigger population centres in the wake of the oil
                   company activities, and it became obvious to the Rulers that it would
                   be beneficial to their States if students were trained in skills which
                   would be needed in a booming economy, so they in turn welcomed
                   and promoted this policy in the Trucial States Council.
                     The question may be asked in hindsight whether the very limited
                   manpower should not have been trained to a greater extent for public
                   administrative careers. Could and should people involved in develop­
                   ment work in the Trucial States in the late 1960s have foreseen that
                   this was not the ordinary “developing country", but a country where

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