Page 223 - Bahrain Gov Annual Reports (IV)_Neat

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GIRLS* SCHOOLS
(Report of Mrs. C. D. Bclgravc, Directress of Female Education.)

Work throughout the year was steady but uneventful. Khadija Al-Kubra (Muharraq old
school) was without a headmistress during the school year owing to the new headmistress who had
been appointed failing to take up her post because of illness. During the latter part of the ycat the
special Mathematics teacher was sent to Muharraq to augment the staff.
Mathematics is, and always has been, a weak subject in all the schools. The advantage of
employing a special teacher for Mathematics was evident when the examinations were held at the end
of the year. The marks of all the students were far higher than before.
One student was given a scholarship for an English school at Baalbek. She passed out of the
6th form in Manamah and entered the 7II1 form at Baalbek. Reports on her progress have been satis­
factory. Some years before the war three Bahrain school girls were sent to the British Syrian Training
College at Beirut, since then no Bahrain girls have been sent for higher education abroad.
In the first term of the school year there were 1,356 girls attending the six schools, at the begin­
ning of the second term the numberof girls had risen to 1,763; but in spite of the increase it was not
possible to accept all the children who applied to attend school. Even if more accommodation was
available in the school buildings it is difficult to obtain more teachers except by enlisting foreigners.
As usual the lower classes in all the schools were very full and the top classes were small.

Medical work in the schools was carried on successfully ; the Health Sister visited two schools
daily and when necessary took children to the hospitals. All students who had not previously been
vaccinated were done.
Fourteen students obtained their primary certificates. It has been suggested by some of the
people of Bahrain that a Secondary School for girls should be opened. It is very doubtful whether
such a school would be supported. Possibly a certain number of girls would, at the beginning of the
year, attend a Secondary School but most probably they would gradually drop out owing to marriage
or because their family thought them too old to go out to school. The standard of school leaving
examination has been raised considerably during the last two or three years and the graduates who
become school teachers are now more capable, but it is still difficult to instil into them the art of getting
their knowledge across to their students. This especially applies in the Kindergarten sections where
the classes are large.
During the year a supply of kindergarten tables and chairs arrived from England and books
and stationery were easier to obtain, which facilitated work.
The needlework exhibition was held, as usual, in the Gozaibia Palace. It was largely attended.
The staff at the end of the second term of the school year consisted of one Inspectress, 12 foreign
teachers and 60 local teachers.

TECHNICAL SCHOOL

(From the report of Mr. Said Tabbara, Headmaster of the Technical School.)
At the beginning of the 1369-70 school year there were 76 boys attending the Technical School
of whom 50 were working on the mechanical side and 26 were being taught carpentry. At the end of
the previous term only 50 boys were attending school. Five students graduated at the end of the term,
three of them obtained employment with the Bahrain Petroleum Company, one joined the Public
Works Department and one was taken on in the Electric Department. Boys who complete their
Technical School training have no difficulty in obtaining satisfactory posts when they graduate.