Distinguished Scholar and Prelate

A great name in the history of the local educational development, Paolo Pullicino’s contribution towards the development of education in Malta and Gozo is enormous. He is still considered as a great educationalist.

Pullicino came from a respectable and well-to-do family. The son of Archangelo Pullicino and Maria Anna Schembri and brother to judge Dr Filippo, his father served as a family doctor at Ħaż-Żebbuġ and took an active part in politics. Pullicino was born in Valletta and baptised by his uncle at Porto Salvo parish church.

Paolo studied at the UM and in 1836 he read for a Master of Arts. At the age of twenty he obtained DD and in 1839 he graduated in Sacred Theology. (D. Theol). He was ordained priest on 16 March 1839 and continued his studies in Italy and at Sorbonne University in France, he obtained his PhD.

Pullicino was a man of many talents - historian, prolific writer, editor, university professor, member of the Council and of the Senate of the UM, examiner of the clergy, canon of the Cathedral Chapter, preacher, fluent linguist in English, Italian, French, Spanish and German, and a keen connoisseur of art.

Pullicino was president and member for many years of the Committee for the Management of the Public Library, and President (1889) of the Malta Society of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, and member of the Società Economica-Agraria. He was secretary of the Venerable Congregation of Priests of Ħaż-Żebbuġ and founded the Society of St Vincent de Paule in Malta, and a representative of the Roman Congregation De Propaganda Fide.

The Government of Malta appointed Pullicino professor of Method and Primary Instruction and chief director of Primary Schools on 1 July 1850. He remained in his post up to 7 June 1880.

Pullicino’s contribution to local education may be assessed through a study of his numerous scattered letters and writings, educational reports, extant official correspondence and other contemporary evidence. He sought information from a number of countries, and during his term of office he visited England, Ireland, France, Germany, Spain, Belgium and Italy.

When Pullicino became director, he issued his first Rapporto on the situation of schools in Malta in 1850. There were 24 schools in Malta and 4 in Gozo. The teaching personnel at that time was not trained, and the female teaching staff was even worse. He expounded a plan to upgrade the teacher and teaching, and launched a strategy of practical teaching training in a school set up at Valletta.

By 1858 there were 46 schools run by the government with almost 5000 pupils in them, and by 1879 statistics indicated that there were 92 schools and 9,365 students.  He broadened the curriculum and introduced schools for music and navigation.  He put great stress on the teaching of geography, history, nature study, drama and other activities.

Pullicino may be regarded as one of the main education officers that colonial Malta has produced. He came under attack by Patrick J. Keenan who in 1878 studied once more Malta’s educational system. Following Keenan’s report, Can Pullicino was induced to retire and he was replaced by Sigismondo Savona and so ended the longest directorship of schools in the Maltese islands to date.

This biography is part of the collection created by Michael Schiavone over a 30-year period. Read more about Schiavone and his initiative here.