'File 19/248 I (C 78) Education at Bahrain' [‎109r] (234/494)

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We now come to the very important question of School Books. It will
be remembered that the absence of suffioient text-books was mentioned
earlier in this Report as being one of the seven causes of inefficiency in the
schools.
I do not know whether it is realised by the Education Department
that owing to the rule which requires that books shall be paid for by the
pupils themselves, the vast majority of the boys use no books at all, from
the beginning of the year to its end, and that even those parents who can
afford to provide their children with books neglect to do so. The head
master of Hedd School told me that the few boys whose parents buy them
books bring to school with them one Arabic reading-book, one English
reading-book, and nothing else. In his own words: "All other subjects
are taught without the use of books at all. The teachers dictate."
This is a truly lamentable state of affairs. How can we seriously call
these institutions government schools, where there are not even books for
the pupils ? One hardly dares to commit oneself to paper on the subject
of an Inspector who could allow the schools for which he was responsible
to be so conducted. I believe I did hear something about books occasionally
being given put free to very poor boys, but if this has happened at all we
may be quite sure that it has been only at Manamah and Muharraq, the
two show schools. But even if all the poor boys in all the schools were
given books free of charge, and if all the richer parents were perfect people,
a system under which some boys are able to buy their own books, while
others are forced to accept them as charitable gifts, is a most undesirable
one, for any school, and I suggest that your Highness should give instruc
tions for the present chaotic state of affairs to be brought to an end as soon
as possible.
I want to suggest that in future all the books needed in all First
Stage and Second Stage schools should be bought by the Education
Department, and should become the property of the schools, who would be
responsible for them, and who would lend them out, free of charge, for the
use of the boys during school hours alone. This means that the boys would
noit be allowed to take them away from the school premises. Boys can,
w th a little training, be persuaded to take great care of printed books, and
if my suggestion is adopted the same books will serve the same classes year
after year. Generation after generation of boys will use them, and it will
be found that very little loss through damage is suffered by the Education
Department.
I suggest to your Highness that all school books needed by boys of the
Final Stage shall be paid for, either by the parents, or, in the case of poor
boys, out of their scholarship grants, by the Government.