Page 144 - Bahrain Gov annual reports(V)_Neat

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The Egyptians are undoubtedly the most highly qualified and experienced teachers in the
schools and with one or two exceptions they have been very satisfactory, but the cost of em­
ploying them is very high and in some eases a European could be obtained on the same terms.
Inevitably there is a good deal of resentment among the local teachers about the differences
in pay and in conditions between themselves and the Egyptian teachers, but the latter are
usually men of mature age with many years of teaching experience and with university degrees.

Teachers’ Training Course. Twelve students graduated at the end of the 1953-54 school
year from the Teachers’ Training Class which is composed of Secondary School students.
Students who complete this course engage to serve as teachers for a specified period but fre­
quently after this period they forsake education and take other posts either in the bazaar or
outside Bahrain. Evening classes for older teachers already in the service who have no special
teaching qualifications, beyond experience, because when they were younger no such facilities
existed, were held throughout the year.

In August 1954 the Director attended a Conference which was held at the American
University of Beirut with the object of considering the best methods of training and providing
primary school teachers for the Arab stales. It is not only Bahrain which is having difficulty
in obtaining enough suitable teachers to cope with the increased demand for education, in all
the Gulf states and in Saudi Arabia foreign teachers are being enlisted owing to the lack of
sufficient locally trained men. The teaching profession is not a popular one in Bahrain though
the salaries which are paid arc equivalent to those which are paid in other clerical posts and the
holidays are very much longer.

Higher Education. Three more boys who graduated from the Secondary School went to
the American University of Beirut, two with scholarships from the Government and one with a
scholarship from the Bahrain Petroleum Company. One student was nominated for a scholar­
ship in Baghdad, granted by the Government of Iraq to a boy from Bahrain. Several boys
were sent abroad by their parents for higher education, to Egypt, Iraq, Beirut and England.
Some have now been at school abroad for several years. Private arrangements made by
parents for educating their sons in England arc not always satisfactory especially in the case of
wealthy young men who live on their own in London attending—or not attending—classes.

Secondary School. The school is expanding rapidly and the six new classrooms were
filled immediately. At the beginning of the 1954-55 school year there were 311 Secondary
School students, an increase of 45 per cent, over the previous year. It seems that a change is
taking place in the age at which boys obtain employment, a year or two ago many boys left
school from the lower primary classes, because their parents wished them to start earning money,
now more of them stay on at school until they are older, which would indicate a more genuine
desire to complete their education and also less need to start earning money earlier owing,
presumably, to the parents being in better circumstances.

As a result there is a greater demand for admission to the Secondary School and it will
probably be necessary in the near future to consider opening another Secondary School in
Muharraq. The first batch of boys who completed the commercial course, which includes
typewriting and book-keeping, graduated in June. Of the students who passed out two
became teachers and the other eight joined business firms in Manama and abroad. The
commercial course has proved a very successful branch of secondary education and graduates
from it have no difficulty in finding plenty of posts open to them.

School Hostel. There were 92 boarders in the hostel at the beginning of the school year
of whom 79 were from Bahrain and 13 from other slates in the Gulf. Mr. Yacoub Quz, a
teacher with over 20 years service in the department, who was for many years headmaster of
the Hcdd School, was appointed as Warden of the hostel. The hostel continued to be the
centre of the Education Department's activities and was used for meetings, lectures and cinema
shows.