The role of private schools in Maltese education

Abstract

In democratic countries, that is wherever any vestige of freedom remains and where the rights of the family and the individual are safeguarded, there also exist, besides Government or State schools, so called Voluntary, Independent or Church schools, or as they are called in Malta, Private Schools. The term "private" as applied to schools does not mean that they are open only to the well-to-do or that lack of means is any bar to admission; it does not even mean that the prospective student must belong to any particular denomination. The word "private" is there just to denote that these schools are not run at 1:he expense of the State. Private schools are owned and run by religious Institutes, as in the case of St. Aloysius College and the Sacred Heart; or by lay Institutions as in the case of St. Edward's and St. Catherine's School. It was the Church that gave a beginning to and fostered education in Malta. A brief survey will make clear this historical truth.