Traditional Education in Asia and Modern

Toward the end of the eighteenth century, as education in East Asia underwent important changes associated with the ebb and flow of Neo-Confucianism, a more drastic transformation was introduced by the British in South Asia. Having undermined the native educational system via both economic and cultural means, the British introduced modern schools, initially for the purpose of training interpreters and future government officials. In so doing, it weakened the tie between students and their communities, changing the traditional goal of education in South Asia. By teaching English in those schools, the British created an additional barrier between the educated elite and the common people.

Slowly, by the mid-nineteenth century, the British had established, for the first time in history, a centralized educational system in South Asia. It consisted of three tiers of schools—elementary, secondary, and college levels—that purported to transcend the religious and ethnic division of the populace. This system was, by and large, continued after countries in the region had gained independence from the mid-twentieth century on. In fact it is the educational norm throughout Asia in the early twenty-first century.