Printed papers on the political situation and military policy in Egypt [‎63v] (126/176)

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388. One of the most important features in the development of the department
during recent years has been the growth of evening commercial classes. This form of
education had received little attention in the past, but it has now been extended
beyond the large towns to many provincial centres. The possibility of concluding the,
classes in centres distant from Cairo or Alexandria depends on the presence of
suitable instructors, and they have hitherto only been started in provincial towns,
where the services of graduates of the higher or intermediate school of commerce
were available. The provincial councils are anxious to promote these classes, and
five new centres have been established during the past year.
389. During the past fifteen years trades schools, most of them comprising
sections for four or five trades, have sprung up all over the country, chiefly in the
Mudiria towns; they are conducted with reference to the special needs of the district
in which each school is situated.
390. The year 1921 saw the retirement of Mr. Sidney H. Wells, C.B.E., to
whose direction the department was entrusted on its foundation in 1907. Mr. Wells’s
health had been failing for some time past. The remarkable development of technical
education during the last fifteen years is almost entirely due to his initiative and
ability and to his untiring devotion to his work.
64. School of Medicine.
391. During the year the following diplomas were granted :—
Medical : 54, as compared with 15 last year.
Pharmacy : 5.
Nurses : 12.
392. The normal output of graduates has thus been resumed, though the loss of
time to students caused by the strikes of 1919 remains irreparable. Owing to the
increased accommodation and staff, it has been possible to admit 100 new students of
medicine and 24 of pharmacy, as compared with 50 and 10 which have hitherto been
the maxima. At the end of December 1921 there were present :—
Medical students : 328, as compared with 268 in 1920.
Pharmacy students : 49, as compared with 39 in 1920.
Four students were sent to England for post-graduate study in nervous diseases,
urology, pathology and botany respectively. There are now seven medical students
maintained in England by the Ministry for post-graduate study. The staff of the
school was strengthened by the appointment of lecturers in anatomy and
pharmacology, an assistant physician for skin diseases and a prosector in the
Department of Anatomy, besides extra demonstrators and preyarateurs.
393. The chief change which took place in the school during the year was the
erection of the new laboratories and students club. The old students club and
adjoining rooms have been converted into a block of physics laboratories, and a large
new chemical laboratory has been erected, together with a lecture theatre and research
rooms. As a result of these changes it is now possible to teach physics and chemistry
to nearlv 200 students. This, with the extension of the biological laboratories, has
made it possible to double the entry of the medical school, more than to double that ot
the school of pharmacy, and at the same time to take over the science teaching of the
Sultania Training College. This constitutes a remarkable advance in the teaching of
science in Egypt^ The Anatomy Department has also been rebuilt on an extended
scale so as to accommodate twice the number of students, and a beginning has been
made with the museum. The students’ club is an entirely new building of two
storeys containing dining, recreation, lecture and reading rooms, together with
kitchens lavatories and other offices. The dining room seats 100, and the internal
arrangement is controlled by sub-committees of students under a general committee
which includes some members of the Egyptian staff . . „
394 Under the new scheme for clinical work all the members ot the clinical stan
have now definite teaching duties, and the first students under the new curriculum
will reach the wards in January 1922. A very satisfactory development is that
twenty-nine qualified medical men are attending the practice of the hospital unpaid,
with o-reat benefit both to themselves and the teaching. This is the first time that
post-graduate work has been carried out on anv considerable scale, and it only needs
the formation of a university to enable it to be converted into a course for higher
degrees.