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