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The Federated Malay States Railway has a five year system of trade apprenticeship and it will be interesting to compare the value of the "workshop" and "trade school" apprentice once the latter has settled down to the foreign atmosphere where "piece work bonus" and time saving are of equal importance to accuracy; where the auto- mobile part weighing a few ounces is replaced by a locomotive part weighing as many hundredweights; and where the size of the machines which he has to operate is many times increased.
ІРОН.
The School at Ipoh is developing on much the same lines, but has the advantage that the Public Works Department has established a small factory for the repair of motor transport vehicles close to the school, all the labour being supplied by final year students. In addition to automobile work the School undertakes such work as repair of water meters, etc. As much Public Works Department work as possible is passed through the school, the money saved being credited to Revenue. This close co- operation with Public Works Department Workshops is a real asset to the school, as not only is the commercial atmosphere maintained, "but boys passing out to Govern- ment workshops have already experience of official methods of control of work and costs. They also, in this way, get to know the type of plant which they will be called on to maintain after passing out from the school.
STRAITS SETTLEMENTS SCHOOLS.
The circumstances which called these schools into being were radically different from those from which the Federated Malay Schools arose.
Partly due to the depression, it had been observed that there was an increasing difficulty in ensuring that boys leaving the English Schools with Junior, or even Senior, Cambridge Certificates, should be able to find sufficiently lucrative employment; this gave rise to the fear that these English Schools would in the near future be producing educated boys for whom there would be no work, and whose very education would render them unsuitable for those manual jobs which are usually available.
In order to prevent the wastage which would arise from the unemployment of this material, it was decided to open Trade Schools which would provide a method of en- trance to industry free from the demoralising influences of Eastern apprenticeship. The Schools, by turning out educated mechanics of good personality, were also ex- pected to exercise an improving influence on the standard of work done in local garages and workshops. There is little doubt that this latter will be accomplished as these Trade School students, given a little experience of the rough and tumble of the com- mercial workshop, will be most useful employees in the better type of garage, or strong competitors should they decide to open a workshop of their own.
In this con- nection it is worth noting that there is one student in attendance at Penang who in- tends to open a modern garage on completion of his course.
The Straits Settlements Schools started with several initial advantages.
(1) The depression was less severely felt in the Straits Settlements than in
the Federated Malay States.
(2) They had the experience of the school at Kuala Lumpur on which to
draw.
(3) All candidates for admission speak reasonably good English.
As would be expected from the causes which gave rise to these Schools, the type of student is considerably higher than in the Federated Malay States. There is also no racial bar, and while the School at Singapore contains a large proportion of Chinese, this race supplies the majority of students at Penang. There is also a certain difference in policy of selection at these Schools, and while the Singapore School seems to set a higher standard for entrants than Penang, in effect the selection at Singapore takes