Among the earliest known works of literary fiction.
Earliest Sumerian versions of the epic date from the Third Dynasty of Ur (2150−2000 BC).
Ashurbanipal (685−c.627 BC):
King of the Neo-Assyrian Empire.
Proud of his scribal education.
Scholarly pursuits included oil divination, mathematics, reading, and writing.
Collected cuneiform texts in the library in Nineveh, the first systematically organized library in the ancient Middle East.
Ancient Egypt
Literacy was concentrated among an educated elite of scribes.
Only people from certain backgrounds were allowed to train as scribes.
Hieroglyph system was difficult to learn and purposely made more so to preserve the scribes' status.
Literacy estimations range from 1 to 5 percent of the population.
Generalizations mask differences between regions and urban vs. rural populations.
Low literacy estimates are a regular feature of 19th and 20th-century attitudes to ancient and medieval societies.
Ancient Israel
Torah includes commands to read, learn, teach, and write the Torah.
In 64 AD, the high priest opened schools.
Emphasis was placed on developing good memory skills in addition to comprehension and oral repetition.
Girls were required to know a large part of the subject areas to maintain the home and educate the children before age seven.
Estimated that at least ninety percent of the Jewish population of Roman Palestine could merely write their name or not write and read at all; literacy rate estimated at about 3 percent.
India: Nalanda Teaching Platform
Education was mainly imparted through the Vedic and Buddhist education systems.
Sanskrit was used in the Vedic education system.
Pali was used in the Buddhist education system.
Vedic system: child started education at 8 to 12 years old.
Buddhist system: child started education at the age of eight.
Main aim of education was to develop character, self-control, social awareness, and conserve ancient culture.
Vedic system taught the four Vedas – Rig Veda, Sama Veda, Yajur Veda and Atharva Veda, the six Vedangas, the Upanishads, etc.
Education was passed on orally rather than in written form.
Education involved three steps:
Shravana (hearing): acquisition of knowledge by listening to the Shrutis.
Manana (reflection): students would think, analyze and make inferences.
Nididhyāsana: students would apply the knowledge in their real life.
Vedic period (1500 BC to 600 BC): education based on the Veda and later Hindu texts and scriptures.
Main aim of education, according to the Vedas, was liberation.
Vedic education included proper pronunciation and recitation of the Veda, sacrifice rules, grammar, composition, versification, meter, understanding of nature, reasoning, sciences, and skills for an occupation.
Medical knowledge existed and was taught.
Mentions in the Veda of herbal medicines.
Education included teaching Ayurveda, the 64 kalas (arts), crafts, Shilpa Shastra, and Natya Shastra.
Educating women was given importance.
Trained in dance, music, and housekeeping.
Sadyodwahas class: educated only until marriage.
Brahmavadinis class: never married and remained educated throughout their entire life.
Women were taught parts of the Vedas that included poems and religious songs required for rituals.
Noteworthy women scholars: Ghosha, Gargi, Indrani, and others.
Upanishads date from around 500 BC and are considered as "wisdom teachings".
Texts encouraged an exploratory learning process where teachers and students were co-travelers in a search for truth.
Teaching methods used reasoning and questioning.
Gurukula system supported traditional Hindu residential schools of learning.
Teacher (Guru) and student (Śiṣya) were considered to be equal.
Education was free, but students from well-to-do families paid "Gurudakshina".
Gurudakshina is a voluntary contribution and a mark of respect by the students towards their Guru.
Knowledge imparted at Gurukuls included Religion, Scriptures, Philosophy, Literature, Warfare, Statecraft, Medicine, Astrology, and History.
The corpus of Sanskrit literature encompasses a rich tradition of poetry and drama as well as technical scientific, philosophical and generally Hindu religious texts, though many central texts of Buddhism and Jainism have also been composed in Sanskrit.
Two epic poems formed part of ancient Indian education.
The Mahabharata discusses human goals (purpose, pleasure, duty, and liberation), attempting to explain the relationship of the individual to society and the world (the nature of the 'Self') and the workings of karma; part of which may date back to the 8th century BC.
Ramayana explores themes of human existence and the concept of dharma; compiled between about 400 BC and 200 AD and has 24,000 verses.
Buddhist Education
Subjects included Pitakas.
Vinaya Pitaka: contains a code of rules and regulations that govern the Buddhist community residing in the Monastery; preached to Buddhist monks (Sanga) to maintain discipline when interacting with people and nature.
Sutta Pitaka: divided into 5 niyakas (collections), contains Buddha's teachings recorded mainly as sermons.
Abhidhamma Pitaka: contains a summary and analysis of Buddha's teachings.
