Essential of Education in different sector

Education is very much essential for each & every sectors .Now a days we cannot think anything without education.We can compare education with heart and brain of human being.
Some of them are explain below

•   Traditional subsistence farming and animal husbandry

Relative to its territorial space, Africa is sparsely populated. Unaided by irrigation, fertilisation and crop rotation, life-sustaining fertile soil in vast areas of Africa is only a thin layer and susceptible to degradation and erosion. It cannot, therefore, sustain dense population. Subsistence farming is scattered in clusters of households over a wide area. When the soil is degraded and eroded, there has been periodic migration. In savannah and the arid regions, semi-nomadic communities, usually in kinship groups, live on animal herding. Many people had been driven into these environment and form of living by waves of earlier invasions of their own homelands, most recently by colonisation.

Although better farming techniques and reforestation programmes have been initiated, over-grazing and lack of soil care continue to hasten erosion in vast areas, causing the perimeters of the desserts to spread wider. Life on subsistence farming or herding is indeed very fragile. In times of draught, millions may suffer famine. When they cannot reach a hospitable environment or emergency-aid reach them, as for example, in times of war, millions of food-seeking migrants die.

Far removed from the mainstream developments in the capital city and centres of commerce, these people have retained their traditional culture, beliefs and languages, many of which have no written form.  As an alternative to the conventional school-based education, various delivery methods, such as mobile units, radio-based distance education, boarding schools and even forced ‘villagezation’, have been tried.  Provision of education for the widely scattered, semi-nomadic and nomadic people remain costly and logistically difficult to implement and sustain.

•   Cash crop plantations

In areas endowed with climate, topology and soil amenable to large-scale farming, cash crop plantations provide tea, coffee, cacao, sugar, tobacco and other agricultural products for consumers in Europe. With modern refrigeration and transport, fruits and flowers have also become exportable. To these commercial farms, labourers of both gender were recruited from wherever possible.  They could be from the nearby villages.  However, where land was acquired by driving away the indigenous population, people from other regions were brought in, including slaves and indentured labourers from other colonies. Isolated from their origin and their surroundings outside the farm, they developed their own unique cultures and languages.  Although spoken everyday, these languages have no written form. 

There have been very little educational opportunities for the children of farm labourers and families in the small villages that grew around these farms.  In modern times, the employers have organised or provided some form of education, but few, if any, attained level of quality standard that would enable the children to continue education or obtain qualified job elsewhere. 

•   Mining towns

In the mineral rich areas, many located in land-locked regions, large mining towns evolved. Aside from a few educated people needed for supervision and management, the unique social characteristics of these mining towns is the concentration of male manual labourers and absence of families. Recruited from various areas, the workers have very little education, if any, and speak different indigenous languages of the villages of their origin. As the men work and live without their families, every aspect of their lives has no permanence. There are many social and health problems in these towns.  There are often no alternatives to whatever services the mining company may provide.  School enrolment rate is, of course, very low in these towns, as there are very few, at least ‘legal’, children are present in these communities.

The other side of the coin is the absence of men of economically active age in the villages from which the mine workers are recruited.  The population of these villages consists mainly of old people, small children, young girls and their mothers, many of whom have been ‘abandoned’ by their husbands. School enrolment rates show, therefore, female predominance in these areas.

As long as the main economic sectors were dependent on cheap labour for agricultural and extractive industries, there was little incentive for investment in human development.  Although institutions for human control, such as administration, police and military, had developed during the previous era, institutions for human development had not.

•   Cosmopolitan port cities

As the continent is surrounded by sea on all sides, the countries along the coasts had the most intensive and extensive contact with the sear-faring powers. Major commercial centres in Africa are the port cities along the coasts and large rivers with access to the sea, some of which were, once upon a time, centres of slave trade.  Today these port cities are trading in African mineral and agricultural products in exchange for manufactured products from the industrialised regions. The population in these cosmopolitan cities is multi-cultural, multi-racial and polyglot. Cultural, social and financial institutions reflect predominance of European (English, French, Portuguese and Spanish) and Christian or Arabic and Islamic influences, both of which brought written languages essential for commerce and administration. Wherever their origin, the cosmopolitan enterpreneurial people were able to organise civic associations and religious institutions and provide education for their children in the languages required for the next generation to take over their business or to enter other professions.

