[Book review] Kenneth Wain (2024). Lifelong learning in Malta : towards the learning society

Abstract

Kenneth Wain’s book publishes a policy plan document drafted in 2003. Wain rejects seeing the Plan as merely a historical curiosity. In a powerful endorsement, Carmel Borg notes that: “The belated publication of this policy document by the Faculty of Education, through its MRER [Malta Review of Educational Research] project, serves history as much as it serves the future of Maltese education” . The reader receives insights into educational history; yet the book also offers hopeful glimpses into how things could be done otherwise: the paths not taken may serve as vital reminders and even as calls to action. Wain expresses “disappointment” with the failure to implement the Plans, but also describes himself as an “optimist”. I understand and share the sentiment of disappointment that it was not published earlier, when it would have been timelier; it is nonetheless positive that it is finally available for all to read. It should also be said that the Plan captures a moment in time – a time of transition, at the turn of the millennium before Malta’s EU accession – and is of undoubted historical interest. Just as the Plan was drawn up having regard for the particularities of the local context, the context must also include the time in which it was drafted, and the fact that its intended audience were primarily policy-makers, which may partly account for the tensions described below.