Early center of learning in India dating back to the 5th century BC was Taxila, which taught the trayi Vedas and the eighteen accomplishments.
Important Vedic/Hindu and Buddhist center of learning from the 6th century BC to the 5th century AD.
Nalanda was another important center of learning from the 5th century CE.
Well known Buddhist monastery in the kingdom of Magadha.
Scholars and students traveled from Tibet, China, Korea, and Central Asia to Nalanda.
Vikramashila was one of the largest Buddhist monasteries set up in the 8th to 9th centuries.
China
Rulers Yao and Shun (ca. 24th–23rd century BC) established the first schools (according to legendary accounts).
First education system was created in the Xia dynasty (2076–1600 BC).
Government built schools to educate aristocrats about rituals, literature, and archery.
Shang dynasty (1600 BC to 1046 BC):
Aristocrats' children studied in government schools.
Normal people studied in private schools.
Government schools were built in cities, private schools in rural areas.
Government schools focused on rituals, literature, politics, music, arts, and archery.
Private schools educated students in farmwork and handworks.
Zhou dynasty (1045–256 BC):
Five national schools in the capital city; Pi Yong (an imperial school) and Shang Xiang.
Schools taught the Six Arts: rites, music, archery, charioteering, calligraphy, and mathematics.
Boys learned arts related to ritual, archery and chariot driving.
Girls learned ritual, correct deportment, silk production, and weaving.
Origins of native Chinese philosophy developed.
Confucius (551–479 BC):
Founder of Confucianism.
Made a great impact on later generations of Chinese, and on the curriculum of the Chinese educational system for much of the following 2000 years.
Qin dynasty (246–207 BC):
Hierarchy of officials was set up to provide central control.
Literacy and philosophy knowledge were required to enter the hierarchy.
Content of education was designed to produce morally enlightened and cultivated generalists.
Han dynasty (206–221 AD):
Boys started learning basic skills at age seven.
In 124 BC, Emperor Wudi established the Imperial Academy.
Curriculum was the Five Classics of Confucius.
By the end of the Han dynasty, the academy enrolled more than 30,000 students, boys between the ages of fourteen and seventeen years.
Education was a luxury.
Nine-rank system:
Civil service nomination system during the Three Kingdoms (220–280 AD) and the Northern and Southern dynasties (420–589 AD).
Local government authorities selected talented candidates and categorized them into nine grades.
In practice, only the rich and powerful were selected.
Eventually superseded by the imperial examination system for the civil service in the Sui dynasty (581–618 AD).
Greece
Most education was private, except in Sparta.
Athens (5th and 4th century BC): aside from two years of military training, the state played little part in schooling.
Anyone could open a school and decide the curriculum.
Parents could choose a school based on subjects and fees.
Most parents sent their sons to schools for at least a few years (age seven to fourteen).
Learned gymnastics, music, and literacy.
Girls rarely received formal education.
Youngest students learned the alphabet by song, then copied letters on waxed wooden tablets.
Sons of poor or middle-class families often learned a trade by apprenticeship.
By around 350 BC, children studied arts such as drawing, painting, and sculpture.
Richest students continued their education with sophists, learning rhetoric, mathematics, geography, natural history, politics, and logic.
Greatest schools of higher education included:
Lyceum (Peripatetic school founded by Aristotle).
Platonic Academy (founded by Plato).
Education system of the wealthy ancient Greeks is also called Paideia.
In the subsequent Roman empire, Greek was the primary language of science.
Advanced scientific research and teaching were mainly carried on in the Hellenistic side of the Roman empire, in Greek.
Sparta's education system:
Designed to create warriors.
Boys were taken away from their homes at age seven to live in school dormitories or military barracks.
Taught sports, endurance, and fighting.
Harsh discipline.
Most of the population was illiterate.
Rome
First schools arose by the middle of the 4th century BC.
Concerned with basic socialization and rudimentary education of young Roman children.
Literacy rate in the 3rd century BC was estimated as around 1−2%.
Proliferation of private schools in Rome during the 2nd century BC.
Formal schools were established, serving paying students.
Both boys and girls were educated, though not necessarily together.
Arranged schools in tiers.
Educator Quintilian recognized the importance of starting education as early as possible.
Progression depended more on ability than age.
Emphasis on a student's ingenium or inborn "gift" for learning, and ability to afford high-level education.
Only the Roman elite would expect a complete formal education.
Higher education in Rome was more of a status symbol than a practical concern.
Literacy rates in the Greco-Roman world were seldom more than 20 percent, averaging perhaps not much above 10 percent in the Roman empire, though with wide regional variations, probably never rising above 5 percent in the western provinces.