•   The Capital city

The capital city in an African country is the centre of administration, politics and institutions of human control (government bureaux, police, military, etc.). It is the most, sometimes the only, developed part of the country, traditionally located at a strategically defensible position given the military technology of the time of its establishment and comfortable climate for the ruling class.  Therefore, it is usually located in the highlands, seldom in hot lowlands or humid coast, or close to the dirty mining towns teeming with labourers.  It can also be located at the centre of commerce, depending on the dominance of commercial or security interests.

The government ministries and bureaux provide employment opportunities for the educated in the civil service, businesses, technical services and organisations that cater to government needs.  There are also many professionals such as lawyers, doctors, etc. and services and entertainment industries catering to the needs of the ruling and the middle classes. They speak at least two languages, the home language and the official language. Whereas residential areas may have been racially segregated previously in many places, they are now increasingly income-stratified.

National university is located in the capital city. There are elite schools, many inherited from the colonial period, for the ruling class and private schools for the emerging middle class. The language of instruction and curriculum in the elite and private schools are usually European, as pupils in these schools encouraged by their parents mostly aspire to continue to university in Europe and increasingly the USA.

There are also many schools run by non-governmental organisations, especially religious organisations and ‘communities’, which played an important role for many Africans in earlier times when they could not enter schools in the racially segregated residential areas. Since independence, government financed schools were established in the cities and gradually spread to provincial towns and other areas. These government schools in the cities are usually over-crowded. In some countries, there was a time when revolutionary governments nationalised all schools. Subsequent governments have found it difficult to sustain them.

No matter what origin, education in the official language of government administration has been and is still today regarded widely as the passport for entry into this world of privilege.  National curriculum and examinations, therefore, often reflect this rationale; hence, irrelevant to the people with other needs and aspirations. Enrolment and literacy rates in the capital city are usually the highest in the country. This is changing due to urban migration. As white-collar work requires both males and females, gender-disparities may be the lowest in the country.

•   People in transition: migrants, displaced persons and refugees

On top of having to deal with the highest population growth rate (2.7%) in the world, EFA strategy in Africa has to address another target group - the urban migrants. As noted earlier in the section on demographic changes, African cities and towns are becoming overcrowded by urbanisation, due mainly to rural-to-urban migrants.  From 34% in 1995, the African urban population is estimated to be growing at the rate of 4.3%. It varies between 3% in South Africa to 9% in Burkina Faso.  Quantitatively alone, urban communities will have difficulty in expanding educational services at such a fast pace.  Even more seriously, the urban growth is due in large part to migration from rural areas.

Urbanization offers great opportunities for EFA, as many of the formerly unreachable are becoming reachable.  The traditional school-based education and clinic-based health services are difficult to deliver where population is scattered in remote regions. It was not too long ago, within the last two decades, that some governments tried forced ‘villagezation’, with the rationale that such public services can be more effectively administered. Without employment and other income-generating opportunities, such artificial collectivization was not sustainable.  Although urbanisation is often associated with problems, it also means that public services can be made available to an increasing proportion of the national population.

