ABSTRACT
Prior to 1970 secondary school provision was restricted to the successful candidates in a competitive 11+ style examination in English and mathematics to the State’s grammar and technical schools, and to private schools. The first National Minimum Curriculum for Secondary Schools in Malta’s educational history was itself published in 1990 followed, not very long afterwards., in 1991, by a curriculum for post-secondary education. The National Curriculum which, naturally, reflects the government’s educational philosophy confirms the tripartite secondary school system. Indeed, there currently appears to be a fundamental agreement between the two major political parties over this philosophy judging by the Labour Party’s 1992 pre-election document on education. This notwithstanding the fact that school councils were set up, following the Education Act, in 1989, for all the state schools in Malta.
