Page 270 - Bahrain Gov annual reports(V)_Neat

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There are now 4 primary schools in Manama, 4 in Muharraq, 1 in Hedd, 1 in East and 1
in West Rafaa and one Secondary School in Manama where the course is for four years. The
Secondary School contains 40 students and the number will increase each year.

At the end of the year a new school was under construction in West Rafaa as the existing
school was regarded as being too far from the houses of the children.

More teachers were enlisted from Jordan and Lebanon, most of them had higher quali­
fications than those who were previously employed, many of them being capable of teaching
English. A highly qualified head mistress was engaged for the Secondary School. Several
married women, whose husbands were employed in Bahrain, were taken on as teachers, one
being Egyptian, the others Palestinians.
A more elaborate medical organisation was set up. It was arranged that a British woman
doctor, a child specialist, who was living in Bahrain, should work in the schools assisted by an
Indian and two Palestinian nurses. All children were examined and vaccinated and those
in need of eye or dental treatment or other complaints which could not be dealt with on the
spot were sent to the government hospital.

The needlework exhibition was not held in April, as has been the custom in previous years,
because it was thought undesirable to hold it so near the time of the final examinations, for
this reason it took place in December. Some of the older girls have now developed a tendency
to despise needlework and housecraft, which is a pity as both subjects increase their efficiency
in their homes and are to many of them of more lasting value than book learning. These two
subjects are given as lessons and form part of the curriculum and as girls are not allowed to take
their needlework home with them it cannot be thought that needlework interrupts their
homework.

One of the two Government Scholarship Students at the British Lebanese Training College
at Beirut was sent to London by the Government to train as a nurse at the Hammersmith
Hospital. The other girl is still at school.
At the end of the year there were 11 Primary Schools and one Secondary School containing
3,386 girls staffed by 125 teachers. The nationalities of the staff were as follows:—
Inspectress 1 Lebanese
Teachers 18 Lebanese
2 Indian
10 Jordanian
3 Syrian
3 Palestinians
1 Egyptian
87 Bahrainis
l
Clerks 3 Bahrainis
Doctor 1 British
Nurse 1 Indian
2 Palestinian

Technical School
(Report by Mr. Said Tabbara, Headmaster)
Students. The number of students registered in January, 1955, was 75, 23 in the carpentry
section, and 52 in the mechanical section; in addition to these, 12 students for the Bapco
Special Class were attending the school from November, 1954, to April, 1955. At the end of
1955 the total number of students registered was 73, with an additional 15 students in the new
Bapco special class who were registered in November, 1955; this brought the total number
of students attending the school in December, 1955, to 88.