Not much is known about the oldest schools in the world, but Shishi High School in China is generally thought to be the oldest still in existence. A Han dynasty governor ordered the building to be constructed from stone (Shishi means ‘stone chamber’) around 140 years before the birth of Jesus Christ.
Some of the other oldest education institutions are to be found in Africa and Europe. In the former are to be found four universities that are each more than 1000 years old.
In Europe, the University of Bologna, founded in 1088, is commonly thought to be the first institution to refer to its students and teachers by the Latin term Universitas. In 597, Augustine of Canterbury – one of the founders of the English church – established what would become known as The King’s School.
In America, the first school to be founded by white settlers was founded by Spanish Roman Catholics in 1538, by decree of Pope Paul III. Autonomous University of Santo Domingo still thrives as the oldest existing university in North America in what is now the Dominican Republic.
South America’s oldest school is National University of San Marcos in Peru (1551). Originally known as Universidad de Lima, this oldest institution was founded to meet the demand for education from both monks and laypeople.
The school has been led by 216 rectors without a gap, from Fray Juan Bautista de la Roca 500 years ago to Orestes Cachay Boza today.
Baghdad is still home to Mustansiriyah Universit, built between 1227 and 1234. And in Fez, Morocco, one can find the University of al-Qarawiyyin (also known as al Quaraouiyine) founded in 859.
Sankoré, the famous medieval mosque-university at Timbuktu (in present day Mali) was set up around the twelfth century; and teaching was based on Arabic scholarship and Islamic values.