Rural-to-urban migrants in Africa, however, might just as well be foreign migrants, for many of them are ‘foreigners’ in these cities. They are refugees from rural poverty seeking employment and better future. They come from various conditions of life described above, often leaving behind impoverished countryside, eroded land no longer able to sustain life or laid down mines or commercial farms whose products are no longer competitive on the world market, or villages destroyed by natural or manmade disasters.  Many are illiterate and do not speak the mainstream language(s) of the city people.  They find temporary shelters in the outskirts of the city, where there are very little, if any, city amenities and public services such as health care and education. Adults and children scrounge for living, to survive another day in the hope of finding some income-bringing job. Families disintegrate, as traditional values, beliefs and morals are no longer valid guides and the youth seek luck and excitement in the streets of the city. Without education or skills for gainful occupation, boys may turn to street crimes and girls to prostitution. Where the rich and the poor live in close proximity, there are also NGOs and other forms of volunteer organisations that are motivated to engage in charity and help activities.

A minister speaking at a regional conference on EFA mid-decade review said that his country’s education policy was aimed at the rural population. No sooner than they thought that it succeeded, they were caught unprepared for the growing number of ‘street children’ and migrants in over-crowded in city slums squatter settlements mushrooming around the cities

•    Displaced population and refugees

By the very nature of the causes, governments of the countries in conflict are not able to provide security and social services, let alone education, to these people. Many organisations, with UNHCR in lead, are addressing the issue of provision of emergency assistance, including education. Many agencies have found it very difficult to raise funds for emergency assistance to Africa. Both agency staff and Africans are witnessing the extreme contrast in the response of Americans and Europeans to the plight of Africans and to that of Kosovo Albanians.

In provision of ‘emergency assistance’ as well as assessment and formulation of EFA strategies, one of the realities we must admit is the fact that there are, and there will be, massive amount of people affected by these conflicts on the continent.  It is more or less a permanent emergency. Millions of people, victims, perpetrators, traumatised women, children and child-soldiers in countries in conflict and in countries of refuge need medical and psychological treatment and special education.  Children’s preparation for life cannot be suspended until normalcy is restored. After such experiences, they are normal no more.

Restoration of peace and economic growth are essential for the children to be able to go back to school and normal life. Therefore, EFA strategies in Africa must include educational services for various stages of conflict as, for example, during the conflict, displaced population, refugees, and, after the conflict, return and restoration of destroyed schools, and rehabilitation of traumatised children and child soldiers.

Needless to say, there are no reliable statistics concerning education of these people.  Educational and demographic statistics from these countries, even where available, are distorted by these massive movement of people across national boundaries.

What education for whom?

Education is the most important part of human life.Different person in different field required different education. Education for all cannot be defined simply in terms of age groups in a homogeneous population. To be realistic and hence feasible and sustainable, the goal, targets and strategies must be appropriate for the learning needs of specific age groups in specific living environment. The main groups described above are:

•    Widely scattered subsistence farming in remote regions
•    Nomadic and semi-nomadic in Savannah and dessert
•    Cash crop plantations, ‘commercial farming’ areas
•    Mining towns
•    Emigrant villages without men
•    Cosmopolitan port cities
•    Capital city and major administrative towns
•    Squatter-settlements and slums of migrants
•    Displaced persons in flight
•    Refugees in foreign countries
•    Repatriated refugees
•    Traumatised victims and perpetrators of war

In many ways, the differences within the countries are often greater than between countries. In a country, for example, various languages of these groups vary from pre-literate languages spoken only in a few villages to international languages of commerce and science. In social organisation, from isolated and scattered households and nomads to complex cities. In technology, from near stone-age to cyber-space. In mode of learning, from nature to computer-simulation. A child in a rural school in one country may have more in common with her counterpart in a neighbouring country than a child in a urban school in her own country.

Unfortunately those who really need essential knowledge and skills for survival and prosperity are the ones with least opportunities for engaging in learning activities. To attain education for all, the main target groups would be logically those who have not yet been reached by education, the groups that the first decade of EFA failed to reach: the out-of-school children, youth and adults living in environment where there are little or no learning opportunities. Therefore, an analysis of the obstacles to education for these groups is needed for formulating strategies that are feasible and sustainable.

