* Informal Education: Learning through observation, imitation, and experience has been present since the earliest humans. This is a form of education passed down through generations.
* Formal Education: Organized, structured teaching emerged much later. Evidence suggests formal systems of education existed in ancient civilizations like Mesopotamia (cuneiform writing, around 3200 BCE), Egypt (hieroglyphics, around 3000 BCE), and India (Vedic education, around 1500 BCE). These systems primarily focused on religious knowledge, record-keeping, and governance.
Therefore, there's no single answer to "how long education has been around." Informal education is as old as humanity itself. Formal, structured educational systems date back thousands of years, with different forms evolving across diverse cultures and time periods.