Page 312 - Bahrain Gov Annual Reports (IV)_Neat

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Teachers’ Training.—The Teachers' Training Class, for students from the Secondary School,
continued satisfactorily during the year. Five of the students graduated at the end of the term anil
were appointed teachers in primary and village schools ; thirteen new students joined the class. The
locally trained teachers compare very favourably with some of the junior masters who were recruited
from neighbouring Arab States. In addition to the Teachers’ Class evening classes were held which
were attended by teachers who had not in their school-days obtained school leaving certificates or
received special training ns teachers. Education has developed rapidly in Bahrain during recent
years and when many of the local teachers were themselves at school no Secondary School or special
classes existed.

Special Courses.—In March, for the second lime, the British Council in Basrah arranged a
week's course in Bahrain for the teaching of English. The course was taken by Dr. and Mrs. Craig
Bennett, Mr. W.K. Keight and Mr. S. Ilakim. The aim of the course was to teach masters and student-
teachers the correct use of the Oxford University English Course books.

In the summer vacation the Faculty of the American University of Beirut arranged a refresher
course at Beirut for primary school teachers from Bahrain and Kuwait. The syllabus of the course
was prepared in conjunction with the British Council authorities in Iraq and Lebanon. Eleven senior
teachers were sent from Bahrain and 30 teachers went from Kuwait. They were accommodated
in the British Council Hostel and took their meals in the University dining-hall. The Bahrain
contingent were well reported on by the organisers of the course.

Higher Education.—At the end of the school year four more boys who passed out of the
Secondary School were sent to the American University of Beirut, two held scholarships from the
Government and two held scholarships from the Bahrain Petroleum Company. There arc now 15
Bahrain Scholarships students at Beirut of whom 13 arc being paid for by the Government, 2 by the
Bahrain Petroleum Company, in addition 5 boys arc there at their own expense. The cost of each
boy. without fares, is about Rs. 6,000 per annum.
Secondary School.—At the end of the term there were 131 boys in the Secondary School,
divided into four grades and five classes, the lowest grade being split into two classes owing to numbers.
Fifteen boys passed out at the end of the year, of these four went to Beirut, eight became teachers
and three joined their fathers' business. The new school was completed at the end of the year. The
possibility of a commercial course for secondary school-boys is under consideration but at present no
suitable instructors are available.

School Hostel.—For over ten years the Education Department has maintained a hostel for
school-boys in a hired house in Manamah. It was an awkward building, consisting of two Arab houses
and not more than 50 boys could be accommodated in it, owing to lack of space, but it was well
managed and there was great demand for admittance. Two years ago it was decided that a new
and larger hostel should be built on a site to the north-west of the Godhabia Palace, on the edge of
the recently developed residential area. It was completed in the spring and was opened by His High­
ness on 28th February. The following is an article which was published in the Educational Supple­
ment of the Times shortly after the opening of the hostel.

EDUCATION IN BAHRAIN
"On February 28th Ilis Highness Shaikh Sulman bin Hamcd A1 Khalifah, the Ruler of Bahrain,
ceremoniously opened a large, new hostel for school-boys in the town of Manamah, the capital of the
island State of Bahrain, in the Persian Gulf. The occasion was an interesting example of oriental
pageantry and western modernity which is very typical of this small Arab Slate.
"The Shaikh, dressed in richly coloured robes, wearing a golden ' Agal * above his embroidered
head shawl, which is the insignia of the ruling family, carrying a sword in a golden scabbard, arrived
in a large Humber car with his pennant llying from the roof, preceded by two Police Officers on motor

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