To be feasible sustainable and relevant, we need to define the basic learning needs at various stages and conditions life of early childhood, youth and adult,

•    to be able to survive,
•    to develop their full capacities to live and work in dignity,
•    to participate fully in development,
•    to improve the quality of their lives,
•    to make informed decisions, and
•    to continue learning,

Their learning needs must be identified in terms of specific knowledge and skills required in the context of the respective groups and mode of delivery that is feasible and sustainable in their respective environment.

Moreover, in formulating the framework of action that is anchored to reality, we need to relate each cell of the matrix to the following regional priority issues:

•    the role of education in social, cultural and economic developmental goals and vice versa
•    curriculum content relevance and quality
•    the role of the state and the transformation of the education system structures and functions
•    building capacity in statistics, information systems, research, education planning and management and school administration
•    forging partnership with NGO and civil society.

Education in Nepal

Primitive and very ancient societies had no educational institutions.  Children of that period learned what they needed to know by observing or watching going on. It took no school to teach a tribal boy how to hunt. A boy’s father would give him instruction in hunting and these lessons were the nearest thing to “educational institutions” that could be found in a simple society. Such institution was not an educational institution; it was simply a part of a man’s family duties.

                                   Schools appeared when cultures became too complex for all needed learning to be handled easily within the family. Furthermore, developing religions often required that legends, rituals, and chants be learned and memorized. Family members and their neighbors are needed to learn these instructions. At this point of human history,  full- time specialists as teachers and formal classes of students were prerequisite for the development of educational institutions to teach the boys of the families of a particular society In this way education arrived, argues the historians and social scientists.

            The term education is derived from the Latin educare which literally means to ‘bring up’. The idea of education is not merely to impart knowledge to the students in some areas of study but to develop in him those habits and attitudes with which he may successfully face the future. According to Aristotle, the aim of education is ‘to develop man’s faculties, especially, his mind, so that he may be able to enjoy the contemplation of the supreme truth, goodness and beauty in which perfect happiness essentially consists.’

                             E.Durkheim, ‘education can be conceived as the socialization of the younger generation. It is a continuous effort to impose on the child ways of seeing, feeling and acting which he could not arrived at spontaneously.’

                                        Means to impart the education in Nepal was Sanskrit in the past. Saint and sages, religious teachers, used to impart education as a moral lesson. These days education is featured with the ways to receive degree in order to get earning for survival. The Rana period provided the education with the opening of some schools to the limitation of its family members only and very few colleges were opened as a part of socio-political reform to avoid the possible revolt against Rana regime. Panchayat era was rather based on the modern education system with relatively mass enrollment in school and college. The post Jana Andolan I has been characterized by the mushrooming of colleges and schools in private sectors with a remarkable decline in illiteracy rate. Education in post 2046 period is being nurtured with advanced and modern education system providing large number of the younger population the modern education with the introduction of western values and needs to greater extension.

Education under Rana Rule

Most of the people in Nepal are uneducated due to many reason among them Rana's rule under education is also one of them .
 The Rana rulers, who placed Nepal under their feudal yoke for about 100 years until the beginning of the 1950s, feared an educated public. This fear also was held by Prime Minister Chandra Shamsher Rana, who established Tri-Chandra College in 1918 and named it after himself. During the inauguration of the college, Chandra Shamsher lamented that its opening was the ultimate death knell to Rana rule. He personally felt responsible for the downfall of Rana rule, and his words became prophetic for the crumbling of Rana political power in 1950-51.

The privileged access of members of the higher castes and wealthier economic strata to education was for centuries a distinguishing feature of society. The Ranas kept education the exclusive prerogative of the ruling elite; the rest of the population remained largely illiterate. The Ranas were opposed to any form of public schooling for the people, although they emphasized formal instruction for their own children to prepare them for a place in the government.

The founder of the Rana regime, Jang Bahadur Kunwar, later known as Jang Bahadur Rana, decided to give his children an English education rather than the traditional religiously oriented training. In 1854 Jang Bahadur engaged an English tutor to hold classes for his children in the Rana palace. This act tipped the balance in favor of English education and established its supremacy over the traditional type of Sanskrit-based education. In 1991 English education still carried a higher status and prestige than did traditional education.