Europe
Word school applies to a variety of educational organizations in the Middle Ages, including town, church, and monastery schools.
Late medieval period: students attending town schools were usually between the ages of seven and fourteen.
Instruction ranged from the basics of literacy to more advanced instruction in the Latin language.
May also have taught rudimentary arithmetic or letter writing and other skills useful in business.
Often instruction at various levels took place in the same schoolroom.
Early Middle Ages: monasteries of the Roman Catholic Church were the centers of education and literacy.
Preserving the Church's selection from Latin learning and maintaining the art of writing.
Medieval universities were run for hundreds of years as Christian monastic schools (Scholae monasticae), and later as cathedral schools.
First medieval institutions generally considered to be universities were established in Italy, France, and England in the late 11th and 12th centuries for the study of arts, law, medicine, and theology.
Evolved from much older Christian cathedral schools and monastic schools.
Students in the twelfth century were very proud of the master whom they studied under.
Scholars cite schools with distinctive doctrines; they use group names to describe the school rather than its geographical location.
Citizens in the twelfth century became very interested in learning the rare and difficult skills masters could provide.
Ireland became known as the island of saints and scholars.
Northumbria was famed as a center of religious learning and arts.
Carolingian Renaissance:
During the reign of Charlemagne, King of the Franks from 768 to 814 AD.
Empire united most of Western Europe for the first time since the Romans.
Flowering of literature, art, and architecture.
Charlemagne greatly increased the provision of monastic schools and scriptoria (centers for book-copying) in Francia.
Most of the surviving works of classical Latin were copied and preserved by Carolingian scholars.
Charlemagne took a serious interest in scholarship, promoting the liberal arts at the court, ordering that his children and grandchildren be well-educated, and even studying himself.
The English monk Alcuin was invited to Charlemagne's court at Aachen, and brought with him the precise classical Latin education that was available in the monasteries of Northumbria.
The return of this Latin proficiency to the kingdom of the Franks is regarded as an important step in the development of medieval Latin.
Charlemagne's chancery made use of a type of script currently known as Carolingian minuscule, providing a common writing style that allowed for communication across most of Europe.
Ottonian Renaissance accompanied the rise of the Saxon Dynasty in Germany
Bologna University in Italy, established in 1088 A.D., is the world's oldest university in continuous operation.
Charlemagne attempted to establish a free elementary education by parish priests in a capitulary of 797.
Cathedral schools and monasteries remained important throughout the Middle Ages.
In 1179 the Church mandated that priests provide the opportunity of free education to their flocks.
The 12th and 13th century renascence known as the Scholastic Movement was spread through the monasteries.
By the 11th century universities began to be established in major European cities.
Literacy became available to a wider class of people, and there were major advances in art, sculpture, music, and architecture.
In 1120, Dunfermline Abbey in Scotland established the first high school in the UK, Dunfermline High School.
Sculpture, paintings, and stained glass windows were vital educational media.
Islamic World
Muslims started schooling in 622 in Medina
Schooling at first in the mosques, but then schools became separate in schools next to mosques.
The first separate school was the Nizamiyah school, built in 1066 in Baghdad.
Children started school from the age of six with free tuition.
Education and schooling sprang up in ancient Muslim societies.
The University of al-Qarawiyyin located in Fes, Morocco, built in 859, is the oldest existing, continually operating and the first-degree awarding educational institution in the world.
The House of Wisdom in Baghdad was a library, translation, and educational center from the 9th to 13th centuries.
Scholars accumulated a great collection of knowledge in the world, and built on it through their discoveries.
The House was an unrivaled centre for the study of humanities and for sciences, including mathematics, astronomy, medicine, chemistry, zoology and geography.
Baghdad was known as the world's richest city and center for intellectual development of the time.
The Islamic mosque school (Madrasah) taught the Quran in Arabic and did not at all resemble the medieval European universities.
In the 9th century, Bimaristan medical schools were formed in the medieval Islamic world.
Al-Azhar University, founded in Cairo, Egypt in 975, was a Jami'ah which offered a variety of post-graduate degrees, had a Madrasah and theological seminary, and taught Islamic law, Islamic jurisprudence, Arabic grammar, Islamic astronomy, early Islamic philosophy and logic in Islamic philosophy.
Under the Ottoman Empire, the towns of Bursa and Edirne became major centers of learning.
In the 15th and 16th centuries, the town of Timbuktu in the West African nation of Mali became an Islamic centre of learning with students coming from as far away as the Middle East.
The primary focus of these schools was the teaching of the Qur'an, although broader instruction in fields such as logic, astronomy, and history also took place.
