Page 432 - Bahrain Gov annual reports(V)_Neat

88
1951. 1951 was an important year for Education in Bahrain. During the year the
Schools Hostel and two new large schools, one for boys and one for girls, were completed, the
hostel being one of the largest buildings in Manama. Situated on the edge of the town it
contained dormitories for 100 boys, masters’ quarters, class rooms, playrooms and a large hall
to accommodate four or five hundred people, built on four sides of a courtyard with a garden
and a fountain in the centre. The Secondary School, to take 300 boys, was close to the hostel
with playing grounds in front of both buildings. The girls’ school was in pleasant surroundings
in what used to be the Municipal Garden, it had quarters for foreign teachers, class rooms on
two floors, space for games and a small open air theatre. In this year a secondary class was
started in one of the girls' schools as the result of requests from students and parents, whowished
for something higher than primary education. Although new schools were opened during the
year and many of the existing schools were enlarged, yet there was still a long waiting list for
entrance into both boys and girls schools.
With the increase in schools the problem oftransport became more difficult. Teachers, both
men and women, who could not of course share the same vehicles, had to be conveyed to and
from schools at approximately the same hour in different and distant parts of the islands.
Attempts to encourage teachers to live in the villages where they worked were not successful,
the tendency being for educated young men to leave their villages and move into the towns
to be near clubs, cinemas and coffee shops, though in recent years clubs have sprung up in
several of the villages.

1953. By 1953 school attendance had increased to 4,500 boys and 2,300 girls attending
28 Government schools, secondary education being provided both for boys and for girls. In
this year three new village schools were opened. They were built by the Bahrain Petroleum
Company, which has always taken a keen interest in the Government’s educational policy,
and presented to the Department of Education by the Company. The teaching staff in the
boys’ schools consisted of 22 Syrians, Lebanese and Palestinians, 10 Egyptians and 136 Bahrain
Arabs.
In the Technical School a new workshop was under construction and a quantity of new
equipment and machinery was bought to replace the equipment which had been obtained
during the war. But in spite of the improved facilities and new courses which were offered,
the number of students at the school remained stationary, at about 75 boys, though the school
could accommodate twice or three times that number. From the time when this school was
opened it has been difficult to attract students although more good openings exist for men with
technical training than for those with ordinary school qualifications, but boys in Bahrain show
little desire for technical training. Even with the incentive of receiving an allowance while
attending the school many of the boys leave before completing the course and obtain employ­
ment.
1954. In 1954 a large new boys’ school was opened in Kozabeia, near the new palace, to
provide for a district of Manama which is rapidly developing into a housing area and additional
class rooms were added to many of the existing schools.
By 1955 there were 7,500 boys in 24 schools staffed by 314 teachers but the supply of
locally trained teachers failed to keep up with the schools’ requirements and the proportion of
foreign teachers was increased. Another development was the introduction of full primary
education in four of the village schools. Two new girls’ schools were opened, one in Kozabeia,
which included accommodation for 18 foreign teachers, and one on the north side of Muharraq,
in a hired house, in a neighbourhood which is rapidly developing. The total number of girls
attending 11 schools was 3,386 with a staff of 125 teachers, the majority of whom were locally
trained. The Technical School continued to have about 75 pupils.

1956. During 1956 the New Education Committee came into being. It had originally
been intended that half of the members should be elected and half should be nominated, as was
the practice in the case of many other committees such as the Municipal Councils. Elections
were in fact held during the politically troubled times which preceded the November dis-
turbances. When the time came for the Government to nominate its members the elected
members, who acted on the instructions of the Higher Executive Committee, objected to the
Government’s choice and refused to sit on the committee unless the Government cancelled the