Page 141 - Bahrain Gov annual reports (V a)_Neat

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EDUCATION

Boys Schools
(From the report of Mr. Ahmed Omran, Director of Education)
At the beginning of the 1954-55 school year there were 24 boys’ schools, and the Technical
School, staffed by 282 teachers of whom 93 were foreigners, containing 6,544 boys. There was
an increase in students over the previous school year of 1,084, in the same period three new
schools were opened and a number of extensions were made to existing schools.
Ten years ago there were 9 schools staffed by 76 teachers containing 1,519 boys, including
the Technical School. There seems no reason to suppose that the demand for more education
will abate.
Three new schools were opened during the period under review at Jedhafs, Askar and Jaw,
the first being a village of some size on the Budeya road with several other little villages in its
neighbourhood, the other two places are situated on the Eastern coast south of the refinery.
Jaw is the last village but one on this coast and is a long distance from Manama. In addition
to these three schools during the 16 months under review the Bahrain Petroleum Company
made available for the Government its school building at Zellaq and it also built and presented
to the Government a new well equipped school at Ma’ameer. There are now 80 boys in the
Zellaq school and 125 boys, and a long waiting list, at Ma’ameer.
One of the greatest difficulties in opening new village schools is the provision of transport
to carry the teachers to and from school, always at the same hours. Although local buses ply
between Manama and most of the towns and villages because they work to no schedule they
cannot be relied upon. Teachers, even if they originally come from the villages seem to have
no desire to go back and live in the villages. There is a very strong tendency for young men
who have completed their education to forsake their villages and move into Manama which,
although far more expensive than life in a village, yet provides more amusements and social
contacts. The theory that villagers when they have been educated will settle in their villages
and give their own people the benefit of their education, does not seem to work in Bahrain.

A large new infants school on the road to the new palace in Manama was still under
construction at the end of the year. In Muharraq nine new class-rooms were added to the
infants school on the Sea Road, and the number of students was increased to 671. Six more
class-rooms were added to the Secondary School. The amount spent on building boys’ schools
during the year, which is shown in the P.W.D. budget, was approximately 10 lakhs. In order
to cope with the persistent demand for more schools it will be necessary during the next year
to build schools at Hedd, Samahij and in the Naim district of Manama. In Manama the
Government is faced with the difficulty of finding suitable land for schools as very little govern­
ment land now exists in or near the town.

Staff. The rapid expansion of education in Bahrain necessitates increases in the teaching
staff every year. The supply of local teachers still falls far short of the numbers that are
needed in spite of the efforts of the Education Department to train more teachers. During
two successive summer vacations the Director of Education, with the valuable help of British
Council authorities in Beirut, enlisted a number of foreign teachers and the Egyptian Govern­
ment continued to assist by allowing teachers to be seconded for service in Bahrain. For some
years the Egyptian Government paid half of their salaries but their cost is now wholly met by
the Bahrain Education Department. At the end of 1954 the staff consisted of the following :
Egyptians (most of them in the Secondary School) 15
Indians 2
Syrians 4 .j
Lebanese 26
Palestinians 45
Others 1
Bahrainis 189
!
282