More than 18,000 manuscripts have been collected by the Ahmed Baba centre.
China
Full literacy in the Chinese language requires a knowledge of only between three and four thousand characters.
Three oral texts were used to teach children by rote memorization:
The Thousand Character Classic: A Chinese poem originating in the 6th century used for more than a millennium as a primer for teaching Chinese characters to children.
The Hundred Family Surnames: A rhyming poem in lines of eight characters composed in the early Song dynasty.
The Three Character Classic: An embodiment of Confucian thought suitable for teaching young children.
After learning Chinese characters, students wishing to ascend in the social hierarchy needed to study the Chinese classic texts.
In 605 AD, during the Sui dynasty, an examination system was explicitly instituted for a category of local talents.
The merit-based imperial examination system for evaluating and selecting officials gave rise to schools that taught the Chinese classic texts and continued in use for 1,300 years, until the end of the Qing dynasty in 1911.
The core of the curriculum for the imperial civil service examinations from the mid-12th century onwards was the Four Books, representing a foundational introduction to Confucianism.
Theoretically, any male adult in China could become a high-ranking government official by passing the imperial examination.
In reality, most of the candidates came from the numerically small but relatively wealthy land-owning gentry.
In the period preceding 1040–1050 AD, prefectural schools had been neglected by the state and left to the devices of wealthy patrons who provided private finances.
Fan Zhongyan issued an edict that would have used a combination of government funding and private financing to restore and rebuild all prefectural schools that had fallen into disuse and abandoned.
Fan's trend of government funding for education set in motion the movement of public schools that eclipsed private academies, which would not be officially reversed until the mid-13th century.
India
The first millennium and the few centuries preceding it saw the flourishing of higher education at Nalanda, Takshashila University, Ujjain, & Vikramshila Universities.
Among the subjects taught were Art, Architecture, Painting, Logic, mathematics, Grammar, Philosophy, Astronomy, Literature, Buddhism, Hinduism, Arthashastra (Economics & Politics), Law, and Medicine.
Takshila specialized in the study of medicine, while Ujjain emphasized astronomy.
Nalanda handled all branches of knowledge, and housed up to 10,000 students at its peak.
Mahavihara was established by King Dharmapala in response to a supposed decline in the quality of scholarship at Nālandā.
Major work in the fields of Mathematics, Astronomy, and Physics was done by Aryabhata.
Approximations of π, basic trigonometric equation, indeterminate equation, and positional notation are mentioned in Aryabhatiya.
The work was translated into Arabic around 820 CE by Al- Khwarizmi.
Even during the Middle Ages, education in India was imparted orally and provided to the individuals free of cost.
Ruling king did not provide any funds for education but it was the people belonging to the Hindu religion who donated for the preservation of the Hindu education.
The centres of Hindu learning were set up in places where the scholars resided and became places of pilgrimage.
After Muslims started ruling India, there was a rise in the spread of Islamic education.
The main aim of Islamic education included the acquisition of knowledge, propagation of Islam and Islamic social morals, preservation and spread of Muslim culture, etc.
Education was mainly imparted through Maqtabs, Madrassahas, and Mosques.
Education was usually funded by the nobles or the landlords, and imparted orally.
Indigenous education was widespread in India in the 18th century, with a school for every temple, mosque, or village in most regions of the country.
The subjects taught included Reading, Writing, Arithmetic, Theology, Law, Astronomy, Metaphysics, Ethics, Medical Science and Religion.
The schools were attended by students representative of all classes of society.
Japan
History of education in Japan dates back at least to the 6th century when Chinese learning was introduced at the Yamato court.
Foreign civilizations have often provided new ideas for the development of Japan's own culture.
Chinese teachings and ideas flowed into Japan from the sixth to the 9th century.
Along with the introduction of Buddhism came the Chinese system of writing and its literary tradition, and Confucianism.
By the 9th century, Heian-kyō the imperial capital, had five institutions of higher learning.
During the medieval period (1185–1600), Zen Buddhist monasteries were especially important centers of learning.
The Ashikaga School, Ashikaga Gakko, flourished in the 15th century as a center of higher learning.
Central and South American civilizations
Aztec
Aztec is a term used to refer to certain ethnic groups of central Mexico.
Until the age of fourteen, the education of children was in the hands of their parents, but supervised by the authorities of their calpōlli.
Part of this education involved learning a collection of sayings, called huēhuetlàtolli that embodied the Aztecs' ideals.
At 15, all boys and girls went to school.
Aztecs were one of the first people in the world to have mandatory education for nearly all children, regardless of gender, rank, or station.
Two types of schools:
Telpochcalli: for practical and military studies.
