Page 306 - Bahrain Gov Annual Reports (III)_Neat

34
EDUCATION

Boys Schools.—Education first became the concern of the Bahrain Government in 1919
though it was not until many years later that there was a Government department of education.
Before this time education in Bahrain was provided by Qoran Schools and the American Mission
School. In the Qoran schools small boys and sometimes girls were taught to memorize the Qoran
and in some cases they learned to read and write. These schools were run by local Mullahs in their
houses, in corners of shops and, in the summer, in lanes in the bazaars. They still function in the
same way today. The Mission School started, in a small way, over forty years ago and gradually
developed into a very valuable institution. Some of the leading merchants in Bahrain owe their
education to this school and latterly it was attended by many of the Arabs who now hold posts in the
Bahrain Government departments. The school was closed in 1933 for lack of funds but by then
Government education had advanced to such an extent that the need for it was not so great as it had
been. Some of the Sunni and Shia Kadis, who themselves had been educated abroad, gave instruc­
tion to groups of young men, but this was mainly teaching of a religious nature. A few of the weal­
thier and more progressive Arabs, especially the pearl merchants who visited India every year, sent
their sons to school in India but in general literacy among the people of Bahrain, apart from the
foreigners, was almost nil.

The First School.—In 1919, during the rule of Shaikh Isa bin Ali, the grandfather of the present
Ruler, his son Shaikh Abdulla visited England to attend the peace celebrations after the 1914—1918
war and on his return to Bahrain he took an active part in starting a school for boys in Muharraq.

The selection of Muharraq as the location for the school, rather than Manama the capital of
the State and a larger town, was because most of the Khalifah family and the leading Arab merchants
had their houses there. Merchants and notables contributed about Rs. 2,00,000 towards the cost
of the school; when public subscriptions are raised in Bahrain for local objects the response is usually
generous. Shaikh Isa gave land for the school and its playgrounds on the northern edge of Muharraq
town and a solid stone school house was built which is still used as the Muharraq Primary School.
The management of the school was vested in the hands of a committee of leading Arabs chosen for
their wealth, not because they had any experience of schools or education. Shaikh Abdulla bin Isa
was the President of the committee and Haji Yousuf Fakhroo was the Treasurer, the latter eventually
acquired most of the authority and financial control over school affairs. Teachers were brought from
Syria and Egypt to work in the school under the direction of Shaikh Hafiz Wahba, who was later to
become the Minister of His Majesty King Ibn Saoud at the Court of St. James. A few years after
the Muharraq school was opened another school was started in Manama in a large Arab house which
had once been the headquarters of the Mission and which is now one of the Government girls’ schools.

Jaffarla School.—From the beginning the progress of education in Bahrain was hampered
by difficulties and disturbances; these were partly due to the division of the population into two
sects, Shias and Sunnis, and the refusal of the Shias for many years to support schools in which there
were Sunni teachers. It is only comparatively recently that these sectarian differences have been
overcome in the matter of education; that they no longer exist is evident today from the fact that
Sunni and Shia boys and girls attend the same schools irrespective of the sect of the teachers. For
some time the results from the first two schools were disappointing, children of influential parents
were favoured over those from poor homes and for many years only the Sunni Arabs and Sunni Persians
sent their children to school. There were frequent quarrels among the staff and between the teachers
and the committee, and school masters were constantly going and coming.

! The Government, from 1344 (1925-26) paid a monthly subsidy to the schools, which varied in
different years, before this date no records exist, and it was considered politic to allow the committee
a free hand in running the schools. I11 1344 the committee received Rs. 24,000, the following year
Rs. 20,000, and in 1346 (1927-28) Rs. 46,000, and in 1347 (1928-29) the payment was increased to
Rs. 57,000, but by this year there were more than two schools and out of the Rs. 57,000 about

I!