School inspections are always a nervous time for all, even more so when royalty is involved. This dispatch by a British political agent from March 1959 recounts what happened when Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum visited schools in Dubai.
“It was clear that the boys in all the classes had been primed to make some point about the Ruler’s visit and, in all the younger boys’ classes, Mamduh Sahlul, who showed us around ... asked a small boy, ‘Who is visiting the school today?’ This boy then answered in a childish treble that it was Sheikh Rashid.
“Then another boy was asked whether Sheikh Rashid was a good man, to which the reply naturally came that he was beloved.
“However in the Amediya School, a long speech was made by a boy in nearly all the classes we entered. The speech started off by referring to Sheikh Rashid as His Highness, which embarrassed him a little, went on to praise him for his various qualities including being the benefactor of education in Dubai and then went on to familiar Arab nationalist themes about struggles, liberation and unity.”
The British were also concerned about the influence of Arab nationalism on young minds, with the inspector noting portraits of President Nasser of Egypt hanging “in practically every room in the schools”.
“The boys are being taught Arab nationalist songs, one of which was called Songs of the Gulf,” he continued, while observing with more satisfaction that pupils were also learning the poem Cherry Ripe. Still, he admitted: “The reception which I received from the boys and masters was friendly. Though the Arab nationalism theme was so well developed, it was to some extent set off by the attention paid to the Ruler ... and by the apparent personal friendliness shown throughout.
“In many ways the standard of teaching seems to have improved, at any rate so far as diagrammatic and practical instruction is concerned.”
The inspector was also bemused by what he found. “One strange feature was that each classroom had a dead sparrow, which had been cured by the boys and hung up on the wall – I am not sure whether it had any significance or not.”
His report concluded that: “It would be best to remain on good terms with the teachers and at the same time, whenever possible, to demonstrate that what they are taught about Arab nationalism is not necessarily irreconcilable with friendship with Her Majesty’s Government in this part of the world.
“However it is clearly not in the best educational interests of Dubai that more attention be paid by young boys to politics than to proper education. There should be firmer control and this control ought to come from the local Ruler and the people. The Ruler has already suggested to me that an Educational Committee should be set up and I have been giving him encouragement in this idea.”