School as you know it didn’t exist in ancient Egypt, but for want of a better word I have to use the term. Egyptian schools didn’t include large buildings, complete with classrooms and playing fields. There was no smell of chalk and there were definitely no uniforms.
Royalty and the upper elite were taught in temple or palace schools, which were run by the state and consisted of a tutor and a small group of handchosen boys. Records indicate that particularly gifted boys were accepted into the schools, even if they were from non-elite families – so the lower classes had at least some hope.
Although some girls were educated, it wasn’t the norm. If a girl did receive an education, it wasn’t in these state-run institutions. Because women were unable to hold administrative positions, educating girls seemed like a pointless task to many ancient Egyptians. One Egyptian called Ankhsheshonq immortalised this idea with the following quote: ‘Instructing a woman is like having a sack of sand whose side is split open.’ Charming!
Some of these formal temple and palace schools taught specific trades and only accepted boys from families of certain occupations, such as scribes or magistrates. Children leaving these schools were then employed in the central government.
For boys not accepted into the elite educational institutions, local alternatives existed. Boys in most villages learned only basic literacy skills if their father was a scribe – normally in preparation for taking his place as a scribe. Village scribes also occasionally decided to teach groups of village children reading and writing as a means of boosting income.
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