Jang Bahadur's successor opened these classes to all Rana children and formally organized them into Durbar High School. A brief shift in government education policy came in 1901, when Prime Minister Dev Shamsher Rana took office and called for sweeping education reforms. He proposed a system of universal public primary education, using Nepali as the language of instruction, and opening Durbar High School to children who were not members of the Rana clan. Dev Shamsher's policies were so unpopular that he was deposed within a few months. His call for reforms did not entirely disappear, however. A few Nepali-language primary schools in the Kathmandu Valley, the Hill Region, and the Tarai remained open, and the practice of admitting a few middle- and low-caste children to Durbar High School continued.

Before World War II (1939-45), several new English middle and high schools were founded in Patan, Biratnagar, and elsewhere, and a girls' high school was opened in Kathmandu. In the villages, public respect for education was increasing, largely as a result of the influence of returning Gurkha soldiers, many of whom had learned to read and write while serving in the British army. Some retired soldiers began giving rudimentary education to children in their villages. Some members of the high-caste, elite families sent their children to Patna University, Banaras Hindu University, or other universities in India for higher academic or technical training. It was in fact, some of these students, having realized how oppressive the policies of Rana rule were, who initiated antiRana movements, provided revolutionary cadres, and finally began the revolution that ultimately led to the overthrow of Rana rule in 1951.

Before the 1950-51 revolution, Nepal had 310 primary and middle schools, eleven high schools, two colleges, one normal school, and one special technical school. In the early 1950s, the average literacy rate was 5 percent. Literacy among males was 10 percent and among females less than 1 percent. Only 1 child in 100 attended school.

Education for whom and what?

Time and time again, studies, reports and conference declarations call for education meeting the needs of all.  This is a big order for African, as the  continent, even within each country, has extreme variation in wealth, poverty, security, livelihood, language, culture and ways to survive and thrive. People live in different worlds of material and cultural environment - traditional subsistence farming, the nomadic and semi-nomadic groups, commercial farms, mining towns, migrant-workers’ home villages, cosmopolitan trading cities, capital city, provincial towns, the slums, refugee settlements, etc.

The variation in geography, climate and natural resources across the continent, the vagaries of economy and weather as well as man-made disasters and opportunities influence patterns of human settlement and migration.  As there are all forms of human settlement, provision of education for all is a difficult task indeed. Although such a complex subject cannot be given adequate coverage in the present context, this section will briefly highlight certain patterns, albeit in a simplified way, pertinent for analysis and formulation of the strategies for reaching the EFA target groups. 

There are, of course, many exceptions to the generalizations made in this section.  The main point is that African population lives in extremely different environments and conditions and, therefore, EFA strategies must be formulated accordingly for the respective target groups.  For each type of human settlement and conditions of existence, it would be necessary to ask education for whom and for what? 

Educational Technology

Educational technology (also called learning technology) is the study and ethical practice of facilitating learning and improving performance by creating, using and managing appropriate technological processes and resources."[1] The term educational technology is often associated with, and encompasses, instructional theory and learning theory. While instructional technology covers the processes and systems of learning and instruction, educational technology includes other systems used in the process of developing human capability. Educational Technology includes, but is not limited to, software, hardware, as well as Internet applications and activities. But there is still debate on what these terms mean.

Educational technology is most simply and comfortably defined as an array of tools that might prove helpful in advancing student learning. Educational Technology relies on a broad definition of the word "technology". Technology can refer to material objects of use to humanity, such as machines or hardware, but it can also encompass broader themes, including systems, methods of organization, and techniques. Some modern tools include but are not limited to overhead projectors, laptop computers, and calculators. Newer tools such as "smart-phones" and games (both online and offline) are beginning to draw serious attention for their learning potential.

