History of education in ancient Israel and Judah

The institution known as the "be rav" or "bet rabban" (house of the teacher), or as the "be safra" or "bet sefer" (house of the book), is said to have been originated by Ezra' (459 BCE) and his Great Assembly, who provided a public school in Jerusalem to secure the education of fatherless boys of the age of sixteen years and upward. However, the school system did not develop until Joshua ben Gamla (64 CE) the high priest caused public schools to be opened in every town and hamlet for all children above six or seven years of age (Babylonian Talmud, Bava Batra 21a). ==Expense and conduct==

The expense was borne by the community, and strict discipline was observed. Rav ordered Samuel ben Shilat to deal tenderly with the pupils, to refrain from corporal punishment, or at most to use a shoe-strap in correcting pupils for inattention. A stupid pupil was made monitor until able to grasp the art of learning. Rabbah bar Nahmani fixed the number of pupils at twenty-five for one teacher; if the number was between twenty-five and forty an assistant teacher ("resh dukana") was necessary; and for over forty, two teachers were required. ==Teaching staff==

Only married men were engaged as teachers. ==Literacy==

It has been estimated that at least 90 percent of the Jewish population of Roman Palestine in the first centuries CE could merely write their own name or not write and read at all, or that the literacy rate was either about 3 percent or 7.7 percent. The exact literacy rate among male Jews in Roman Palestine was probably between 5 and 10 percent. Some of Israel's earliest teaching material may be reflected in some portions within the Book of Proverbs. ==See also==