Page 146 - Bahrain Gov annual reports(V)_Neat

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Girls’ Schools
(Report by Lady Bclgravc, Directress of Girls' Education)

No new schools were opened during the period under review but additional classes were
added to existing schools. A new school in Qudhabia, on the western side of Manama, should
have been opened in September 1954 but for various reasons there were delays in starting work
on the building and by the end of the year it was still a long way from being ready.

At the end of 1373 there were 2,313 students in the schools of which 1,107 were in Manama,
S43 in Muharraq, 170 in Hedd, 120 in East Rafaa and 63 in West Rafaa. There were a number
of girls waiting to be admitted to schools in Manama where there is more demand for education
than in the other towns. In most schools it has been possible to avoid too many children being
in one class but in Rafaa and Hedd there were two classes containing as many as 45 children.
This is not a satisfactory arrangement as a teacher cannot give individual attention to children
in classes of this size.
A number of parents asked that their small boys might be allowed to come to school with
their sisters and a limited number were allowed to do so. In this way a mixed kindergarten is
starting as is always the custom in Europe.
Another girl was granted a scholarship to the British-Syrian-Lebanese Training College
in Beriut and although all the teaching is in English she was successful in entering the correct
class according to her grade in Bahrain. Good reports on her progress are being received.
There are now two girls from Bahrain at this school. It is still difficult to persuade parents to
allow their daughters to go abroad for higher education, even at the Government’s expense.

Each year another class is added to the Secondary School and by the beginning of next
year there should be the full four years course. It is proposed that as soon as possible this
school should be established in a separate building.
Now that more students are coming up into the higher classes the benefit is apparent of the
strictness in examinations in which no students with a low percentage of marks is allowed to
pass. During the year less time was allocated to needlework in the higher classes but the
quality of the work continued to be extremely high. Girls are not allowed to take their work
home unless they bring letters from their parents asking that they may do so. This step was
taken because there were complaints in some quarters that the girls spent all their time doing
needlework.
The medical work was carried out steadily, an Indian nurse visited schools daily. Children
who require medical attention are sent to the hospital in a bus each morning but this sytem is
wasteful of both teachers and doctors time and better arrangements are now under consideration.

All children who had not previously been vaccinated were vaccinated.

Technical School
(From the report of Mr. Said Tabbara, Headmaster of the Technical School)
At the beginning of 1954 there were 83 students in the school, 50 were in the mechanical
section, 20 were in the carpentry section and 13 attended the special Bapco Class ; at the end
of 1954 the number increased to 89.
Many more students could be taken into the School but unfortunately, since this School
was first started, boys have shown a disinclination for technical training and a reluctance to
enter the School. In Bahrain to-day there arc excellent prospects for young men who have
been trained in engineering, carpentry, welding, motor engineering, and the other technical
subjects which arc taught at the School. Boys with Technical School certificates can, and do,
obtain eood posts both in Bahrain and abroad and it is only because there is such a shortage
of men with these qualifications that many of the merchants in the bazaar, garage owners,
carpenters and people with large workshops arc compelled to bring into Bahrain foreigner