Those who employ educational technologies to explore ideas and communicate meaning are learners or teachers.

The word technology for the sister fields of Educational and Human Performance Technology means "applied science." In other words, any valid and reliable process or procedure that is derived from basic research using the "scientific method" is considered a "technology." Educational or Human Performance Technology may be based purely on algorithmic or heuristic processes, but neither necessarily implies physical technology. The word technology, comes from the Greek "Techie" which means craft or art. Another word "technique", with the same origin, also may be used when considering the field Educational technology. So Educational technology may be extended to include the techniques of the educator.

Health education

Health education is the profession of educating people about health. Areas within this profession encompass environmental health, physical health, social health, emotional health, intellectual health, and spiritual health. It can be defined as the principle by which individuals and groups of people learn to behave in a manner conducive to the promotion, maintenance, or restoration of health. However, as there are multiple definitions of health, there are also multiple definitions of health education. The Joint Committee on Health Education and Promotion Terminology of 2001 defined Health Education as "any combination of planned learning experiences based on sound theories that provide individuals, groups, and communities the opportunity to acquire information and the skills needed to make quality health decisions."  The World Health Organization defined Health Education as "comprising consciously constructed opportunities for learning involving some form of communication designed to improve health literacy, including improving knowledge, and developing life skills which are conducive to individual and community health.

Education for health begins with people. It hopes to motivate them with whatever interests they may have in improving their living conditions. Its aim is to develop in them a sense of responsibility for health conditions for themselves as individuals, as members of families, and as communities. In communicable disease control, health education commonly includes an appraisal of what is known by a population about a disease, an assessment of habits and attitudes of the people as they relate to spread and frequency of the disease, and the presentation of specific means to remedy observed deficiencies.

Health education is also an effective tool that helps improve health in developing nations. It not only teaches prevention and basic health knowledge but also conditions ideas that re-shape everyday habits of people with unhealthy lifestyles in developing countries. This type of conditioning not only affects the immediate recipients of such education but also future generations will benefit from an improved and properly cultivated ideas about health that will eventually be ingrained with widely spread health education. Moreover, besides physical health prevention, health education can also provide more aid and help people deal healthier with situations of extreme stress, anxiety, depression or other emotional disturbances to lessen the impact of these sorts of mental and emotional constituents, which can consequently lead to detrimental physical effects.

The Importance of Education

The importance of education is quite clear. Education is the knowledge of putting one's potentials to maximum use. One can safely say that a human being is not in the proper sense till he is educated.
This importance of education is basically for two reasons. The first is that the training of a human mind is not complete without education. Education makes man a right thinker. It tells man how to think and how to make decision.
The second reason for the importance of education is that only through the attainment of education, man is enabled to receive information from the external world; to acquaint himself with past history and receive all necessary information regarding the present. Without education, man is as though in a closed room and with education he finds himself in a room with all its windows open towards outside world.
Significance Of Education In Our Life

Makes Better Citizens
Education makes a worthy contribution to our lives, by making us responsible citizens. We get to know our history and culture through education and imbibe those values. Education opens our mind and expands our horizon. It enables us to understand our duties as a citizen and encourages us to follow them. There is no denying the fact that an educated person is a better citizen.

Ensures A Productive Future       
Education is futuristic in character, in so far that it ensures that the one who receives good education gets a secure future. Our productivity is increased by acquiring new skills and talents through education. We find ourselves in the most competitive jobs, courtesy the right training and education. The importance of education is evident by the dizzy heights we achieve in life.

Opens New Vistas
The significance of education, for a great part, lies in its ability to open new vistas for us. It expands our outlook and teaches us to be tolerant towards other views. An educated person will find it easier to understand a different point of view than the one who is uneducated. Education broadens our mental landscape and is the way forward to greater enlightenment - the ultimate goal of every human in life.

