Floriana primary school : one of the first purpose schools in Malta

Abstract

As in so many other countries in Europe, the elementary education of the masses was introduced in Malta in the middle of the nineteenth century. Locally, as a result of both internal and external pressures, more often than not in the form of recommendations and exhortations rather than more forceful manifestations, the Government assumed responsibility for this. One of the major problems which, given local conditions, such an ambitious undertaking faced was to provide places where the children of the poor could be taught. Financial allocation to education was too meager to allow for the building of purpose-built institutions, and, for many decades, private houses were rented to serve as elementary schools. The schools at Floriana and Rabat (Gozo) were the earliest exceptions to this policy.