When Can. Paolo Pullicino was appraised … or censured?

Abstract

Before the British acquired Malta and added it to their growing world empire, the local population was generally illiterate. It had no stable schooling system and those who managed to get an education, did so because they could afford to pay for their instruction either in Malta or abroad. Along the rule of the Order of St John, there were very few schools, but had there been more this would have made little difference to the poor inhabitants who would still not afford an education. Under the British, things began to change, also prompted by what was happening in the sphere of education in Britain itself and on the European continent. Philosophers and politicians were pushing for the introduction of a stronger programme of schooling and education for the common people; as ignorant people are much less productive than those who have even an elementary standard of education.