Insights from the Head of Professor Aremefe
Today's students have access to extensive learning ecosystems and can freely choose their future professions based on their interests and preferences. However, this has not always been the case, and even today, acquiring knowledge is a luxury for many. The evolution of education through different eras and its status as a reliable investment is discussed by the head, who has temporarily separated from our colleague, the crypto polymath Aremefe.
Education of the Indians
Setting: Takshashila, Ancient India. 5th century BC.
In what is now India, education before Buddhism was purely practical. Brahmins studied sacred Hindu texts, rituals, and philosophy, while children from lower castes learned skills like farming, swordsmanship, and shoemaking.
For everyone except the Shudras, education began with a special initiation ritual called Upanayana. A father, with his wife's consent, would bring his son to a teacher to make him a Dvija, or “twice-born.” From that moment, he had two fathers: the one who brought him into the physical world and the one who guided him into the world of knowledge. The Laws of Manu stated:
“At the eighth year after conception, initiation for a Brahmin should be performed; at the eleventh for a Kshatriya; at the twelfth for a Vaishya. The initiation of a Brahmin seeking sacred knowledge can be performed at the fifth year, a Kshatriya seeking power at the sixth, and a Vaishya seeking wealth at the eighth.”
Those who missed initiation became outcasts and could not marry within their caste. Girls, with rare exceptions, were educated at home, focusing solely on household management. The most revered quality in any woman was obedience.
This situation changed with the arrival of Siddhartha Gautama, known to all as the Buddha Shakyamuni. He was the first to be born and the second to become. The Buddha dismantled the Brahmins' monopoly on religious authority, spiritually equalizing all people. This led to a significant societal leap and, consequently, educational reform: Sanskrit, based on Brahmi, became the leading language in Northern India. Leave the ideograms to the barbarians; we have an alphabet.
About 300 years later, teachers began to be paid. Indians transitioned to a two-tier education system: Tola for primary school and Agrahara for higher education. In Agraharas, subjects like mathematics, geography, medicine, music, and even snake charm science were taught.
Education of the Romans
Setting: Rome. 1st century BC – 5th century AD.
Education began around age seven, with girls from wealthy families typically taught at home, while poorer girls learned alongside boys. During the Hellenistic period, a three-tier education system emerged: primary, secondary, and higher schools. Primary schools taught writing, reading, and basic arithmetic, often with slaves as teachers. In secondary schools (grammar schools), students learned proper phrasing and text interpretation, as well as astronomy, philosophy, and music, taught by freedmen using the first textbooks.
Not everyone reached the third tier, the schools of rhetoric, for two reasons: distance and cost. Such institutions were rare in the provinces, and tuition was significantly higher than in grammar schools. However, students learned Greek if they were Romans and Latin if they were Greeks, along with composition lessons and even gymnastics. Teachers were free citizens, although slaves could also attend with their owners' permission.
After the fall of the Roman Empire, many technologies and social institutions either disappeared or gradually degraded, including education, which became predominantly church-related.
Education of the Burghers
Setting: Western Europe. 5th–14th centuries AD.
The Middle Ages could be discussed endlessly, but my task is to describe the educational process. Therefore, I will focus on three stages: Early, High, and Late Middle Ages.
In the Early Middle Ages, the situation was bleak. If the Buddha Shakyamuni had seen it, he would have slapped his forehead and gone into deep meditation. Education became a system for a narrow circle of initiates, focused on religion. Teachers were preachers who taught religious texts through rote memorization and endless repetition.
Few could afford to study Latin, psalms, and church singing. Wealthy parents sent their children to monastic schools, condemning them to a life dedicated to serving God. At that time, this was quite beneficial: food was provided, clothes were washed, hands were kissed, and if trams existed then, rides would have been free. However, getting there required effort.
The High Middle Ages were much more interesting. After all, the first universities emerged! It became clear that people are different and have different preferences. For instance, that guy might sing psalms poorly, but he has kind eyes and can uproot a ten-year-old willow with one hand. So, he was sent to the lord's court to learn military arts, etiquette, and horseback riding to become a knight, loyal to his lord and keeping a portrait of his lady love under his armor. Those inclined towards intellectual work went to universities to study science and religion. It seemed like a better situation: universities existed, ambitious knights were present, and power remained intact. But nothing lasts forever.
The spread of firearms and the plague pandemic affected education. With the advent of hand cannons, the knightly class began to lose its significance as a military unit, and the Black Death severely reduced the population density in major cities. After its end, the economy restructured, and hired merchants demanded three measures for one. They amassed fortunes and sent their children to school.
