education

Attic teachers and scholars depicted on an ancient Greek bowl. Ancient Greece was the first known civilization to formalize education, albeit only for those destined for the military or public life.

English schoolroom c. 1840. The state took over some elements of the provision of education with the Education Act 1870 which introduced universal elementary education in England and Wales.

Process, beginning at birth, of developing intellectual capacity, skills, and social awareness, especially by instruction. In its more restricted sense, the term refers to the process of imparting literacy, numeracy, and a generally accepted body of knowledge.

History of education

In ancient China, formalized education received impetus during the Han dynasty (206 BC–AD 220). An imperial decree in 165 BC established open competitive examinations for the recruitment of members of the civil service, based mainly on a detailed study of literature.

The Romans adopted the Greek system of education and spread it through Western Europe. Following the disintegration of the Roman Empire, widespread education vanished from Europe, although Christian monasteries preserved both learning and Latin. In the Middle Ages, Charlemagne's monastic schools taught the ‘seven liberal arts’: grammar, logic, rhetoric, arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy; elementary schools, generally presided over by a parish priest, instructed children of the poor in reading, writing, and arithmetic. From the monastic schools emerged the theological philosophers of the Scholastic Movement, which in the 11th–13th centuries led to the foundation of the universities of Paris (Sorbonne), Bologna, Padua, Oxford, and Cambridge. The capture of Constantinople, capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, by the Turks in 1453 propelled its Christian scholars into exile across Europe, and revived European interest in learning.

The Renaissance humanist movement encouraged the free study of all classical writers, both Latin and Greek, with the aim of assimilating their reasoning and making a philological study of the texts. It owed much to Arabic scholarly activity, which – beginning with the translation and augmentation of Greek scientific texts – had continued unabated during the Dark Ages and had reached Europe via Moorish influences in Sicily and Spain. The curriculum of humanist schools, of which Latin was the foundation, was widely adopted, although by the 17th century it had failed to adapt to society's changing needs and by the early 18th century organized education was at a low level.

Compulsory attendance at primary schools was first established in the mid-18th century in Prussia, and has since spread almost worldwide. Compulsory schooling in industrialized countries is typically from around age 5 or 6 to around age 15 or 16; in 2001 public education expenditure was around 5% of GNP (Spain 3.2%, Japan 4.4%, Denmark 7.7%).

Responsibility and structure In the USA, public education is paid for by property taxes and is mainly the responsibility of the states and local school boards, but the Department of Education, headed by a secretary who is a member of the president's cabinet, is responsible for federal aspects, including the administration of federal monies to state and local school systems. Private schools may be church affiliated or secular, and both must meet minimum local standards.

Education is normally divided into (optionally) nursery or kindergarten (to age 6), elementary or grammar school (6 to 11), junior high school (12 to 14), and high school (15 to 18). The basic school-leaving qualification is the high school diploma, normally awarded by the individual school or local school district on successful completion of a broad secondary school curriculum. There is no national school-leaving examination. High schools provide specialized programmes to prepare students for technical and commercial careers, as well as academic programmes aimed at preparation for college. Some students take the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) in their senior year at high school, since many private colleges and universities require certain minimum SAT scores for admission.

Enrolment in US public and private elementary and secondary schools reached its highest level in history in September 2000, with the enrolment of about 53 million children, according to a report by the US Department of Education. It also estimated that by 2005, enrolment will reach 53.5 million. The increase was assumed to be a result of immigration and higher population levels.

A high proportion of US high-school graduates go on to higher education, at either a state-funded or private college or university.

Four-year colleges and universities in the USA were charging an average of $ 3,111 for tuition and fees for the 1997–98 academic year. The College Board said it represented a one-year increase of 5%, following the same increase the year before. Private colleges and universities also increased their charges by 5% to an average of $13,664 a year. In 1996–97 financial aid to students by federal, state, and institutional sources totalled $55 billion.

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