There is a UNESCO project called "WORLD TERAKOYA MOVEMENT."
This project contributes to develop a culture of peace by promoting education. Since 1990, the International Year of Literacy, National federation of UNESCO Associations in Japan has been carrying out unique international cooperative programs called "World Terakoya Movement", which is still very active nowadays. This movement aims at helping children who are unable to attend school and illiterate adults to access to education. It provides a training to the teachers and supply people with facilities, educational equipments and learning materials. Through this movement, many programs are implemented to offer educational opportunities for out of school children and illiterate adults in cooperation with central governments, educational councils and NGOs in those States. This long-lasting and large project has contributed to regional development by bringing up human resources. Moreover, it has promoted mutual understanding by favouring exchanges among people.
http://www3.unesco.org/iycp/uk/uk_visu_projet.asp?Proj=00070
Terakoya is a private primary education system widely implemented in Japan in the samurai era before the modernization of Japan which was triggered by the 1868 Meiji Restoration.
Put simply, from the 13th century to the middle of the 19th century in Japan under the rule of the sword of samurai clans, children and young men of the samurai class were educated well by schools run by feudal lords, samurai scholars, or Buddhist monks. They were also trained by their parents in their homes. Samurai were requested to master not only swordplay but also reading and writing and other intellectual skills. Especially they learnt Chinese classics and Buddhism theories. Samurais were not only fighters or warriors but also bureaucrats, judicial officers, engineers, etc. They constituted a major intellectual group of people in Japan in those days as with noblemen living in Kyoto around the imperial court which had however no political and military power and as with Buddhist monks who received education and training in major temples of each school.
But townsmen and farmers were not forbidden to learn how to read and write and how to calculate. For samurais to make their governance of their territory smooth and boost local economy, it is advantageous to have literate people and subjects in their fiefs. In addition as functions of the Japanese society came to rely on documents more often as time proceeded, more and more townsmen and farmers sent their children to humble schools founded in temples and assembly houses where free-lance samurais, Buddhist monks, learned adults provided basic education. Especially when the Japanese society got stabilized after the age of provincial wars under the rule by the Tokugawa shogun in the 17th century, this "terakoya" education system flourished all over Japan.
As a result the literacy rate in Japan went up. For example, in the early 19th century, it is estimated that the literacy rate in Edo (presently Tokyo), the capital of the Tokugawa samurai government, was about 80% while the literacy rate in major industrialized cities in England was about 25%. In fact, Edo had 400 to 500 of large-sized terakoya schools and 500 to 800 small-scale terakoya schools for education of children and teenagers of townsmen and farmers. According to data recorded in the last stage of the Tokugawa era, there were about 17,000 terakoya schools all over Japan whose population was then a little more than 30 million.
Terakoya focused on reading and writing, but they dealt with extra subjects and disciplines, as counting with the abacus (soroban), history, and geography. They taught girls sewing, tea ceremony rituals, flower arranging techniques and other arts and crafts.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terakoya
After the Meiji Restoration, which meant a start of modernization and Westernization of Japan, the new Japanese Government introduced a Western-style school system. But they found it convenient and advantageous to make the best use of the tradition of the terakoya education system. So, they could continue to use facilities and human resources of terakoyas while building news school buildings and training and qualifying new teachers based on Western science and art. Modernization and Westernization of the Japanese education system were smoothly and effectively carried out. And it became the foundation for the great success of Japan in the world in the 20th century.
So, Japan was the country with the highest level of education for ordinary citizens in Asia or outside Europe and North America in the 20th century. However, it took more time for China, Taiwan, South Korea, etc. to modernize their education systems for their general public.
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