A colossal demand created supply—Vienna, Copenhagen, Aberdeen, and other universities emerged. However, education remained accessible only to the elite—money was no longer exclusive to aristocrats.
Setting: Žatec, Czech Republic. 15th century. London, England. 18th century.
With the development of navigation and the ability to teach homeless vagabonds maritime skills, Europeans discovered the previously unknown continent of America. Universities began to study the works of ancient philosophers—failing to know Seneca's "Moral Letters to Lucilius" was considered bad form.
A global shift occurred from religious education to more general subjects: geography, ethics, and basic law. The Gutenberg press was invented—no more need for the soot-blackened teacher's grimoires passed down through generations.
Education became professional. At that time, Sir Thomas More raised a revolutionary question: why should access to knowledge be a privilege when the strength of a chain is determined by the strength of its weakest link?
However, wondering does not equate to action. Diminishing Sir More's contributions is the last thing to do, but all his efforts pale in comparison to the true reformer of the education system—Jan Amos Comenius, a Czech writer and educator. He was clearly ahead of his time, as he sought to teach children through motivation rather than through punishment.
Thanks to him, the idea of class-based education took on a systematic form. Education became regular and inevitable, textbooks became essential attributes of the process, and teaching became a state profession. Debates about whether "knowledge is a gift from God" and should therefore be free ended with the distinction between "payment for labor" and "payment for goodness."
More's ideas bore fruit—England introduced a free school program, significantly increasing accessibility. However, the gentry were not satisfied with merely providing knowledge to many—they wanted to make it universal and compulsory. They did not stop at secondary education but looked towards higher education, allowing children from low-income families and ethnic minorities to study—an unheard-of freedom at that time!
Comenius's ideas were further developed, and the educational process became continuous. The education system was structured like a pyramid: primary classes received more subjects with less depth, middle classes fewer subjects with greater depth, and senior classes specialized subjects with maximum depth.
Bachelor's and master's programs developed, becoming powerful social elevators. A graduate of an art school could apprentice with a master, a doctor could open a medical practice, and a law master could find a place in the government apparatus.
Everyone had a chance to become someone, but few would take it.
Education of the Communists
Setting: Kyshtym. 1910–1970.
But why are we discussing these foreign matters? Let's leave them be and travel through space and time to the Soviet Union.
The first years after the revolution were groundbreaking for the education system in Russia. In 1919, a literacy program (likbez) was launched, grades were abolished in schools, and many other experiments were conducted (though soon canceled with the triumph of Stalinism). Education had a strong scientific and technical character with a significant ideological component.
Between 1918 and 1920, the Far Eastern, Nizhny Novgorod, and Smolensk universities were reorganized with a strong emphasis on training personnel for industrialization and the army. In the post-revolutionary period, university leadership aligned with party policy, establishing workers' faculties and socialism departments.
Rabfak was a place where individuals who had not received secondary education in childhood could catch up in three to four years to prepare for higher education. Socialism departments produced true ideological units, who, dedicating their lives to Marxist-Leninist theory, spread their knowledge to the masses like preachers.
Education has always served as a powerful propaganda tool, but Soviet authorities elevated this aspect of schools to a qualitatively new level. Even after Stalin's death and the exposure of the cult of the leader, authoritarian ideology remained entrenched in schools and universities: traditional courses in political economy and the fundamentals of Marxism-Leninism were supplemented with mandatory subjects like scientific communism and the history of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
Education of the Boomers
Setting: Afanasyevsky Postik, Krasnodar Krai. Timelessness.
After the war, societal norms softened, and the children of White Guards could hold any teaching position at a university, not just in the natural sciences department. The 10th and 11th grades served as a transitional stage in preparing for vocational training. Given the production focus of the Soviet Union, many more vocational schools opened than universities. Following Gagarin's flight, the space industry became particularly prestigious, leading to increased interest in engineering and military-technical specialties.
The USSR Constitution guaranteed education as completely free and accessible to all social strata without gender divisions. However, in practice, there were additional fees for extended school days, and some specialties had competitive entry requirements that not everyone could meet. It was clear: there wouldn't be enough rockets for all aspiring cosmonauts. Another issue was the insufficient number of schools in the regions.
The overwhelming bureaucratization of processes hindered teachers from focusing on actual teaching. Regular reports and a lack of technical resources diminished teaching quality, despite occupying 3-7% of their total working time.
