The history of education is nothing different than the history of teaching and of learning. To learn something new or news of one kind or the other is an older practice. In most communities,education started during earlier periods as each generation encompassed on various cultural and social values, traditions, morality, religion, knowledge and skills over the subsequent generation.

Enculturation is term associated with the passage on of culture , and socialization is concerned with learning of social values as well as behaviors. In the past years , in pre-literate societies, the method of achieving education was orally and observation and imitation played an important role. Children learned from their parents, extended family as well as kin. Thereafter, instruction of a more structured and formal nature was imparted to them as they grow up.

It was delivered by people that may or may not be related to them, in terms of initiation, religion or ritual. With the increasing complexity of the customs and knowledge of ancient civilizations , a large number of skills could be learned from an proficient person on the job, in the fields of , agriculture, fishing, preparation and preservation of food, animal husbandry, stone work, metal work, boat building and much more. Writing skilled has paved a way for stories, poetry, knowledge, beliefs, and customs to get recorded and be passed on to people properly and without generating errors.

The spread and growth of education was slow in many societies; or we can say that orality and illiteracy persisted for a large population for centuries . Looking at the preindustrial societies, literacy was concerned with the fields of civil administration, law, long distance trade or commerce, and even religion. The well known universities, higher education areas, begin the teaching practice for about a millennium or more ago.

A recent development is the Universal education of all children in the field of education, not present in different countries till after the year 1850 CE. Looking at the current scenario, some parts of the world still have literacy rates less than 60 percent.

Formal education currently is composed of systematic instruction, teaching as well as training delivered by professional teachers. This is composed of the application of pedagogy and developing curricula.