Page 145 - Bahrain Gov Annual Reports (I)_Neat

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The present council of education v/ill be abolished
and a new committee will be appointed consisting of Shias

and Sunnis. This change, which has already been discussed
with both parties, and approved by them, is an interesting

political advance as some years back such a combination in
a matter which concerns schools, in which questions of
religion are involved, would have been an impossibility.
The President, as before, will be Shaikh Abdulla, but the

committee itself will have no power to decide the question
of pay or of appointments of masters. It is hoped that

when these changes are made the condition of the schools
will improve and the public will not feel, as they do now,
that a great proportion of the very large sums that have
been spent on education up till now have been spent with

very little result.
The Shia Schools. The Jaffarieh (Shia) school in Man-

amah has occupied its new building for over a year, It
is managed by a committee, who are mostly illiterate but
influential,under the presidency of Syed Ahmed bin Syed
Aloui, a much respected Bahrain merchant. The Shia Kadi,

Shaikh Abdulla bin Mohomed Saleh, an unexpectedly broad
minded cleric, takes an active interest in its progress

and frequently visits the classes, The teachers are
mostly Irakis as the Shias in Bahrain are even less able
to furnish educated men than the Arabs, never before having
had schools of their own. The progress of the school has

been fairly satisfactory although owing to quarrels among
the committee, and some misunderstanding over the adjust­
ment of the classes, the attendance has diminished lately.

There is a small subsidiary school at Suk al-Khamis,
a centre near several villages, which attended by the chil­
dren of the fellahin. It is difficult to persuade them

to educate their children as from a very early age they