A preschool, also known as nursery school, pre-primary school, play school or creche, is an educational establishment or learning space offering early childhood education to children before they begin compulsory education at primary school. It may be publicly or privately operated, and may be subsidized from public funds.
Preschoolers in Malaysia exercising
Samuel Wilderspin, one of the founders of preschool education. 1848 engraving by John Rogers Herbert.
A Kindergarten in East Germany in 1956
Crafts at an Indian preschool, 2014
A school is both the educational institution and building designed to provide learning spaces and learning environments for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is sometimes compulsory. In these systems, students progress through a series of schools that can be built and operated by both government and private organization. The names for these schools vary by country but generally include primary school for young children and secondary school for teenagers who have completed primary education. An institution where higher education is taught is commonly called a university college or university.
First primary school in Nigeria, built in 1845
A high school building in Argos, Greece
Plato's academy, mosaic from Pompeii
Mental calculations. In the school of S. Rachinsky by Nikolay Bogdanov-Belsky. Russia, 1895.