I am very pleased that my article on elementary education, which appeared in The Sunday Times of Malta on January 25, elicited a substantial number of letters.

Some of the letters, although highly interesting, are completely irrelevant as they refer to the brief French period or to institutions set up by voluntary bodies.

With regard to the Floriana school, Joe Bugeja, (quoting a highly respectable Floriana head teacher, Lolly Tonna) asserts that it was the first elementary school on the island to be purposely built from governments funds.

May I point out that there is no documentary evidence to that effect. I am fully aware of Bugeja’s undoubted erudition and his impressive input at the Faculty of Education but I have to refer him to the Royal Commission of 1836 which clearly reported that in Malta there were only two government elementary schools, one in Valletta and the other in Senglea, besides the elementary school in Victoria, with the Valletta school having the honour to be the first.

To be fair, perhaps Bugeja was referring to the school as a physical structure and not as an educational institution.

May I take the opportunity to urge the Ministry of Education to collect all log books in primary schools, some of which go back to the 1880s, as they contain a wealth of material about the social, educational and ecclesiastical history of our islands. They are invaluable and indispensable to our social scientists.