Only the pharaoh's children and the sons and daughters of wealthy families went to school. Many children who received an education learned to be scribes. Scribes were highly thought of in ancient Egypt. It was the way to a good career. The children were taught by officials such as priests or government administrators. On becoming scribes, some went on to work in the temples and “Houses of Life”, offices where scribes wrote and copied out religious documents and other texts.

Learning to write

Written records were vital to the way Egypt was governed, so for a person to take any important job it was necessary for them to train as a scribe. All high-ranking government officials, priests, army generals, as well as the pharaoh himself, knew how to read and write. Pupils started learning at the age of five. Nearly all were boys from wealthy families, the only ones that could afford education for their children. They learned how to write hieroglyphs, the form of writing used in ancient Egypt, practising on old pieces of pottery, called ostraca.

Writing materials

Scribes wrote on scrolls of papyrus, or, when less expensive material could be used, on wooden tablets. They used either black or red ink, stored as dry blocks on palettes and moistened for use. Pens were made of reeds. They wrote with a reed brush or pen. Young scribes practised on ostraca, flakes of stone or pieces of broken pottery. They had to copy out words and texts in order to learn writing quickly.