British Mandate: A Survey of Palestine: Volume I - Page 347

CHAPTER IX.

masters who have received training in the theory and practice of agriculture. The pupils receive varying hours of instruction per week both in the class and in the school garden. The arrangements made by the Department of Education for imparting an agricultural bias to Arab rural education are described in section 2 of chapter XVI. The Jewish public school system also has a special inspectorate to supervise agricultural teaching and the supervision of school gardens.

84. Two agricultural schools were established by means of a bequest of the late Sir Ellie Kadoorie , a philanthropic Jewish resident in Shanghai. The bequest, with interest, accumulated to £P.l 77 ,000-the greater part of which was devoted to the construction of the schools; the balance was invested and yields an income of about £P.3,000 per annum, which is credited towards their annual maintenance. The two schools, known as the Kadoorie Agricultural Schools, are residential and are situated one at Tulkarm for the Arabs, established in 1930, and the other at Mount Tabor for the Jews, established in 1934. Students, who are selected by a committee (after an entrance examination for the Jewish school) must not be over 18 years of age and must have completed the second secondary class in a Government school or an equivalent class in a non-Government school. Preference is given to sons of farmers or .land owners and emphasis is placed in the curriculum on practical farming with the intention of training youths to become farmers and not to expect appointment in Government service. The number of students which can be accommodated is 60 at Tulkarm and 50 at Mount Tabor; the annual fee for tuition, board and lodging is £P.24.

At the Tulkarm school (Arab) a third year course has been introduced for the training of rural teachers, as there is at present a great demand for village schoolmasters with a rural bias; the administration of this school has recently been transferred from the Department of Agriculture to the Department of Education.

Practically all the graduates from the Mount Tabor school return to agricultural settlements or farms. At this school vacation courses are also held for Jewish rural teachers.

85. Short courses for farmers' sons were formerly provided on the Government Farm at Acre, but this facility had to be suspended after the destruction of the buildings during the rebellion of 1938-1939. At the present time some sixty boys from the Government Reformatory School work on the farm; boys from the senior classes of the Government schools in Acre town also do their practical work on the farm.

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