Calmecac: for advanced learning in writing, astronomy, statesmanship, theology, and other areas.
Aztec teachers (tlatimine) propounded a spartan regime of education with the purpose of forming a stoical people.
Girls were educated in the crafts of home and child-raising and were not taught to read or write.
All women were taught to be involved in religion, but there are no references to female priests.
Inca
Education during the time of the Inca Empire in the 15th and 16th centuries was divided into two principal spheres:
Education for the upper classes.
Education for the general population.
The royal classes and a few specially chosen individuals from the provinces of the Empire were formally educated by the Amautas (wise men).
The general population learned knowledge and skills from their immediate forebears.
The Amautas constituted a special class of wise men similar to the bards of Great Britain.
They included illustrious philosophers, poets, and priests who kept the oral histories of the Incas alive.
Considered the most highly educated and respected men in the Empire, the Amautas were largely entrusted with educating those of royal blood.
Education throughout the territories of the Incas was socially discriminatory, with most people not receiving the formal education that royalty received.
The Amautas ensured that the general population learned Quechua as the language of the Empire.
China
In the 1950s, The Chinese Communist Party oversaw the rapid expansion of primary education throughout China.
At the same time, it redesigned the primary school curriculum to emphasize the teaching of practical skills to improve the productivity of future workers.
Eradication of illiteracy was necessary “to open the way for development of productivity and technical and cultural revolution” .[71]
Chinese government officials noted the interrelationship between education and “productive labor”.
Europe
The University of Naples Federico II in Italy is the world's oldest state-funded university in continuous operation; established in 1224 by Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor.
Modern systems of education in Europe derive their origins from the schools of the High Middle Ages.
Most schools during this era were founded upon religious principles with the primary purpose of training the clergy.
Several secular universities existed, such as the University of Bologna, founded in 1088 in Italy.
Free education for the poor was officially mandated by the Church in 1179 when it decreed that every cathedral must assign a master to teach boys too poor to pay the regular fee.
Private, independent schools reappeared in medieval Europe during this time, but they, too, were religious in nature and mission.
The curriculum was usually based around the trivium and to a lesser extent quadrivium and was conducted in Latin.
In northern Europe, this clerical education was largely superseded by forms of elementary schooling following the Reformation.
In Scotland, the national Church of Scotland set out a program for spiritual reform in January 1561 setting the principle of a school teacher for every parish church and free education for the poor.
This was provided for by an Act of the Parliament of Scotland, passed in 1633, which introduced a tax to pay for this program.
The period between the 16th and 18th centuries saw education become significantly more widespread.
Herbart developed a system of pedagogy widely used in German-speaking areas.
Mass compulsory schooling started in Prussia around 1800 to "produce more soldiers and more obedient citizens".
Mentorship and pedagogical networks have influenced the evolution of music composition over centuries.
European education systems played a crucial role in transmitting musical knowledge and fostering innovation in composition since 15th century.
Central and Eastern Europe
In Central Europe, the 17th-century scientist and educator John Amos Comenius promulgated a reformed system of universal education that was widely used in Europe.
Its growth resulted in increased government interest in education.
In the 1760s, for instance, Ivan Betskoy was appointed by the Russian Tsarina, Catherine II, as an educational advisor.
Poland was established in 1773 by a Commission of National Education.
The commission functioned as the first government Ministry of Education in a European country.
Universities
By the 18th century, universities published academic journals; by the 19th century, the German and French university models were established.
The French established the Ecole Polytechnique in 1794 under the mathematician Gaspard Monge during the French Revolution, and it became a military academy under Napoleon I in 1804.
The German university — the Humboldtian model — was established by Wilhelm von Humboldt.
In the 19th and 20th centuries, universities concentrated on science and served an upper-class clientele.
Increasing academic interest in education led to the analysis of teaching methods and in the 1770s the establishment of the first chair of pedagogy at the University of Halle in Germany.
In 1884, a groundbreaking education conference was held in London at the International Health Exhibition, attracting specialists from all over Europe.
19th century
In the late 19th century, most of West, Central, and parts of East Europe began to provide elementary education in reading, writing, and arithmetic.
As more people became literate, they realized that most secondary education was only open to those who could afford it.
Having created primary education, the major nations had to give further attention to secondary education by the time of World War I.
20th century
New directions in education in the 20th century included:
Maria Montessori's Montessori schools in Italy.
Rudolf Steiner's development of Waldorf education in Germany.
Denmark
The Danish education system has its origin in the cathedral- and monastery schools established by the Church.
After the Reformation, which was officially implemented in 1536, the schools were taken over by the Crown.