'File 19/248 III (C 88) Education at Bahrain' [‎110r] (228/610)

2/
(no)
10^
Report on the woric of tiie Sducation
Dopartmont during
i
i.
Aocordiii to the annual atastios of the aohoola aubciitted
with this report one new school has been opened and t *e number
of students increased from 1*S60 to 141<^* These figures iii no
way indicate the progress of the schools du ing the year.
For the past three years our policy has been to r istrict ^
the nui ber of pupils and at the suiue time to increase the staif
and number of classes. The figures below give some Indication
of the extent to which this has betji carried out auriag 1^4o.
formerly a complete primary school consisted of 6 grades. In
October 1^43 a seventh grade waj added and the claoses renar ed
thus forming 3 Kindor gar ten and 4 Primary grades.
January to July 194o.
Av.
Max.
Mln.
AV.
Max.
1 Primary
50
86
30
1
Kindergarten
38
40
2
43
57
36
2
»»
35
40
3 M
29
32
27
3
w
30
40
4 ^
23
26
16
1
Primary
27
35
5 *
33
40
21
2
««
27
39
6 M
14
16
11
3
n
18
21
4
13
15
Total No. of class 28
October to PeoQibur x94;5.
31 per
^5 ola
25 w
25
14
13 n
11
Total No. of class 36.
ss
There are now 5 of these Priis&ry vjohools each with ti eir
Kindergarten sections as against 3 of last year, for in addition
to the New Jchool the Village School of ^afaa has now boon con
verted into a Prix ary School. They follow a common syllabus and
are provided with books for all students in all subjects. In
October Handwork axii Drawing wero added to the curriculum.
The increase in the number of classes has meant the engage-
munt of 10 additional staff. Most of these were found locally,
si* beint, from the Secondary School. There has been a i.ariced
improveia nt in the standard of teachin? throughout the year,
particularly in the Kindergarten c-lasses.
Scondary School .
Ther are three forris in the Secondary School, In October
last, at tm be. n dng of tl<Q school year very few boys were
^admitted froi the Primary Scho Is and promotion within the
school was strictly lir.iited. In this wa it was possible to
advance tiio curriculum by one year. Thus Form 1 is doing t. v o
wonc of last year's Fo xm the new Fortii ci that oi last year*a
Form 3 and the new Form 3 are pricing on a more advanced
syllabus.
The Primary jSducati n of the present Secondary Schoolboys
was, through no fault of their own, very poor. Their knowledge
of Arithiaetic did not extend beyond a superficial acquaintance
of the Four Rules, Algebra, Geometry and Trigonometry were
unknown to them. They had 'road three books 1 in English but
could not maice use of the lantfia^e in any vway. The History
and Geography were lii ited to a few useless 'facts 1 tnat they
had corimitted to memory. It is on this basis that we neve t
build our Secoraiary Sducation. Arithmetic Algebra, Trigonometry,
Science, History and Geo^rapny had to be taught from tno in
ning. Thus we have the anomaly of Primary Schoolboys studyiru-
booKa which are used in the higher For .;s of the Secondary School.