ABSTRACT
Matters relating to education and schooling in Gibraltar have already been encountered, particularly in connection with the role of the churches and with bilingualism. Without doubt the formal system of education everywhere results in some of the more significant influences on the individual and the community and it is important that the development and the influence of education in Gibraltar should be properly traced. The impact of education is most noticeable in the formal curriculum which specifies what is to be taught, learnt and assessed at each of the stages from nursery school onwards. However, formal learning by no means takes up the whole story. Informal influences arising from the overall organization of schooling, the so-called ‘informal curriculum’, also play their part in the overall process of the socialization of the young. While Gibraltar's educational system had varied beginnings, British influences through both the formal and informal played an increasing part and by the twentieth century they were rapidly becoming dominant. The extent of these influences should be noted given that ‘education has the characteristics it does because of the goals pursued by those who control it’ 1
