language question

• Keenan's report started the Language Question
• Keenan suggested a radical change in the education system
• Pari passu


  Time to be equally divided between the teaching of English and Italian
• Free choice


  Parents to choose whether their children learn Italian or English
• Keenan's report suggested pari passu


  English will manage to eliminate Italian and become the second language
• Canon Paolo Pullicino was more in favor of Italian, so the British appointed Sigismondo Savona to introduce the reforms of Keenan
• Strickland was convinced that parents were going to choose English under the free choice system
• Fortunato Mizzi was in favor of pari passu
• Changes in language policy

  1. 1903 - free choice removed

  2. 1903-1927 - pari passu

  3. 1927 - free choice reintroduced when Strickland became Prime Minister
• Political parties on the Language Question

  • Nationalist Party - in favor of Italian (supported by Italian government, clergy, professionals)
  • Constitutional Party - in favor of English (supported by businessmen, government workers, Labour Party)
• In the 1940s, the Italians launched the first bombs on Malta, and the support towards the Italian language ended
• The Language Question was a conflict between those in favor of the Italian culture and those in favor of the British culture
• Teachers used to prefer Italian than English before Keenan's report