Page 36 - Bahrain Gov Annual Reports (IV)_Neat

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period was to have been three years but the question of reducing the time to two years is now being
considered. In Bahrain children usually go to school when they are about seven or eight years old
and in most cases after they have been taught the Quran.
Village Schools.—Conditions in the village schools improved. Many of the teachers in
these schools attend special teachers’ classes in Manama in the afternoons. An improvement in
methods of instruction was apparent even in the way in which the Quran was taught. The village
boys took part in games and attended sports events.
A new headmaster was appointed to Budeya from one of the Manama schools where he had
several years’ teaching experience. The school prospered during the term and an improvement was
noticeable. Conditions in the Budeya School arc sometimes difficult, the boys come from Budeya
whose inhabitants are Sunni and from Draaz, Beni Jumra and other Shia villages. In the town schools
of Manama there is no longer any trouble between Shias and Sunnis but in the country there is still
a certain amount of feeling between the two sects.
General.—Sufficient supplies of books and stationery arrived during the year. At the
beginning of the school year the Secondary School received a large proportion of the laboratory
equipment which had been ordered in 1946.
During the spring holidays the hostel boys with their resident masters and the police cadets
went out camping at Budeya.
Sporting events included inter-school contests, a swimming demonstration at Adari and the
annual Sports Meeting, which was held at Muharraq. The chief games which are played are football,
basket ball and net ball.

The Bahrain Petroleum Company continued to show their interest in the schools by providing
six scholarships, three for Technical School boys and three for Secondary School boys, to the value of
approximately Rs. 6,000. These scholarships enable the holder to live at the hostel and to attend the
Secondary or the Technical School.
The total expenditure on boys’ education during the year, excluding Technical education
and maintenance and cost of buildings, was Rs. 5,24,000. This sum was made up as follows

Rs.
Salaries, etc.............................. 3.31.000
Books, equipment and furniture 54,200
Hostel • • 42,300
Transport 9.5oo
Rents 24.400
Repairs to schools 17,100
Higher education 23.400
Miscellaneous 12.400
Religious schools 9.700
Total Rs. 5,24,000

I
GIRLS' SCHOOLS i
r
(By Mrs. Daliymple Belgrave, Directress of female education.)
Owing to the one school in Muharraq being very overcrowded a new school was opened there in
October 1948, this was kept entirely for Kindergarten and infant classes. The pupils in this school
number, at present, 195, all of them being new students. A local headmistress was appointed who
had received all her training in Bahrain, in the Muharraq School. This was the first time that a locally