Staying on in Malta

by Paul Heywood

published by Midsea Publications, 2023

To his colossal credit, Paul Heywood makes no bones about his leanings as a citizen of the country in which he was brought up. He is a devout Christian, more specifically Roman Catholic, votes Nationalist and is a proud European. At no stage does he purport to be ‘neutral’, and his overall vision reflects, for the most part, these standpoints. As this anthology of writings about his personal and public life shows, he is, however, fair. 

His work in the public sector was marked by an honest-to-goodness approach that won him the admiration, especially in policy making and administration, of political friends and adversaries alike.

It is fair to say that his efforts in educational administration were guided by a strong sense of the common good and making things work for students under a professed sense of social justice. This is why ministers on both sides of the dominant political spectrum trusted him as an ‘old hand’ in education.

His work Staying on in Malta, published by Midsea, can easily have been spread out over three separate books. One is an autobiographical account or memoir of his and his family’s itinerant life written in a compelling style; nothing is stilted. Heywood sets his personal narrative, with its thick, vivid evocations, against larger global scenarios, more specifically the two World Wars, the first in which his father was involved in the Liverpool, Somerset and two other regiments.

It is significant that Heywood’s father never spoke of the terrible experiences of trench warfare and the scars they would have left. World War II created the conditions for the young Heywood to give further free rein to his imagination.

This comes across when describing how he and friends explored every nook and cranny of the underground war shelters. There were, however, enduring scars.

Fun episodes can easily transmute into tragedy during wartime, such as the one with which he had to cope and to which he would react dramatically. Alas, this was no coup de theatre but the stark reality of war which snatches lives suddenly and clinically. Weeks after calling, in vain, at his friend’s home to enjoy their daily game of marbles, he was informed that his friend was killed by shrapnel.

Shocked and numbed with grief, Heywood decided to throw his marbles through the iron grating into his friend’s family house cellar – an episode recalled in both Heywood’s prose and verse. There was the boy who missed school on the day an RAF bomber, on a training exercise, lost control and crashed onto his and other residences.

The author’s religious beliefs and commitment shine throughout especially the final literary section. So do his love for his wife and nature, the latter almost pantheistical in its expression of awe towards the divine. His wife’s fragrance is captured by rich vocabulary. His penchant for using alliteration and reverberating sounds is evident. All is tempered by the sobering reality that happiness on this earth is short-lived. 

Heywood, however, embraces a metaphysical sense of love. Death is a recurring theme. There is pathos in Enduring Troth where, sleeping like a log, oblivious to his wife’s calls, triggers the thought that it might become a deeper, lifeless slumber towards eternity. The metaphysical aspect is enhanced by superb Maltese translations of Juan-de-la-Cruz’s meditations.

Heywood helped shape, with others, part of Malta’s educational policy trajectory

The third feature of this volume concerns Heywood’s professional career. A fully qualified lawyer with an additional Arts degree, he chose to be an educator instead, just like a few others, including a certain Paulo Freire, whose writings he came to admire and whom he saw in person at a UNESCO conference.

Having shared an office with him in the then Education department, I can vouch that Heywood was no bland bureaucrat, nor faceless executive. He was as inventive in his administration as he was in his writing of prose and verse.

There is the episode of a poor stigmatised child at a school Heywood headed – a “leper” discarded by other children who let their weird fantasy run riot. Heywood’s imaginative use of bluff and ‘lateral thinking’ saved the day.

Heywood represented Malta in many international projects and conferences. He helped shape, with others, part of Malta’s educational policy trajectory. 

His speeches and reminiscences on many of these developments, likely to prove controversial as he never shied away from expressing his strong convictions, are a boon for anyone seriously engaged in educational and general policy research.

Heywood espouses, in this book, a social justice education and community engagement by universities. Pictured is a path within the University of Malta. Photo: Shutterstock.com

He made a significant contribution to the development of the Pupil-Worker scheme at sixth form level, despite his reservations regarding some of its features. His serious and painstaking approach earned him the respect of political figures and ministers committed to the party he obviously did not support.

After 1987, he worked closely with the then Minister of Education, Ugo Mifsud Bonnici, and Peter Serracino Inglott. Systems of Knowledge was one of the areas in which the three made a telling contribution. Heywood is adamant that its syllabus needs to be revised every two years in keeping with an ever-changing society with its different challenges, also in terms of cultural relevance and social identity representation.

A much-travelled educator, he focused, in his verse and essays, on some of the worlds architectural (Strasbourg’s Gothic cathedral) and geological (Meteora) wonders. He is a polyglot, understanding German and having even spoken Tamil and Gujarati during his early upbringing in India. He was inspired by the International Baccalaureate, serving on the Editorial Advisory Board of the Journal of Research in International Education.

Heywood espouses, in this book, a social justice education and community engagement by universities. In the opening chapters, we learn that Heywood’s maternal grandfather’s sister was married to none other than socialist activist and thinker, Manuel Dimech.

He believes in a holistic education that can help stem the potent tide of Neoliberalism. He advocates dissemination of knowledge of the legal basis of education; he praises Ugo Mifsud Bonnici on publishing a book in this area. He also feels that some knowledge of the basic elements of law should be studied by youngsters now that the voting eligibility age is being brought forward.