Education of the Zoomers
Setting: Labubovo, Planet Earth. First quarter of the 21st century.
We were taught almost the same way as the Boomers, but with one significant difference—rather than theory of capital, we were given practical experience: education is accessible to everyone, whether at a high cost, low cost, or free, but you must contribute towards new curtains.
Programs in different schools vary slightly based on their focus: some emphasize physics and mathematics, others information technology disciplines, and some won't start a lesson until you've skied three laps. Higher education raises competition and becomes elitist due to its high cost. As the classic said: "Factories are idle; only guitarists are left in the country."
The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the adoption of distance learning programs, revealing a significant problem. Developing a course for online education requires time that is not funded by the government. Teachers are only paid for the hours they teach, not for lesson preparation or grading homework. On the plus side, this system alleviates the routine of collecting notebooks for grading and recording attendance.
Late Zoomers are oriented towards a high-tech educational program: from QR codes in textbooks to interactive whiteboards. Technology has advanced significantly: 20 years ago, a fifth-grader could flaunt a new Siemens S65 with a built-in Bluetooth adapter and 38 MB of memory, while today, no one would be surprised by a student with an Apple ecosystem of wireless headphones, a watch, a phone, and an NFC tag in their gym bag. For instance, graduates from five years ago didn't use LLMs for writing essays, while today, 86% of surveyed students use ChatGPT.
Zoomers are beginning to question whether pursuing higher education and spending five years on it is worthwhile if technology advances further and it may not be needed.
The answer has been online courses. (There should be an advertisement for some online school here, but there won't be.) For a certain fee and in a short time, you can learn to be someone. If only theory is provided—it's bad; if there's practice—it's good.
The main dilemma: employers' bias against online education versus candidates' desire to earn quickly without spending time on study. Ultimately, attention should be paid to candidates' real skills rather than the form of education. Obtaining medical, pharmaceutical, aviation, and biotechnology degrees online is legally prohibited, yet every year, unlicensed dentists who learned from YouTube lessons are caught.
If the mountain won't come to Labubovo, Labubovo will go to master the cryptocurrency trade. Indeed, if employers (in this case, exchanges and market makers) are indifferent to the presence of a diploma, and scalping yields regular 1-2% returns, then income depends solely on your deposit size. Here, the crypto industry has acted as a powerful booster for self-education. The risk is that volatility is decreasing, and institutional investors are taking over the market. A dubious exit was recently found—meme coins—but today that door is closed. Not locked, but it's better not to open it again.
If you did open that door and have thousands of SOL to spare, note that some private universities accept cryptocurrency as payment. These include Bentley University in the USA, University of Cumbria in the UK, and European School of Management and Technology in Germany. This is not investment advice or financial guidance, but it's better than another Panerai Luminor.
Education in South Sudan
For example, South Sudan also formally has universal school education, but an estimated 80% of the population still cannot read or write. This is due to civil war amid ethnic conflict between the Dinka and Nuer tribes, accompanied by extreme poverty, inability to staff educational institutions, and ensure their safety.
Schools operate irregularly, and there are only six universities in the entire country, one of which is private. The three highest-ranking officials at each university are appointed by the president of the republic. Each university is led by a rector, who has two vice-rectors: one responsible for academic matters and the other for administrative and financial issues. Only one of the five public universities has a female rector.
A number of outstanding specialists have left South Sudan in search of better conditions. By July 2015, scholars in the country earned on average 35% less than their colleagues in other East African countries. This led to a brain drain. When financing higher education, the government assumes that university graduates will eventually repay their debt to the country. However, this does not happen if educated young people prefer to work abroad.
There are no adequate prerequisites for resolving the educational crisis in South Sudan.
In Conclusion
Despite high technology, many regions of the world lag in access to education as much as Europe did at the beginning of the first millennium.
Gender-based educational inaccessibility still exists: South Sudan, the Central African Republic, Guinea, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Nigeria—these are just a few countries where girls can hardly receive an education due to local cultural norms, systemic violence, and economic hardship.
However, a similar gap is noticeable even in developed countries—a class gap: with vocational education, you can become a machine operator (hello, era of manufactories), while higher education opens a direct path to the legal department for paperwork or even to a bank.
Secondary education is necessary for societal adaptation, vocational education for skill acquisition, and higher education teaches you how to learn. This is why schools, technical colleges, and universities are needed. We will soon discuss why they might not be necessary in another article.
Text by: Head of Professor Aremefe