The compulsory attendance act and its immediate aftermath in Malta’s educational development

Abstract

The majority of Maltese children had practically no educational facilities that could offer them a measure of education before the onset of the nineteenth century. In earlier years the few who had gained a proper education did so because their families could pay for their schooling or as they found other sources of financial support which thus enabled them to continue their studies. The British administrators of the new colony slowly realised that they needed to take a strategic decision if they wanted to lift a mostly illiterate society from its flagging backwardness. This would be beneficial to the people but no less so to the colonial establishments themselves as the latter could depend on a more reliable and loyal workforce. An Elementary Schools Department was gradually introduced from the late 1830s, becoming quite organised during the directorship of Can. Paolo Pullicino who occupied the post between 1850 and 1880.