प्राचीन भारत में शिक्षा (डॉ. ए.एस. अल्तेकर - गुरुकुल एवं बौद्ध विहार शिक्षण इतिहास)

CHAPTER VII.
PRIMARY EDUCATION.
Primary education why not important in early times—It did
not include the 3 R's before c. 1000 B. C.—Reading and writing
included in it in the first millennium B. C.—Obligatory Upanayana
helps the spread of literacy—The curriculum and agencies of
primary education—The time of its commencement—Methods of
teaching—Primary schools and teachers—Extent of literacy—
Vernacular education—Literacy at c. 1800 A. D.
Primary Education not important in Ancient
Times :—Having finished our survey of higher literary
education in the last chapter, let us now turn to
primary education. Primary education in the sense of
the knowledge of the 3 R's has become important only
in the modern age. At a time when paper and
printing were unknown, the ability to read and write
was not a very valuable or useful attainment for the
smith, the carpenter or the agriculturist. Today it
is rightly held that even the ordinary labourer or
the artisan should receive primary education, for it
enables him to utilise his spare time in reading useful
literature which increases his knowledge, widens his
outlook and makes him a more useful and intelligent
member of society. Literacy however did not serve
this purpose in ancient times both in the East and the
West. Paper and printing being both unknown,
books were fragile, costly and beyond the means of
the average workman or the agriculturist. The
ability to read and write did not thus afford the means
of a wider intercourse with the thoughts and ideals of
the best minds of the race, as far as the ordinary man
was concerned. He could obtain access to the best
wisdom of his nation rather by attending Kathās and