The early primary schools of Malta

Abstract

The scope of this brief research work has been to bring out to light a few of the more relevant facts concerning the history of the early Primary Schools of Malta. No deviations have been made from the facts encountered in the sources available; but great attention has been made to give not a string of facts but rather a general view of their set-up and their development in their earliest years. In Chapter I an attempt has been made to say a few words on what could have been Government policy with regards to Primary education in general. As the set-up of Maltese schools followed closely on their prototype in England at the period, it was considered to be advisable to say how the system in England functioned in order to show the nature of the local Elementary School. Chapter III deals with the Normal Schools - a very essential aspect of the picture of primary schooling since their purpose was to set up models for the future Primary Schools after 1850. A look is thrown in the following chapter at some of the contemporary Private Schools in order to show which and what they were in comparison with other Primary Schools. Chapter V deals with the Royal Commission of 1836 - what the Commissioners found and what they recommend in the interests of education. Following the recommendations of the Royal Commissioners the Government opened Primary Schools which are described in Chapter VI. The work is brought to a close by mentioning a few of the reforms which Canon Pullicino introduced into the system of Primary Instruction in 1830 when a new era can be said to have begun for the Primary Schoosls in Malta.