Page 146 - Bahrain Gov Annual Reports (I)_Neat

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they work in the gardens.

The Shia schools have not yet been brought under the
supervision of the Inspector, except as regards finance,
this will be done when the new mixed committee is appointed.
The Manamah school has a troop of boy scouts, which is very

popular, they have also a band which was given to them by
some of the local merchants.

GirlsT schools. Only a few years ago the very idea of
female education in Bahrain would have roused furious
opposition. There are still many who disapprove of it.
They say,seriously, as the main argument against it, that

they do not wish their women to read or write because if
they are able to do so they will correspond, privately,
with persons who are not their legal guardians or masters.

Apart from the ultra-conservative faction there is a large
party of more enlightened Arabs, and foreigners, who of
their own accord asked that there should be girls’ schools.

The first one was started in Muharrak, over a year ago,
owes its
its ewn/existence to Shaikh Abdulla bin Isa and partly to
the well known pearl merchant, Mohomed Ali Zainal whose

chief interest is education. The latter by talking to
many of the leading people convinced them that such a
the
school was needed. !7hen it was first proposed,%e Kadi

of Muharrak denounced it in the Mosque at the Friday
service. It is now a flourishing institution.
The Manamah school wes opened this year, in response to

numerous requests. The headmistress is the wife of the
Inspector of Education. She is a fully qualified teacher,
trained in.a college for school teachers in Syria, The

school is attended by Sunnis and Shies and by Indians and
Persians as well as the local people. The lessons consist
of religion, reading writing and arithmetic and sewing an^