Spreads Awareness
Awareness is a virtue in itself, given that the lack of awareness is lamented everywhere. Education spreads awareness, informing us about our rights and the services that we can access. On the most basic notes, it teaches us to differentiate between right and wrong. For most part of our lives, we falter in dichotomizing right and wrong, but the right education gives us the right answers.

Helps In Decision-Making
Decision making is an integral part of our life. We have to take decisions throughout our lives and sometimes, decision making can be a very tough and challenging process. It can leave us perplexed and often wondering, as to what is the right choice. Education is significant, because it enable us to take the right decisions and prevents losses.

Bolsters Confidence
An educated person is a confident person. Education fosters a positive outlook and allows us to believe in ourselves. Self-belief is the most wanted trait in a human being and education leads us towards relying on ourselves, making us believe that we are ready to take on the world.

Online Education

Education can now be obtained not only from within the four walls of the classroom.
Online education, also known as distance learning or e-learning, differs from traditional education because students are not required to visit an actual classroom and listen to an instructor face-to-face.

In the past, working adults weren't able to further their careers because of time restraints; including, but not limited to, working overtime, business travel, and caring for families. Online education takes away those time restraints by offering a completely virtual learning experience.

Working adults can now continue their education, earn higher degrees, and earn more money by attending courses that primarily take place over the Internet.

It is basically credit-granting courses or education training delivered primarily via the Internet to students at remote locations, including their homes. The Online courses may or may not be delivered synchronously. An online course may need that students and teachers meet once or periodically in a physical setting for lectures, labs, or exams, so long as the time spent in the physical setting does not exceed 25 percent of the total course time. Online education encompasses various degrees and courses. Through online education, one can opt for many online degree or online courses from various online universities that provide this facility.

Online education Advantages:

• You don't have to hamper your present occupation. Getting an online degree may even assist in increasing your career prospects. 
• You can study in one of the top colleges in any state of the country or abroad. You don't even have to travel and pay for your boarding.
• You get an accredited degree from universities recognized worldwide.
• For those with financial constraints studying online is a good option.

History of Education

The history of education is the history of teaching and learning. Each generation, since the beginning of human evolution and writing, has sought to pass on cultural and social values, traditions, morality, religion and skills to the next generation. The passing on of culture is also known as enculturation and the learning of social values and behavior is socialization. The history of the curricula of such education reflects human history itself, the history of knowledge, beliefs, skills and cultures of humanity.

In pre-literate societies, education was achieved orally and through observation and imitation. The young learned informally from their parents, extended family and grandparents. At later stages of their lives, they received instruction of a more structured and formal nature, imparted by people not necessarily related, in the context of initiation, religion or ritual.

As the customs and knowledge of ancient civilizations became more complex, many skills would have been learned from an experienced person on the job, in animal husbandry, agriculture, fishing, preparation and preservation of food, construction, stone work, metal work, boat building, the making of weapons and defenses, the military skills and many other occupations.

With the development of writing, it became possible for stories, poetry, knowledge, beliefs, and customs to be recorded and passed on more accurately to people out of earshot and to future generations. In many societies, the spread of literacy was slow; morality and illiteracy remained predominant for much of the population for centuries and even millennia. Literacy in preindustrial societies was associated with civil administration, law, long distance trade or commerce, and religion.[8] A formal schooling in literacy was often only available to a small part of the population, either at religious institutions or for the wealthy who could afford to pay for their tutors. The earliest known universities, or places of higher education, started teaching a millennium or more ago.

Universal education of all children in literacy has been a recent development, not occurring in many countries until after 1850 CE. Even today, in some parts of the world, literacy rates are below 60 per cent (for example, in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Bangladesh). Schools, colleges and universities have not been the only methods of formal education and training. Many professions have additional training requirements, and in Europe, from the middle Ages until recent times, the skills of a trade were not generally learnt in a classroom, but rather by serving an apprenticeship.

Nowadays, formal education consists of systematic instruction, teaching and training by professional teachers. This consists of the application of pedagogy and the development of curricula.