Page 425 - Bahrain Gov Annual Reports (IV)_Neat

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EDUCATION
Boys’ Schools

(From the Report on Boys’ Education by Mr. Ahmed A1 Umran, Director of Education)
Schools.—The annual increase in the number of boys attending town and village schools
was maintained, the usual increase being between 500 and 700 boys. New classes in existing
schools and in the two new schools at Aali and Samahij accommodated the new boys. Several
petitions were received from villages asking that they should be provided with schools; some of
the reejuests were from villages within easy access of existing schools. To possess a school and
a dispensary conveys a certain cachet on a village and in some eases requests for schools were
made partly because neighbouring villages possessed them. The Bahrain Petroleum Company
very generously offered to build and equip three village schools in Tubli, Sennad and Karzakan,
all places where one school could serve several villages. Sites for the three schools were chosen
and at the end of the year the three new schools were under construction. The number of boys’
schools at the close of the year was 15, these included Kindergarten, village, primary and
secondary schools with an attendance of 3,970 boys and a staff of 170 teachers, 131 being
Bahrain subjects and 39 foreigners.

Staff.—The Bahrain and foreign teachers worked harmoniously during the year except in
the old Muharraq school, the first school to be opened in Bahrain, where a group of young
local teachers tried to organise a strike against the Palestinian headmaster. The matter was
dealt with and two of the ringleaders were subsequently dismissed.

The training of local teachers does not keep pace with the expansion of education and it is
still necessary and will be necessary for some time to come to employ a certain proportion
of foreigners who because they are working outside their own country and because in most cases
they arc more highly qualified than the Bahrain teachers earn higher pay. There is much more
lucrative employment in and outside Bahrain than teaching so only a small proportion of the
boys who are educated in the State schools return to the schools as masters.
With help and advice from the British Council authorities in Beirut the Director of Edu­
cation enlisted 24 foreign teachers during the summer vacation. They consisted of Lebanese,
Syrians and Palestinians and ten Egyptians who were seconded for service in Bahrain, some of
them having already served in the State for a number of years.

There was an improvement in the standard of English in the Secondary School due to a
great extent to its being taught by a British teacher lent for this purpose by the Bahrain Petrol­
eum company. During the summer vacation the Company recruited a second teacher to
teach English in the school. This arrangement has given valuable help to the Education
Department.
Teachers Training.—The teachers training class for Secondary School students functioned
fairly well during the year. Ten students graduated at the end of the term and were posted as
teachers in village and primary schools and twelve students joined the class at the beginning of
the following school year. Evening classes for teachers continued to be held. Many of the
older teachers began working before there was a Secondary School and therefore hold no school
certificates. An examination is held after the course of evening classes and a certificate will be
issued which will enable the teachers to receive an adjustment in salary.
Special Courses.—In March, for the third time, the British Council Representative in Basra
arranged a week’s English course in Bahrain It was taken by Mr. L. S. Pearson, Mr. W. R.
Keight and Mr. S. Hakim. The aim of the course was to teach masters and students the correct
use of the Oxford Unversity English Course books.
During the summer twelve senior primary school teachers went to Beirut to attend a
refresher course which was organised by the American University of Beirut for teachers from
Bahrain and other Arab states. The teachers lived in the British Council hostel and had their
meals in the University dining hall. The syllabus was more comprehensive than that of the
previous year. These courses outside Bahrain have a broadening influence on the local
teachers, many of whom have never been outside the State. .