Page 424 - Bahrain Gov annual reports (V a)_Neat

K4
THE DEVELOPMENT OF EDUCATION IN BAHRAIN
1919—1936
1919. The Boys’ School at the north end of Muharraq town, which was opened in 1919,
mainly owing to the initiative of H.E. Shaikh Abdulla bin Isa, who in that year was the first
member of the Khalifah family to visit England, is the oldest Government school in Bahrain.
The building of the School was partly financed by public subscription and partly by H.H.
Shaikh Isa bin Ali, the grandfather of the present Ruler, who was then Shaikh of Bahrain.
The pearl industry was flourishing, the country was prosperous and over three lakhs of rupees,
in those days a very considerable sum, was contributed by the merchants for this project.
In a similar manner, some years later, many individual merchants in Manama and in Muharraq
paid for the cost of drilling artesian wells to provide water for the public in the districts where
they lived. To-day, however, when the merchants are more numerous and very wealthy, there
are no such contributions for local or charitable public objects and everything is expected to be
provided by the Government.
The building of the Muharraq School and its administration were in the hands of a com­
mittee of merchants chosen for their financial standing, not on account of their learning or their
experience. At that time few of the merchants had any education and some of the most
successful business men were illiterate. From the beginning the Education Committee was a
target for criticism ; there were doubts about its financial integrity and suggestions of
nepotism in the appointment of staff. One of the first headmasters was an Egyptian, Shaikh
Hafiz Wahba, who many years later became Minister, and then Ambassador, for the Kingdom
of Saudi Arabia at the Court of St. James, where he resided for over 20 years and was created
a K.C.V.O.
A year or two after the first school was built, another school was opened in Manama, in a
building which had been the original home of the Mission of the Dutch Reformed Church of
America. This building now houses one of the Government girls’ schools. Both the M uharraq
and the Manama schools were exclusively Sunni.
Before these schools existed the only education which was available locally was in Koran
schools where mullahs taught small boys, and sometimes girls, to recite the Koran. In a few
of these schools lessons were given in writing and simple arithmetic. Koran schools still exist
but the children who attend them usually go on to Government schools when they are older.
Occasionally, parents who could afford to do so, sent their sons to be educated in Bombay or
Baghdad and some young men, from families which had a tradition for producing religious
leaders, were trained in religion in Mecca or in Hasa or, if they were Shias, they went to the
schools of the Holy Cities of Iraq. In Bahrain, especially among the Shias, certain families
have produced religious leaders and teachers for many generations. A few parents who were
bold enough to defy public opinion had their children taught in the American Mission School
which in the days when government education was still in its infancy, performed a very valuable
service for Bahrain. The Mission Boys’ School closed down when government schools
increased, but the girls’ school has continued till the present time.

1926. In 1926 it became apparent that the education which was provided by the two
schools was scrappy and inadequate. Nobody knew much about education and there was a
tendency for the sons of important people to be given attention while other boys, after spending
several years at school, were still almost illiterate. The Committee, partly through lack of
knowledge, took little interest in education and the control of the schools drifted into the hands
of the treasurer and one of the foreign headmasters, whose nominees occupied most of the
teaching posts. Since 1925 the Government had provided funds for running the schools,
which made possible the opening of two small village schools at Rafaa and Hedd, both places
predominantly Sunni. The Shia community, who claim that about half of the population
belong to their sect, resented the fact that the schools were staffed by Sunnis and that three of
the four schools were in places where few if any, Shias were living.
1928. In 1928 it was decided that a School for Shias should be built on the west side of
Manama. Leading Shias contributed Rs. 5,000 towards the cost of the building ; this was a
small proportion of the amount which was spent on it but the Shias were, and still are, very
much less wealthy than the Sunnis, most of them being the people of the villages. The staff of
this school was Shia, some of the teachers being Iraqis, and it was managed by a committee
of Shia notables.