Coll 30/232 'Arab Sheikhdoms of the Persian Gulf.' [‎57r] (114/119)

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9
Bahrein
Educational facilities have been pro
gressively increased and the programme
future developments seems relatively
sat^tfactory in relation to the size and
nee'ES of the population. There are about
the same number of children in primary
schools as at Koweit. The secondary
school has about 100 students, some of
whom are receiving special teacher’s
training. The Director of Education is a
Bahreini with some Egyptian and some
Palestinian Arab teachers under him.
Mr. Belgrave, the British Adviser to the
Sheikh of Bahrein, takes a very keen
personal interest in all educational matters.
The secondary school is combined with a
hostel in which boys from outlying
villages, and in some cases from other
parts of the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. , live in some
what the same conditions as in a boarding
school in this country. There used to be
a British Director of Education but when
the post last became vacant we were unable
to supply a new candidate and after some
delay the present Director was appointed.
There seems no chance of changing this
arrangement. There is, however, quite a
possibility of the appointment of a British
teacher of English for the secondary
school and Mr. Belgrave is in touch with
an English teacher in Egypt.
An attempt was made to send students
for higher education to Cairo in the same
way as is done from Koweit, but after a
very short experience of this arrangement
it was found that the Bahreini students
were imbibing undesirable political ideas
and they were recalled. A number of
Bahreinis are now at the American Uni
versity at Beirut, where some of them-
receive teachers’ training. The Bahrein
Petroleum Company has just obtained ap
proval from its head office to offer a number
of scholarships to the American University
at Beirut. It is also intended to send four
Bahreini students to Nottingham Univer
sity this year for a teachers’ training
course. If this experiment is successful
further students will be sent in future.
In Bahrein, as in Koweit. one of the
greatest difficulties is to persuade both boys
and girls to continue their education long
enough. Moreover, the teaching profes
sion is not popular as compared with work
in the oil company and other kinds of
business.
The Bahrein Petroleum Company appear
to have shown rather little interest in the
education of local employees until quite
recently. Now, however, the local manager
gives the impression of being fully con
vinced of the great importance of training
Bahreinis to fit them for higher grades of
work in the company. The company have
organised general classes for some of their
employees and have some rather haphazard
arrangements for training apprentices.
My impression is that they could well
intensify this work and start at an earlier
age. The grant of scholarships for the
A.U.B. is satisfactory. More could be
done in the direction of advanced appren
tice or training courses in the United
Kingdom and United States.
Qatar and the Trucial Coast A name used by Britain from the nineteenth century to 1971 to refer to the present-day United Arab Emirates.
Owing to the complete absence of educa
tion in Qatar and on the Trucial Coast A name used by Britain from the nineteenth century to 1971 to refer to the present-day United Arab Emirates.
serious consideration should be given to the
possibility of progressively using Bahrein
as the educational centre for these areas
until they are able to set up educational
facilities of their own. There would be
some political difficulty in the case of Qatar
owing to the feud between the two rulers.
If this difficulty makes it impossible for
Qatar education to be focused on Bahrein,
urgent consideration will have to be given
to the needs of Qatar for education since
there is already a large influx of workers
there and this will rapidly increase over the
next few years. The same will take place
at a somewhat later stage in some parts of
the Trucial Coast A name used by Britain from the nineteenth century to 1971 to refer to the present-day United Arab Emirates. , notably Abu Dhabi and
Dubai, where oil is almost certain to be
worked fairly soon. We must try to make
sure that these places go the way of Bah
rein rather than the way of Koweit.
Muscat
There is one Arab primary school, the
teachers including Palestinian Arab.
There are other schools for some of the
Indian and Persian inhabitants who form
the great majority of the population of the
town of Muscat. Higher education is only
obtainable in individual cases. The Sultan
has asked for the services of some more
Palestinian Arab teachers, particularly for
Dhofar. There seems to be practically no
provision for the education of the very
numerous inhabitants of the Batinah Coast
(said on some estimates to amount to a
quarter of a million) or for the large Be
douin population of the interior. The
State has no money with which to provide
any large extension of education.