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Great care is also taken to ensure that the functioning of different machines and their component parts is fully understood, and all students are required to be able to make an engineer's sketch of a given machine part, or to be able to sketch a part which will fulfil a given function. The elementary properties of common materials are explained in so far as these affect the workshop.
Organisation.
All schools come under the control of the Inspector of English Schools for the State in which they are situated, the general policy underlying the selection of candi- dates being dictated by him. The full establishment for educational staff is as follows.
Part Time Principal.
Chief Instructor (European).
Clerk.
Local Instructors.*
Machineman,
Fitter.
Blacksmith & Boilermaker.
Motor Mechanic.
Foundryman
& Patternmaker.
The Principal is in all cases a Civil Engineer in the Public Works Department who gives one to two hours daily to School duties. He is generally responsible for crganisation and acts as the official link with the Inspector of English Schools. By taking over most of the correspondence and office work he makes it possible for the Chief Instructor to spend most of his time in the workshops. The Principalship at Ipoh is vacant and may remain so.
Chief Instructor.
The Chief Instructors at Kuala Lumpur and Ipoh were originally foremen in the Central Workshops of the Federated Malay States Railway, the appointments being made locally. The fact that the medium of instruction was Malay made this procedure almost obligatory.
On the opening of the Singapore and Penang Schools it was decided to bring out the Chief Instructors from home, and to insist on a much higher standard of education than is usual in the foremen class. The selection in both cases has been extremely fortunate, both instructors combining a high class technical training with excellent practical experience, including test bench work at high class automobile works.
The work done by these instructors has in all cases included the erection of all machinery and workshop plant, utilising only the labour of their own students: and as, of course, these were originally totally unskilled and inexperienced, the excellence of the final layout is the more remarkable.
All Chief Instructors on appointment proceed to Kuala Lumpur for a two months' course of instruction on local conditions.
Local Instructors.
There is no racial bar in these appointments, Tamils, Chinese, and Eurasians being included on the staffs.
*Details of local Instructors are based on Singapore.
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