Page 432 - Bahrain Gov Annual Reports (III)_Neat

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Equipment.—Sufficient supplies of books and stationery were received during the year, some
were purchased abroad and some from the local shops. The schools are now well supplied with books
etc. New furniture to provide for the increased number of boys and for replacements was made
locally. Prices of furniture arc still extremely high. Some of the school teachers began to prepare
drafts of a history and a geography book to be used in Bahrain schools. When these books have
been approved they will be printed for use in Bahrain.

General.—During the Spring holidays the boys of the hostel went on a sea expedition with the
Police cadets around Bahrain and to the Hawar islands, camping on shore at various places and visiting
inlands which none of them had ever been to before.
Sporting events during the year included an interschool basket ball match of which the finals
were played at night on the illuminated ground of the East school playing field. Annual sports were
held on the Muharraq playground on 30th April, the meeting was well organised and included an
excellent display of physical training and drill.

The library in the hostel was enlarged during the year and a number of new books were added
to it, including a set of the Encyclopaedia Britannica.
The Bahrain Petroleum Company increased the number of scholarships which it provides in the
Bahrain schools, it now gives three scholarships for Secondary school boys and three for the Technical
school, the total value of these scholarships being Rs. 5,880 per annum.
During the year a number of young men most of them ex-school boys, in some cases Govern­
ment employees, took the Cambridge Syndicate Examination. The examination was conducted at
the school hostel under the supervision of the Director of Education and the Adviser to the Bahrain
Government.
The total expenditure on boys education during the year, not including technical education,
was Rs. 4,01,600. The main headings of expenditure were as follows :—
Rs. Rs.
Salaries ....................... 2,32,200
Book, Equipment and furniture 51.900
Hostel ....................... 25,780
Transport ....................... 9»x4°
Rents ....................... 24.750
Higher Education 23,200
3.66,970

GIRLS' SCHOOLS
(Report by Mrs. Dalrymple Belgrave, Directress of Female Education).
The year 1366 was a year of steady progress without any major changes or additions. An
effort was made to bring the standard of work in the new Manama school, Hedd and Rafaa up to
the level of the two older schools. When in the past families have moved from one town to another
it has sometimes been difficult to fit the students into classes in the new school corresponding to the
classes in the schools they have left. This has been remedied almost entirely, except in Hedd, which
still lags behind, but adjustments and alterations are planned there in 1367. Class by class
the standard in the Girls’ schools is equivalent to that in the Boys’ Primary schools in the main
subjects except in English and geometry which are not taught in the Girls’ schools, but in place of
these two subjects the girls are taught needlework and domestic science.
It is difficult, owing to the purdah system which is still strict in Bahrain, to organise any games
for the girls. The school compounds in most cases are not large and it is of course impossible for
them to play outside, but they do a certain amount of drill and physical exercises and it is hoped that
this they may be developed in 1367.

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